Advice for Opening a Clothing Store

[straight cash homey]

Hey guys, I need some advice. I'm seriously thinking of opening a clothing store here in Montreal selling upscale streetwear, but I have absolutely no experience in the industry whatsoever. All I know is I need to get the hell out of this 9 to 5 cubicle job. I'm 25 yrs old, I make around 60 K/yr, but I'm bored to death and every minute I feel like I'm losing a piece of my soul. If any of you work in a cubicle, you'll know what I mean. A friend of mine passed away in a car accident recently during the holidays and it got me thinking. Life's too short to waste it, especially when you're young. There's some people in my office that have been here for like 30 yrs doing the same job. That scares the hell out of me. So that got me to thinking about starting my own business and taking some risks while I can afford to. I've got no mortgage, no family to provide for, it's pretty much now or never, I will always have time to work in an office or go get an MBA when I'm 30.

I got the idea of a clothing store, because there isn't really anywhere in Montreal I like to shop and I could probably cater to a niche market. I noticed that a few such stores in Toronto (like Nomad, Ransom) have starting popping up, but so far there's still none in Montreal, even though it's arguably the more stylish of the two cities. There would be zero competition.

Ideally I would want to open up something like Union in NY, similar brands and similar square footage. I have 20 K saved up, and I'm thinking of finding a few others who are willing to invest until I have about 50 or 60K. Then I would take a small business loan from the government of 100K so I would have 150K total. Is that enough to open a store? How do I get in touch with suppliers? I basically want to carry all the hot stuff out there that's making some noise on the streets. I know a lot of people on here scoff at brands or labels and prefer to judge everything based on quality and design, but when you're opening a business, I think brands mean everything.

I want to carry stuff such as:

Neighborhood

W) Taps

Visvim

Nom De Guerre

A Bathing Ape (don't front, you know they sell-out everything in 10 minutes)

Recon

theHundreds

2K

Dior Homme

APC

Rogan

PRPS

Does anyone have any experience within the clothing industry that can share some insights? I know the chances of failure are much greater than success in the retail business, but I feel if I do this right, I can at least make a living out of it, besides, there are a ton of people who've opened stores and I'm sure I'm smarter than many of them. What's the best way to advertise? What should my mark-ups be? There are a few people who have tried doing similar stuff here, but they've all failed (Vice, Neon, Turf Gallery) which has me a little concerned, but it seems like sneaker culture and urban style in general has really only taken off in the past 5 years in North America at least. I'm not saying they didn't exist before, just saying there's been a surge lately. Kids these days are definitely more conscious of what they're wearing.

Do stores like NDG, Union, Supreme, Alife actually pull in good money? for the most part they all have prime real estate and I'm assuming the rent must be a fortune, but every time I've been they're never packed. In fact these places seem to pride themselves on exclusivity, but how does that translate to the bottom line? How did these guys afford to start these places in the first place?

Anyways, please leave me some constructive comments. I don't mind if you tell me it's a bad idea and will fail, but at least state your reasons why.

Thanks in advance for at least taking the time time to read this, hopefully I'll get more support than hate on here...

Reporter: "Write the check yet, Randy?"

Moss: "When you're rich you don't write checks."

Reporter: "If you don't write checks, how do you pay these guys?"

Moss: "Straight ca

[artificialsky]

you won't be able to get 75 percent of the brands you listed, and that's a low figure

[canice]

captain obvious moment:

i can see goodfoot montreal being threatened. even though nomad and ransom aren't in the same city, they are just part of the goodfoot umbrella; i'm sure the montreal crew has plans to follow suit in the very near future. they have the existing business contacts and exclusivity in stocking quite a few of those brands, so don't assume there isn't any competition.

i could see that being your biggest problem. nevertheless if you follow through you'd definitely get my business. good luck!

