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- Apr 29, 2014
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Hey StyleForum -
I’m Jeremy, the co-founder and co-owner of Standard & Strange alongside Neil who is on here as @StrangeNeil.
We started on this journey in 2012, with a tiny 200 square foot store in a back alley in Oakland, CA. We've grown quite a bit since then, expanding and moving our Oakland store, along with opening up our Santa Fe, NM location.
The very first shop, in Temescal Alley
The name comes from Jane Jacobs's book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". This profile is worth reading as an introduction to her life and work.
Here's the passage (it's on page 147 of most editions I've seen):
"Cities, however, are the natural homes of supermarkets and standard movie houses plus delicatessens, Viennese bakeries, foreign groceries, art movies, and so on, all of which can be found co-existing, the standard with the strange, the large with the small."
The above shop was in a back alley in Oakland. That building was originally Oakland's municipal stables before falling into disuse when horses stopped being used for transportation and power. Eventually they became storage lockers, and our landlord acquired them with most of our block in the 1970s.
Starting about 15 years ago, she began to convert some of the spaces into little stores over a number of years. When we stumbled into the alley, there was one spot left that hadn't been turned over yet. We saw, said we want it, and signed the lease long before it was even cleaned out for remodeling.
This theme of urban reuse played together with my love of that book. I spotted the above paragraph while re-reading it for inspiration and everything just clicked.
In 2015, we moved around the corner to 5010 Telegraph Avenue where our Oakland store remains. This is actually either the oldest or second oldest masonry building in Oakland. Over the years it had been an Italian restaurant, a hardware store (as you can see from the old sign), and right before us, a yarn/knitting supply shop.
In 2019, we opened up S&S Sante Fe in a former art gallery (thankful for that, because it was completely clean, painted, and had nice floors.)
When it comes to the brands we sell and the products we make, we focus on the intersection of great people and products that will stand the test of time. We know the people behind all our products, and we don't stock anything that we wouldn't have in our own closets.
Over the nearly 9 years we've been in business, we have circled the globe meeting friends and buying products. It’s been a wild ride, a rollercoaster of ups and downs - like any small business.
The apparel industry is well-known for being extremely opaque when it comes to manufacturing, which has been confounded by a lot of false transparency over the years. That’s not our style, and so, we do that work. We get on planes, we go to factories, we look behind doors, and peer around corners. Every minute is time well-spent in our pursuit of only selling the best in our categories.
We’ve learned how boots are made, and been on the factory floor in multiple countries watching it happen. Same for leather jackets, denim, down to t-shirts and socks. We will happily spend an extra two days on the road if it means we get a personal tour of one of the three remaining loopwheel mills in the world.
None of this would be worth doing, however, without our communities.
Starting in 2020, we have leaned hard into social equality and giving back from our own pockets.
2% of our revenue (that's all the money that comes in the door, not just out of our profit) goes back out to causes we believe in (details in the link). Between that and the other fundraising work we did in 2020, we were able to donate nearly $100k to charity. In addition to the direct giving, we’ve also started a charity raffle series which has raised over $52,000 for food banks and COVID-19 relief funds.
We’re excited to rejoin and participate in the StyleForum community. We’ll have a lot of good stuff to share this year, and we look forward to chatting with everyone here.
I’m Jeremy, the co-founder and co-owner of Standard & Strange alongside Neil who is on here as @StrangeNeil.
We started on this journey in 2012, with a tiny 200 square foot store in a back alley in Oakland, CA. We've grown quite a bit since then, expanding and moving our Oakland store, along with opening up our Santa Fe, NM location.
The very first shop, in Temescal Alley
The name comes from Jane Jacobs's book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". This profile is worth reading as an introduction to her life and work.
Here's the passage (it's on page 147 of most editions I've seen):
"Cities, however, are the natural homes of supermarkets and standard movie houses plus delicatessens, Viennese bakeries, foreign groceries, art movies, and so on, all of which can be found co-existing, the standard with the strange, the large with the small."
The above shop was in a back alley in Oakland. That building was originally Oakland's municipal stables before falling into disuse when horses stopped being used for transportation and power. Eventually they became storage lockers, and our landlord acquired them with most of our block in the 1970s.
Starting about 15 years ago, she began to convert some of the spaces into little stores over a number of years. When we stumbled into the alley, there was one spot left that hadn't been turned over yet. We saw, said we want it, and signed the lease long before it was even cleaned out for remodeling.
This theme of urban reuse played together with my love of that book. I spotted the above paragraph while re-reading it for inspiration and everything just clicked.
In 2015, we moved around the corner to 5010 Telegraph Avenue where our Oakland store remains. This is actually either the oldest or second oldest masonry building in Oakland. Over the years it had been an Italian restaurant, a hardware store (as you can see from the old sign), and right before us, a yarn/knitting supply shop.
In 2019, we opened up S&S Sante Fe in a former art gallery (thankful for that, because it was completely clean, painted, and had nice floors.)
When it comes to the brands we sell and the products we make, we focus on the intersection of great people and products that will stand the test of time. We know the people behind all our products, and we don't stock anything that we wouldn't have in our own closets.
Over the nearly 9 years we've been in business, we have circled the globe meeting friends and buying products. It’s been a wild ride, a rollercoaster of ups and downs - like any small business.
The apparel industry is well-known for being extremely opaque when it comes to manufacturing, which has been confounded by a lot of false transparency over the years. That’s not our style, and so, we do that work. We get on planes, we go to factories, we look behind doors, and peer around corners. Every minute is time well-spent in our pursuit of only selling the best in our categories.
We’ve learned how boots are made, and been on the factory floor in multiple countries watching it happen. Same for leather jackets, denim, down to t-shirts and socks. We will happily spend an extra two days on the road if it means we get a personal tour of one of the three remaining loopwheel mills in the world.
None of this would be worth doing, however, without our communities.
Starting in 2020, we have leaned hard into social equality and giving back from our own pockets.
2% of our revenue (that's all the money that comes in the door, not just out of our profit) goes back out to causes we believe in (details in the link). Between that and the other fundraising work we did in 2020, we were able to donate nearly $100k to charity. In addition to the direct giving, we’ve also started a charity raffle series which has raised over $52,000 for food banks and COVID-19 relief funds.
We’re excited to rejoin and participate in the StyleForum community. We’ll have a lot of good stuff to share this year, and we look forward to chatting with everyone here.
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