Myles Kovacs, 34, is a leading voice of the influential, trend-setting youth segment. Kovacs connects with young consumers through America’s influencers – entertainers, media, hot product designers and mainstream corporations. Creating a “DUB Revolution,†Kovacs has transformed the way businesses approach and succeed in reaching the youth market. And his cornerstone asset, DUB® Magazine, with a readership of over 9.5 million trendsetters per year, has spawned an entire culture. Kovacs has propelled DUB Publishing, Inc. and its family of companies into an annual $50 million-plus business. He partners with corporations such as Pepsi, Mattel, Procter & Gamble, Energizer, Chrysler LLC, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and General Motors, targeting the youth market and the “urban mindset†young adult culture, and building buzz through celebrity affiliation. Companies call on his leadership for products and innovations that connect with youth culture – arguably the most elusive demographic. Pepsi found Kovacs’ business sense so compelling that it partnered with him on the Pepsi Free Ride promotion. DUB Magazine became one of the few companies ever to be co-branded on the Pepsi Bottle. In fact, the DUB logo was branded on over 700 million bottles of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist generating over 3.5 Billion impressions nationwide.
Newsweek awarded Kovacs as one of the nation’s “10 Big Thinkers for Big Business in the 21st Centuryâ€. He’s been featured as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 25 Young Millionaires and The New York Times said, “When DUB talks, Detroit listens…†Even world-renowned David and Victoria Beckham had Myles and DUB Magazine design and build their personal customized vehicles when they came to America.
Born in a tough neighborhood of East Los Angeles, the Japanese-Hungarian Kovacs laid the groundwork for his distinctive publishing, music and automotive-styling enterprise. At 16, Kovacs began with a humble start working in an L.A. rim shop. At 18, he became a custom-wheel designer and began promoting nightclubs.
After a stint as a music producer, Kovacs co-owned an influential nightclub magazine that served as a vehicle for developing personal friendships with musical artists and celebrities. While watching an Alan Jackson Mercedes-Benz being auctioned on television, Kovacs began to realize how much value could be added to a vehicle simply by its association with a celebrity. Kovacs evolved that visionary moment into what is now DUB Magazine, which he founded with his partners in 1999.
In 2000, he expanded the value of the DUB brand by creating the most popular young-urban automotive custom car show and concert in the nation, DUB Magazine’s annual Custom Auto
Show and Concert Tour. Now, the 16-city tour features hundreds of DUB Edition vehicles and
top-name hip-hop performers, attracting nearly 1.6 million young adults and families since its inception.
Along with being a savvy marketer, he has personally designed more than 48 wheels currently on the market. Kovacs heads a collection of brands that includes Twenty Inches Strong™ (TIS), Dropstars™, and D20™, three of the world’s hottest automotive wheel brands. Kovacs, along with Pirelli Tire, used ingenuity to revolutionize the industry by creating the first production 30-inch wheel – the first set was sold to Bam Margera for $150,000.
Kovacs quickly realized that his design talent could be translated to the toy industry. He has created three lines of customized die-cast and remote control vehicles that are sold in outlets across the country, including Target, Wal-Mart and Toys “R†Us.
Kovacs has created one of America’s most-admired entrepreneurships. He melded his talent for automotive customization—especially his ability to turn wheels into works of high style, fashioned on a chrome canvas 20 inches or more—with his passion for music, shows and concerts.
With a passion for his community, Kovacs devotes considerable time to charitable organizations such as the Tony Hawk Foundation, the Magic Johnson Foundation, the Grammy Foundation, Inner City Games, and Hollenbeck Youth Center, which is situated just down the street from the block where he grew up. He is a national spokesman for Anheuser-Busch’s “Responsibility Matters†designated driver program. He is a member and consultant of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA).
With his wife Cynthia and their two children, Kovacs lives in California spending any free time on his passion for motocross and classic cars.