[RedBouncyThing]

You are going to need about 100 grand easy. You have to figure on making no money from when you open to about 6 months later so you will need to cover both rent for the space as well as money to pay yourself. Also, get ready to bust your ass doing it all yourself. We have two people that work our shop Bill, the majority owner, and me, the minority owner. Thats it. Period. Thats a lot of long hours. Also, shoot for whatever brands you want but also keep in mind that a lot of them sell only in Europe and Asia. North America is a wasteland for a lot of the companies you listed. They either don't care to sell here, or they have opened all of the accounts they want all ready. My advise would be to secure an affordable location with good foot traffic, then take all of your money that you have saved and put it in the bank for COD's and such. I would also apply for a line of credit and every biz card I can get my hands on. For one, you can make min. payments on a card but companies want their payment in full. Also, don't be an elitist with your customers. I have been in a lot of shops around the country while either vacationing or at a trade show and it boggles me that people can provide customer service like they do. But hey... whatever works. Just do it and be happy.

[englandmj7]

Quote: so I would have 150K total

You would have to submit a phenomenal business plan to get a loan like that from the small business bureau here in the U.S. and quite a bit of collateral...........either way, artificialsky is correct in stating that you will not be able to get accounts with the majority of your listed brands. I had a similar idea regarding a "streetwear" shop in Europe, but after doing interviews with Eddie Cruz (who owns UNDFTD/Union), Dominick from Brooklyn Projects, and several other store owners, I have, for the most part, decided against it. Most of these guys are paying off huge debts and have been for a long time..........i.e. several years and absolutely no proft. The key in a small store like the one you want to open is expansion.........the policy of guys like Eddie Cruz is to be the first one in the given market in several places, the only problem is that today the market is saturated in crucial locations. If you wanted to stay afloat, you would eventually want to expand from Montreal to Toronto, but the Toronto market is already saturated. As far as content goes, by the time most of these designer Japanese brands (NBHD, W)Taps), Bape) break into the U.S. (I am thinking 5 years-maybe never) they might be shit in Japan and even true "afficianados" in the U.S. won't want them. I have worked in consulting and believe me, the market for streetwear/flashy sneakers is not growing as much as stores like Alife, UNDFTD, etc. would like to believe, that is why these guys are opening new stores every month to ensure that they have maximum exposure before the flatline.

My family has always been in banking and when I approached my father with my idea (used to be Worlwide Managing Director for American Express) he told me that roughly 7-10% of retail locations/restaurants were successful and the rest had significant losses that they never recovered from........he told me it was a stupid idea nonetheless

All I am saying is that you can't half-ass an idea like that and expect to get rich off of it, because the truth is, even guys like Eddie Cruz who owns fucking stores everywhere are working their asses off day in day out and aren't making shit........Even in L.A. (which I consider somewhat up-to-date in terms of "streetwear"), shit isn't flying off the shelves, I go to Union alot and I am telling you, they sell Bape shit once a day to some rich-ass son-of-a-movie-star fucko who saw it on his favorite rapper, I mean this stuff is expensive. Japanese are willing to paying $300 for a nice NBHD jumper but it doesn't go over so well here..........eh.....anyways, that was fucking long..........and I am sure I said some stupid shit......maybe something helps though

Edited by englandmj7 on Jan 10, 2006 at 06:21 PM

[nairb49]

i have no experience and no knowledge of the business whatsoever, so i apologize if what i'm saying makes no sense.

as stated above, those brands you've listed are already rare in the markets where they come from, so getting a decent supply is going to be real hard. Living in montreal, I don't think the attitude here will really embrace alot of the brands you're going after. It seems to me (again, no viable evidence, just noticing) that although montreal is known for its fashion, the street scene is struggling. People with the money to buy w(taps, neighborhood etc etc are too vain, they're going to spring for the dsquared and the cavalli and the stuff with recognizable logos that people without the money are going to notice.

That said, you could argue that this applies everywhere, I just find that is particularly noticeable in Montreal. eg is the supply of Nudie jeans that Simons got downtown, and have managed to sell about 2 pairs so far, and boutique UandI's seemingly endless supply of the same few pairs of APCs.

Then again, if you start up a store and along with Goodfoot manage to establish credibility and attract enough attention, maybe you'll turn the tides away from rich techno clubbers.

