Gadzooks (retailer)
Gadzooks, Inc. was a mall-based teenage clothing retailer. It was acquired by Forever 21 in 2005 and then shut down. Most Gadzooks stores had a life-size version of part of a Volkswagen Beetle inside. History. The company was founded in 1983 as a T-shirt business by Jerry Szczepanski and Larry Titus. The first store was in Mesquite, Texas. By 1992, the company had 33 stores in Texas. In 1995, the company became a public company via an initial public offering and within 3 months, the share price quadrupled from $15 to $61. That  year the company had 195 stores. In 2003, the company dropped its male clothing line to focus exclusively on 16- to 22-year-old females. In February 2004, the company filed bankruptcy and announced plans to reduce its store count from 410 to 252. In March 2005, Forever 21 purchased the chain for $33 million. The stores were eventually phased out.