The biggest shift was being home more with my family, which has been incredible. Looking back, the time required to run a store really prevented me from pursuing other projects that I always wanted to explore like brand partnerships, private label, et cetera. The shift to an online and by-appointment model has had a positive impact on the business. By fall of 2021, I opened the studio for private shopping appointments. Press, and to keep growing our e-commerce business. For the remainder of 2020 I used the new studio to work on projects with Todd Snyder, L.L. Almost immediately, I signed a lease on a shuttered yoga studio minutes from home. By the summer of 2020, I made the tough decision to close my Brooklyn store permanently.
During the early days of the pandemic, I converted our dining room into a fulfillment center, our unfinished attic became a photo studio-whatever I could do to keep the business afloat. I basically inverted my business model overnight. I already had a functioning e-commerce site, but my business revenue was mostly generated from my physical brick-and-mortar retail store. I didn’t know what was going to happen, so I immediately pivoted to an online-only model. In March, 2020 all “non-essential” business in NYC were ordered to close due to Covid-19. Can you speak to me about the shift, and how it’s impacted your business?
Your shop used to be in Red Hook, but now you’ve shifted to e-commerce and a by-appointment only model. Life took me in a different direction, but I ultimately realized my dream of opening a vintage store in 2014 when I was 32.
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I remember reading How To Start A Small Business on the floor of Borders. When I was 16 years old I remember thinking it would be cool to open a vintage clothing store.
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It was a way to express myself as I was coming of age, plus everything was cheap and attainable. Kurt Cobain was my idol and I really emulated his style-stealing flannel shirts and cardigans from my grandfather’s closet, scouring for old jeans and T-shirts in the local church basement thrift store, taking the bus to Salvation Army in Riverhead or the Eastern Long Island Hospital “Opportunity Shop” in Greenport. My interest in vintage clothing was there from a young age. Prior to launching Wooden Sleepers, I produced live in-store events for a large tech company. By the time I reached adolescence, I had become obsessed with skateboarding, hardcore and punk music, hip-hop, and everything that came along with those subcultures during the early-mid '90s. As a young boy, I spent most of my time swimming in the Peconic Bay, exploring the woods, and playing sports with friends. I grew up on the North Fork of Long Island in a small town called Cutchogue. Where are you from, and what sort of things were you into growing up? What were you doing prior to launching Wooden Sleepers? When did you first find your passion for vintage clothing, and how did you go about opening your first shop?