The Truongs led a private investor group, backed by a handful of family offices, to acquire Stax for an undisclosed sum. The deal hands them the brand's trademarks, intellectual property and digital assets, almost four months after lender NAB called in receivers to recover millions in debts.
Documents filed with the corporate regulator show Stax left debts of about $6.7 million, including more than $453,000 to employees, nearly $6.3 million to creditors, $123,858 to the tax office and $1.9 million to Chinese supplier Ningbo Mingna Garments. Google, Meta and shopping centre operator Scentre were also owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is not clear what, if anything, those parties will recover; the new owners declined to discuss the financials of the deal.
"This is a fresh start for Stax," Justin Truong said. "This is such an iconic Australian brand that we want to give it another chance. It could have been sold off to a faceless corporation that could strip it for parts."
The couple built Pushas from selling their own sneakers in 2017 into a global marketplace turning over more than $10 million a year, with backing from Twitch co-founder Justin Kan and Airtasker founder Tim Fung. It sells thousands of authenticated items a week to collectors in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.
The new owners do not plan to run Stax themselves. They expect to sign paperwork to announce a new chief executive who will build a team to restart operations. Truong will chair the board, and the new Stax will run independently of Pushas. "It won't be an entirely new team," he said. "We'll see who in the previous team we'll bring back."
Stax was founded in 2015 by Don Robertson and Matilda Murray, who built it from the ashes of a liquidated online supplement business. The label, worn by Jennifer Lopez, Megan Fox and Hailey Bieber, earned the couple a place on the Australian Financial Review Young Rich List in 2022. It expanded aggressively into physical stores but closed six of at least eight outlets in 2025 as rents rose and customers tightened spending.
The June collapse left hundreds of customers with delayed or missing orders, prompting Robertson and Murray to apologise on Instagram on July 13. Li-Truong said the new owners recognised the impact on customers whose orders pre-date their ownership. "We want to explore what we can do as a gesture of goodwill," she said.
FTI Consulting receiver Asjadi Hone said the new owners would focus on "rebuilding the brand while maintaining the product quality, inclusivity and community connection that has defined Stax since its launch."