RIP JOEY OKS, AKA SUPER JOE: MEN’S CLOTHING MERCHANT AND GREAT FRIEND 1959-2025

MR magazine is sad to report the passing last week of Joey Oks, one of the great “characters” and bright lights in the men’s clothing business. A passionate baseball fan, Joey was a great friend to so many manufacturers, retailers, and professional athletes. Famous for his sense of humor, creative antics, and a big heart, he will be greatly missed by all.

Says good friend Stewart Golden, who’s known Joey since he was a teenager, “He was an icon in the menswear business and a wonderful human being. A huge Yankee fan, he loved taking his friends to Yankee games and entertaining players (Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, Carlos Beltron, Cecil Fielder) when they came into his Portabella store near Grand Central Station. He was a terrific guy with a very big heart.”

Gary Dante was another great friend. “I spent 30+ years having dinner with Joey every three weeks when I was in NYC. He had a tough exterior and a daunting demeanor, so certain vendors thought he was unreasonable or a pain. I knew the real Joey. If he liked you, he’d do anything for you. We had a group of six to 10 people always enjoying dinners at his favorite restaurants. In our younger days, we were sometimes asked to leave the restaurant because of Joey’s antics, which might have seemed crazy but were all in good clean fun. Truth be told, Joey was extremely kind, overly generous, and a wonderful friend.”

Says Fred Pasternak from Raphael, “Joey was like a brother to me. We bonded 35 years ago at his father’s shiva. Joey was a great guy who’d do anything for those he loved. But he didn’t appreciate vendors who pretended to be his friend when they were just chasing orders; he could always detect pretense.

“Joey was a down-to-earth hard-working guy who got to his store every morning at 7:30. He’d tell his vendors not to make appointments: just show up between 8:00 and 10:00 and he’d meet with them in the store.

“We had so much fun together: he took me and my kids with him to the Bahamas; we had great VIP seats at all the Yankee games… I don’t know how I’ll survive without his morning phone calls. How I wish I’d had more time with him…”

Glen Schanen, former Macy’s exec now at Roffe, remembers Joey’s Thursday night dinners at Canastel’s on Park Ave South. “We’d go every Thursday night with some baseball players—Vince Coleman from the Mets, Eddie Murray from the Baltimore Orioles. I met Joey through Ronny and we had so much fun together. While Joey was always in awe of how much volume we did at Macy’s, our relationship was more about friendship than business.”

Ron Wurtzburger of Peerless fame appreciated Joey’s wonderful sense of humor. “He was an excellent retailer and well respected for his aggressive merchandising. He also created lasting relationships with many of the baseball greats. They looked to Joey for his taste level and also for his friendship. He was so much fun and will be missed by so many friends.”

From a social media post about Joey’s passing from baseball star Cecil Fielder: “One of my best friends passed this morning. We’ve been best friends for 40 years and my family and I will miss him every day. Your boy don’t cry much but this one hit hard. Everybody loved Super Joe and I loved him: he was my bestie. New York will never be the same. Rest in peace my friend… you will always be part of me.”

“He made everyone feel good,” sums up close friend Richie Wurtzburger. “I’ve never had a better friend. Outside of my family, nobody has had a bigger impact on my life than Joey Oks. He was like my big brother. If I called him at 2 a.m. and told him to meet me somewhere and bring a shovel…he would have shown up and not asked any questions. Luckily, we never had to do that! True loyalty as a friend. We would speak every morning on the way to work and probably 5 or 6 more times during the day. Most days I spoke to him before I even spoke to my wife. He would bring up numerous MLB players to our showroom for suits. I would estimate more than 200 players came up…even Mariano Rivera as a rookie with the NY Yankees and many other Hall of Fame players and managers. He helped me get a few celebrities for the Father of the Year luncheon as honorees, Lord & Taylor’s Men’s Night Out as well as other charitable events. He was an extremely generous person and always the first one to give.

Joey was a groomsman in my wedding and wowed the crowd dancing with my wife’s 80-year-old aunt as everyone cheered them on. He attended both the Bris and Bar Mitzvah for both of my boys and always sat at our table with my wife and me. I have great memories of trips to Minneapolis for Kirby Puckett’s annual charity event in Minneapolis, Vegas, Yankees & Mets Spring training games in Florida, March Madness, Final Four’s, charity bowling events, numerous sporting events and many more. I cannot share many details so as not to incriminate anyone, but trust me: we had lots of fun and still laugh hysterically at the stories.

Some fun facts about Joey:

– He lived on a farm for a short period as a kid

– He grew up in Brooklyn and got his start in retail as a stock boy before buying into partnership

– He would call his mother every night before going to bed into his 50’s until she passed away

– The first baseball player to visit his store was Dave Parker who then introduced more players

– The only MLB player he was scared of was Bobby Bonds (father of Barry)

– Joe was the batboy three times for a major league game…Baltimore Orioles (spring training), Kansas City Royals & Cincinnati Reds (regular season)

– He probably had the largest personalized baseball memorabilia collection in history.

– He participated in a blueberry pie eating contest at the Peerless Olympics losing to Gus Mehas…also in the contest was a 12 year old Prince Fielder

– He was a fixture next to the visitors dugout at Yankee Stadium as well as behind home plate at Citi Field, having season tickets for both.

– He played on two softball teams: Peerless (Co-ed) and Portabella (all guys). Joey was the best pitcher in both leagues. He brought Kirby Pucket to play for Portabella one game. Prince Fielder was a regular on both teams when he was 12 & 13 years old. He would often bring MLB players to come watch the games in Central Park and Randall’s Island.

– Closest MLB players / friends were Eddie Murray, Kirby Puckett, Carlos Beltran, Ken Griffey, Jr, Kenny Lofton, Chuck Knoblach and Cecil Fielder

– He looked up to his brother Irving and his sister Darlene. He adored their children and significant others. He truly loved his mom and dad and missed them every day.