In any case, if you do start a store with this stuff in montreal, you can be sure i'll be the first one to bang on your door begging for superfuture discounts best of luck

nairb49

[thomas_highstreet]

as peeps have been saying.. very little chance in getting those brands stocked. VERY little... and think about it, if your stocking such expensive clothes, there will be a fuck of a lot of money going through your books each re-stock... just to get the first stock to set up would set you back a small fortune..

scary stuff! i'd prefer to concerntrate on smaller designers cut + sew projects... but you've gotta have a decent catchment..

best of luck though! alot of the brands you have your eye on are nice...

[minya]

thomas makes a good point. You have 0% of getting those brands in your store; they clearly make exclusivity a huge part of their marketing & branding, and some random dude starting a store with no connections will have 0 cachet.

So find smaller, independent, up-and-coming brands that you can buy for cheap, and start building your cachet up that way. Then, later, the brands will come to YOUR store and ask to be stocked.

If only it were that easy, but that's a start

[RedBouncyThing]

This is the first year people have come to us. We still have a long ways to go, but it's really nice not to have to email everyone begging to carry their stuff now.... well, we still have to do some of that too. Anyways, just set realistic goals for every season and try and grow from there.

[UsVersusThem]

i would suggest not going so high end/rare. get streetwear stuff that is domestic but dope, such as crooks & castles, hundreds, etc. and build from there. remember, you are going to have to reconcile some of your wants and desires for your shop in return for a more stable business. remember, there will be something cool for you to buy....Forever. brands that are dope right now might fall off, and some new shit will pop off in a few years. do your homework and DONT RUSH. it wont help to be the first in a city if you dont know what to do to run it.

[polly7]

What is so special about goodfoot/nomad/ransom

Their name keeps popping up on this forum. (sorry ignorance i'm from australia).

How is it they get such good labels?

[minya]

Quote:

What is so special about goodfoot/nomad/ransom

Their name keeps popping up on this forum. (sorry ignorance i'm from australia).

How is it they get such good labels?

--- Original message by polly7 on Jan 10, 2006 07:26 PM

Canadian market is tiny as hell. Canada has about 33 million people in it, so there's hardly any competition.

[adsurgo]

STRAIGHT CASH HOMEY

[polly7]

Even so they have obviously got some connections, correct me if im wrong. But they have NDG, acronym, imperial, supreme etc.

A project I have underway has been turned back by all these labels even though we have been running a streetwear store for years.

[Nobody]

I don't want to poo-poo this kids idea, but I do understand all the warnings posted to warn him from the pitfalls of retail. Especially scenester designer streetwear retail. My advice would be that yeah, if you hate your job, are 25 years old, have 20 grand saved up and a passion for clothing then go ahead and try something.You owe it to yourself. You probably won't get the lines you mentioned unless you've been down with some dudes for a while. Streetwear comes from street shit (and Japan) so if you don't skate, b-boy, make beats, write graffiti, make films, promote nights, are not a rich kid or know one, or don't have thick Japanese connections then it probably will not work like you like it right away. It's baby steps. Open a furniture store with nickknacks and other crap disposable income shoe enthuasists are about to get into, and you'll be set. Get those fucking Ryan Mcguiness carpets and some copies of Hamburger Eyes and Kaws shampoo containers (or whatever) and pay to get some of your own silk neckties woven up with an ill pattern. You build on that for a couple of years, and then those streetwear brands (if they're still around) will be easier to secure. You have to start small and have patience: you don't come out the gate carrying $300 Neighbourhood sweat-tops because they don't know you, trust you, have ever heard of you, and already have all the freinds they need. They to be down just as much as the next guy so you have to convince them that THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT.

Good luck and all the best.

The Rabbit Of Seville

[rabka]

hit up some textile forums..ull have to know the ins and outs of the trade..just knowing the companies you want wont help you at all. my uncle started off selling silk from india and pakistan and then he began selling garments too jones of new york and other macy's type brands...and now he has 3 factories and he's coming out with a label. moral of the story..you have to build up..the hundreds, crooks and castles are amazing brands and among the hypebeasts... they probably have more of a name than sugarcane or w/e.

you need someone to handle accounts. you need a strong businessplan...esp to give to the clothing companies.. and you neeed a lot of money. i have very little knowledge on the subject but these are my 2 cents.

ak

[straight cash homey]

Thanks for all the great replies, it really helps put things into perspective. I certainly had no idea it would be this difficult to secure the labels. i would thought that many of them would jump at the opportunity to penetrate a new market and do more business. i still have a few questions left unanswered...how does a place like NDG make money? even though it's at sewer level, it's still right on broadway and i'm sure the rent is no joke. where did they even get the money to start the store/label to begin with? does exclusivity really translate to big $$$ or are labels shooting themselves in the foot by passing up opportunities? are you telling me if they had the chance, a "street" label would pass up the opportunity to become a multi-gazillion dollar company like levis or diesel? i guess that's the age-old debate about "selling out" vs "keeping it real".

another idea is, since a lot of people have mentioned that goodfoot/nomad/ransom already exist in toronto, do you think it would be a good idea about approaching them to start a shop in montreal and partnering with them? that way they would already have all the business contacts and accounts etc...kinda like a franchise. they would get franchise fees and a percentage of the profits without having to invest heavily in the store itself. to be honest, i have a feeling goodfoot montreal is gonna close down soon, it's always dead and they can't possibly afford rent on st. laurent selling a few sneakers a month.

a lot of you have also suggested starting with smaller labels and working my way up. ideally that's how i would want to do it, i'm all about supporting up and coming shit, but do you really think that makes good business sense? montreal is a small (and pretty narrow-minded) enough market as it is, how much crooks & castles shirts could i possibly sell? at least with brands like bape, nbhd, visvim, i can work the "it's the hot shit from japan" angle.

anyways, keep the comments coming, positive or negative, it's definitely a great start

Reporter: "Write the check yet, Randy?"

Moss: "When you're rich you don't write checks."

Reporter: "If you don't write checks, how do you pay these guys?"

Moss: "Straight cash, homey."

[minya]

Quote: does exclusivity really translate to big $$$ or are labels shooting themselves in the foot by passing up opportunities?

Are you kidding me? How else do you think A Bathing Ape still exists? The only reason is exclusivity. The harder it is to get, the more desirable it is. No doubt that Bape has made Nigo millions upon millions of dollars, and he did it not by having great or innovative designs or products, but by making it hard to get.

[straight cash homey]

Quote: Are you kidding me? How else do you think A Bathing Ape still exists? The only reason is exclusivity. The harder it is to get, the more desirable it is. No doubt that Bape has made Nigo millions upon millions of dollars, and he did it not by having great or innovative designs or products, but by making it hard to get.

i hear what you're saying, but i consider bape to have reached semi-mainstream status, certainly in japan and just now starting to North America (like it or not thanks to Pharrell).

the clothes may be hard to get, but people in the general public know what it is, not just streetwear nerds. i don't think nigo needs any more money. i was thinking more along the lines of a brand like Nom De Guerre that only a specific niche really knows or cares about. I know it's part of their branding strategy, but are they really making enough money that they can turn down accounts worth potentially thousands of dollars? Do you think those dudes are millionaires?

Reporter: "Write the check yet, Randy?"

Moss: "When you're rich you don't write checks."

Reporter: "If you don't write checks, how do you pay these guys?"

Moss: "Straight cash, homey."

[minya]

I don't know a lot about NdG, but I know that the owners of the store/brand are very, very well-connected. Given the prices of their products, and the difficulty of finding them, they're pretty much going to sell without question.

People equate "hard to get" and "expensive" with quality.

[obsessis]

yo

your hardest problem is going to be overhead if you want to stock 200 to 400 jeans and hundred dollar shirts.

your inventory will be in the 10's of thousands on a daily basis, probably 50K or more in product sitting in your store everyday.

[Denim R]

just go for it! I think you should keep your 60k job and get a friend to run it for you while you keep up the income to service the loan.

This way your store will have a buffer against a potentially slow start.

[Nobody]

"Are you kidding me? How else do you think A Bathing Ape still exists? The only reason is exclusivity. The harder it is to get, the more desirable it is. No doubt that Bape has made Nigo millions upon millions of dollars, and he did it not by having great or innovative designs or products, but by making it hard to get."

This comment along with Minya's NdG bit are spot on the money. These dudes have dough from behind closed doors. Promise. Other shop owners are notorious for opening rad stores and quite simply defaulting on payments to suppliers. For real.

Like I mentioned, you have to have your hooks in and exclusive labels are just that: exclusive. Bathing Ape is catching on in North America WAY after it's been blown apart in Japan, a country inexplicably survivng on a maniacal retail market. That is NOT the North American market. Don't forget this little forum here is not a clear representation of how great DoubleTaps is how how many actual consumers want some heavy print Hundreds shirts. It's a reduction. It's all nice stuff, but it's kept close to home.

Seriously, retail is bullshit. If you start your own thing, outside of the hype but still informed by it, you can essentially create your own market out of this one. Montreal is full of students so I wouldn't vest too much "stock" in your local clientele. Don't jump a bandwagon: start your own.

If you're still mad about your idea then my advice is save WAY up, rent a space in MTL, go to Tokyo during the exhibition season, spend tons of money on clothes, dinners, rent a SICK hotel, drop tons of names, drop tons of money, and buy lines on the spot. Ship it all back, promote the bejeezus out of your store: and hope for the best. If you're not down, the partnering idea is okay but I don't advise it: you could lose your shirt because someone else thought the new SNAFU line was the bees knees.

What happened to Alena? That shop had a lot of good ideas and they have closed doors.

The Rabbit Of Seville

[cchen]

This is not really a good idea. While I do not have experience in the retail space, I worked on a private equity buyout for a large luxury retailer. For the buyout we had to conduct due diligence on the retail clothing industry, esp the higher end luxury market. This market is extremely competitive, and some of the big names (Saks, Bergdorf) are not doing particularly well. Now, they have a vast amount of experience in the industry.... what makes you think you can do well? Also I don't believe you have enough money. You need money also for rent, deposit, furnishing the store, and remodeling. I'd say about $500,000 US is a good amount of seed money.

That being said, it can definitely be done. Famous Friends NYC, which stocks brands like Nudie, PRPS, etc ("exclusive" brands that other stores don't really carry) was opened by a former Wall Street trader who also didn't have any experience, and he seems to be doing well for himself.

If you go ahead with your venture, best of luck to you.

[MilSpex]

Supply in Sydney stock/have stocked Supreme, PAM, Silas, Recon, Stussy, Head Porter/HP Plus, etc etc but they STILL cant get W)Taps and NBHD yet.

First I couldnt take any store seriously that had Supreme and DH on the same racks. Have some focus.

You wanna stock W)Taps? Try reading TETs philosophy zine and you might see where he`s coming from on where he wants his product and how much he cares about making a million dollars (not much). The guy works out of a room he built himself with furniture from ikea or that he made on his own with a 10 year old imac. He doesnt give a fuck about getting rich. then you could try learning Japanese and coming over to Japan to meet some of the people whos gear you want to sell so bad.

No, the creators of most of the brands you want to sell won`t `jump at the chance to sell in a new market like Montreal` (sorry, but what connection does Montreal have to anything?). And they wont hand over the brand image they spent their lives to build up to a random guy in a suit who wants to make some cash off them and wear cool clothes every day at wholesale.

Maybe if you knew anything about the brands you want to sell (especially W)Taps and NBHD) you would already know this.

Im about your age but Im broke (haha) only because I spent every dollar I ever had on the Japanese labels I love since I was 17..I`m interested-what do you love about the brands you want to sell, especially W)Taps and NBHD? How long have you been into them or did you just hear about them on superfuture and decide you could make some money off those coz they`re `hot`?

Be Advised: Morgan Nixon AKA Moman631 AKA Moman6040 is a fraud.

Edited by MilSpex on Jan 10, 2006 at 10:34 PM

[obsessis]

Quote:

Supply in Sydney stock/have stocked Supreme, PAM, Silas, Recon, Stussy, Head Porter/HP Plus, etc etc but they STILL cant get W)Taps and NBHD yet.

First I couldnt take any store seriously that had Supreme and DH on the same racks. Have some focus.

You wanna stock W)Taps? Try reading TETs philosophy zine and you might see where he`s coming from on where he wants his product and how much he cares about making a million dollars (not much). The guy works out of a room he built himself with furniture from ikea or that he made on his own with a 10 year old imac. He doesnt give a fuck about getting rich. then you could try learning Japanese and coming over to Japan to meet some of the people whos gear you want to sell so bad.

No, the creators of most of the brands you want to sell won`t `jump at the chance to sell in a new market like Montreal` (sorry, but what connection does Montreal have to anything?). And they wont hand over the brand image they spent their lives to build up to a random guy in a suit who wants to make some cash off them and wear cool clothes every day at wholesale.

Maybe if you knew anything about the brands you want to sell (especially W)Taps and NBHD) you would already know this.

Im about your age but Im broke (haha) only because I spent every dollar I ever had on the Japanese labels I love since I was 17..I`m interested-what do you love about the brands you want to sell, especially W)Taps and NBHD? How long have you been into them or did you just hear about them on superfuture and decide you could make some money off those coz they`re `hot`?

--- Original message by MilSpex on Jan 10, 2006 10:32 PM

not to be a dick but i think that a lot of the suppliers you'll run into will ask you the same questions milspex did at the end of his post.

those companies have to have tons of people email them about wanting to sell their clothing and i'm sure they don't even respond to 95 percent of them.

[minya]

MilSpex seems to think these ultra-elite brands remain exclusive because they're "pure" ...

... and maybe he's right ...

... but I think it's also because they're smart and they know that the harder your product is to find, the more people will want it.

[straight cash homey]

Quote: Supply in Sydney stock/have stocked Supreme, PAM, Silas, Recon, Stussy, Head Porter/HP Plus, etc etc but they STILL cant get W)Taps and NBHD yet.

First I couldnt take any store seriously that had Supreme and DH on the same racks. Have some focus.

You wanna stock W)Taps? Try reading TETs philosophy zine and you might see where he`s coming from on where he wants his product and how much he cares about making a million dollars (not much). The guy works out of a room he built himself with furniture from ikea or that he made on his own with a 10 year old imac. He doesnt give a fuck about getting rich. then you could try learning Japanese and coming over to Japan to meet some of the people whos gear you want to sell so bad.

No, the creators of most of the brands you want to sell won`t `jump at the chance to sell in a new market like Montreal` (sorry, but what connection does Montreal have to anything?). And they wont hand over the brand image they spent their lives to build up to a random guy in a suit who wants to make some cash off them and wear cool clothes every day at wholesale.

Maybe if you knew anything about the brands you want to sell (especially W)Taps and NBHD) you would already know this.

Im about your age but Im broke (haha) only because I spent every dollar I ever had on the Japanese labels I love since I was 17..I`m interested-what do you love about the brands you want to sell, especially W)Taps and NBHD? How long have you been into them or did you just hear about them on superfuture and decide you could make some money off those coz they`re `hot`?

i never came on here saying i'm a fashion god and that i'm automatically gonna get all these brands for my store. i said i want some advice about opening a store because i see a potential opportunity in my city that hasn't been fulfilled. i have zero experience with retail, i just listed the brands that i like personally, and that i know are making some noise in the "scene" (incidentally supreme wasn't on the list). am i only allowed to inquire about brands i've been down with since day one? does that mean i can't express interest in other brands i think are nice? i didn't know it was this difficult to get the accounts for some of these brands, which is why i made this post in the first place: to get advice.

anyways, sorry your beloved brands are too cool for me to inquire about. although i'm not proud to say it, i used to be kind of elitist too when it came to music and clothes. i would hate it when i saw other people wearing the same labels or listening to the same music as me. i would only buy independent shit from new york that no one ever heard of. in fact, instead of being happy for them, i even felt betrayed when an artist i liked would get any sort of exposure. anyways, i'd like to think i've "grown up" since then. i'll listen to shit like 50 cent cause he puts out fire, but i'll also listen to little brother or jay dilla cause they put out heat too. likewise, with clothes, i don't really care what "labels" i rock these days, as long as it looks good. in the end, music is music and clothes are clothes. i've had the misfortune of a lot of my friends dying on me at a young age, and it's changed my perspective on shit. life's too short to worry about whether some kid is wearing vintage selvage denim with a mismatched versace shirt. it's cool that there's a forum where like-minded people can get together and discuss streetwear, but if you want to spend your life arguing trivial shit like which types of people are "allowed" to wear which brands, then you might want to get your priorities straight...but hey, to each his own...i just hope that life doesn't pass you by when you're standing outside the store waiting for the latest fujiwara x nigo x yamamoto x kazushi sakuraba collabo to drop...

but anyways, i can understand your position. no one likes the idea of bandwagonners jumping all over their shit, but in that case, you probably shouldn't listen to music

[MilSpex]

Quote:

Quote: Supply in Sydney stock/have stocked Supreme, PAM, Silas, Recon, Stussy, Head Porter/HP Plus, etc etc but they STILL cant get W)Taps and NBHD yet.

First I couldnt take any store seriously that had Supreme and DH on the same racks. Have some focus.

You wanna stock W)Taps? Try reading TETs philosophy zine and you might see where he`s coming from on where he wants his product and how much he cares about making a million dollars (not much). The guy works out of a room he built himself with furniture from ikea or that he made on his own with a 10 year old imac. He doesnt give a fuck about getting rich. then you could try learning Japanese and coming over to Japan to meet some of the people whos gear you want to sell so bad.

No, the creators of most of the brands you want to sell won`t `jump at the chance to sell in a new market like Montreal` (sorry, but what connection does Montreal have to anything?). And they wont hand over the brand image they spent their lives to build up to a random guy in a suit who wants to make some cash off them and wear cool clothes every day at wholesale.

Maybe if you knew anything about the brands you want to sell (especially W)Taps and NBHD) you would already know this.

Im about your age but Im broke (haha) only because I spent every dollar I ever had on the Japanese labels I love since I was 17..I`m interested-what do you love about the brands you want to sell, especially W)Taps and NBHD? How long have you been into them or did you just hear about them on superfuture and decide you could make some money off those coz they`re `hot`?

i never came on here saying i'm a fashion god and that i'm automatically gonna get all these brands for my store. i said i want some advice about opening a store because i see a potential opportunity in my city that hasn't been fulfilled. i have zero experience with retail, i just listed the brands that i like personally, and that i know are making some noise in the "scene" (incidentally supreme wasn't on the list). am i only allowed to inquire about brands i've been down with since day one? does that mean i can't express interest in other brands i think are nice? i didn't know it was this difficult to get the accounts for some of these brands, which is why i made this post in the first place: to get advice.

anyways, sorry your beloved brands are too cool for me to inquire about. although i'm not proud to say it, i used to be kind of elitist too when it came to music and clothes. i would hate it when i saw other people wearing the same labels or listening to the same music as me. i would only buy independent shit from new york that no one ever heard of. in fact, instead of being happy for them, i even felt betrayed when an artist i liked would get any sort of exposure. anyways, i'd like to think i've "grown up" since then. i'll listen to shit like 50 cent cause he puts out fire, but i'll also listen to little brother or jay dilla cause they put out heat too. likewise, with clothes, i don't really care what "labels" i rock these days, as long as it looks good. in the end, music is music and clothes are clothes. i've had the misfortune of a lot of my friends dying on me at a young age, and it's changed my perspective on shit. life's too short to worry about whether some kid is wearing vintage selvage denim with a mismatched versace shirt. it's cool that there's a forum where like-minded people can get together and discuss streetwear, but if you want to spend your life arguing trivial shit like which types of people are "allowed" to wear which brands, then you might want to get your priorities straight...but hey, to each his own...i just hope that life doesn't pass you by when you're standing outside the store waiting for the latest fujiwara x nigo x yamamoto x kazushi sakuraba collabo to drop...

but anyways, i can understand your position. no one likes the idea of bandwagonners jumping all over their shit, but in that

[edwin]

create your own label