A New Approach to Timeless: An Interview with Round Two Vintage

by | Jul 3, 2013 | ART

As a kid, I used to always get excited when the newest CCS or Eastbay catalog would come in. Browsing through their selection, I’d get excited just looking at the newest stuff from Matix, Diamond, and Nike SB. Although I’d happily settle for whatever was similar to it on the racks at Marshalls, I wished getting the styles I wanted was a little more affordable. If Round Two had been around during my teenage years, I would’ve dragged my parents down to Richmond every season. This new store was opened a few weeks ago by a few ambitious kids who decided to reach out to people like me: guys that want to look good in street and men’s wear, but don’t want to fork over the hundreds of dollars in cost.


As a kid, I used to always get excited when the newest CCS or Eastbay catalog would come in. Browsing through their selection, I’d get excited just looking at the newest stuff from Matix, Diamond, and Nike SB. Although I’d happily settle for whatever was similar to it on the racks at Marshalls, I wished getting the styles I wanted was a little more affordable. If Round Two had been around during my teenage years, I would’ve dragged my parents down to Richmond every season. This new store was opened a few weeks ago by a few ambitious kids who decided to reach out to people like me: guys that want to look good in street and men’s wear, but don’t want to fork over the hundreds of dollars in cost.

When I first walked in, I didn’t quite get how they sold such high-end stuff for such low prices. It was shocking. I imagined there had to be some sort of secret inside operation going on. But the truth is that the guys have found a niche in men’s clothes that didn’t yet exist in RVA.

Starting by selling things out of their closets in college, Sean Wotherspoon and Chris Russow figured they had too much stuff on their hands to be deemed practical. They began selling and trading items, eventually growing into an appointment only shop run out of a U-Haul storage unit. They would also set up shop at sneaker events. Although their humble beginnings were only a side hustle at first, the two soon realized the potential of the culture that was growing around them.

Sean and Chris, along with fellow streetwear head Luke Fracher, decided to capitalize on this opportunity to take their dream business to the next level. Opening up a shop on Broad, the three have introduced a new aspect to the culture and community: the buying, selling, and trading of used streetwear that has otherwise been considered a coveted asset.

On a rainy Monday night, I walked into the shop to find the three having a discussion over whether a pair of Jordans were fakes or not. They were dissecting everything–from the shininess of the leather, the tint of the sole, the alignment of the “Jumpman” …every little detail. In this business, knowing this stuff is a necessity. Getting played on an item will tarnish your reputation… and cut into your profits.

When we finally sat down for a formal interview, the three had a lot to say about their new venture. It’s always refreshing and inspiring to meet people that are young and ambitious. However, the ambition the guys at Round Two are out to achieve isn’t just about the money. Sure, they realize the financial potential of what they’re doing, but their biggest fascination is with making a change in the culture of local fashion. Some may consider this a lofty goal, but it’s also the type of mentality that can foreshadow success.

Talk to me about how this whole project got started.

Sean: Chris and I got together a few years ago and started a website where we sold all our stuff. We’d get booths at sneaker events and stuff like that. Eventually we got a storage unit on Broad that we did appointment-only shopping out of. We had kind of known Luke through the same group of friends.
Chris: He was the young kid wearing the weird-ass pants. [laughs]
Sean: Once this store opportunity came around, we needed to put a team together, and this is what we came up with. We’re the same in enough ways, and different in enough ways, where it turned out to be a perfectly meshed personality.
Luke: We’re like the Justice League of thrifting. [laughs]

So how do you all get all this stuff, considering the quality?

Sean: If you really look through our racks it’s probably the highest quality stuff in terms of designer brands. And even if it’s not [a designer brand], we chose it because it’s of high quality or something special. But we started the store with mostly our personal collections. All of us took together everything we had and tallied it up to see if it was the same [value] as far as resale.
Chris: We literally started out with all the shoes [in] our sizes.
Sean: Since we started it out with everything that was ours, it really was a collection of the best stuff. And you know if you’re collecting stuff for your personal collection, you’re only buying stuff that you really like. Then we buy, sell, [and] trade, so we have people literally coming in here all day.
Chris: Like, too much. We’ve had to turn people down and make them wait till we can take.
Luke: We’ve been open for about a week and a half and there’s nothing from our original inventory. Our turnover is so high, there’s new shit in here all the time.
Sean: And that’s our big thing: buy as low as you can, sell as low you can. We’d rather make just one dollar profit off of one hundred items than have one thing sitting around that we’d make ten dollars off. It just makes more sense that way.

Are you all worried about longevity and keeping this up? Do you think the market will one day deteriorate?

Sean: I think this one of those things that’s been around forever. This whole culture that we’ve opened up here has been around here since the early 80’s when they started putting out the Jordan’s. It’s something that’s always going to be here.
Chris: Even dads will come in here and be like “Wow, I remember all this stuff.” So, people of all ages can relate to it.
Sean: We’ve kind of been calling it a nostalgia boutique because you look around and it’ll bring you back. You can look around and see kicks that you wore when you were a kid, see posters you had…even the old Wheaties boxes. It’s just a cool place to be in, and brings you back. As far keeping stuff in here, I have a little brother and I notice his friends are little Hypebeast kids getting into shoes and stuff. That kind of made it real for me that the next generation is getting into this stuff now, so here comes the new wave of customers.
Chris: And we can change always stock as trends and styles change. As people are constantly bringing in new stuff in, we’ll be able to stay hip with whatever is popular because that’s what people will want to trade in.

It must’ve been hard for you all to give up your personal collections.

Sean: We had to tell ourselves, “Alright, if we really think this is going to work out, then get rid of everything now and you’ll be able to replace it later in life.” You either do it or don’t. If one of us didn’t want to put up inventory, then [he] would’ve been cut out.
Luke: I don’t think it was that hard with what the opportunity was. You can have all this cool shit, or open your own store, which is the dream. If you’re in the business of selling clothes and shoes, you can always come across what you want. So, it’s not anything you sweat. You get rid of a pair of shoes and a couple months later someone will bring in the same shoes for cheaper and in better condition.
Sean: And that’s how a lot of our customers think, and that’s why this business works out so well. People bring in shoes all day and trade and swap for other shoes. It’s really hard to explain this whole culture unless you’re in it. It’s kind of hard to believe that guys want to buy and sell used clothes, but it’s just how it’s worked.
Chris: With how high the prices are of everything. Those Diamond t-shirts, what do they release for…like 35 dollars? We have them on the rack for eight to ten bucks. It’s such a good price that people don’t care if it’s used anymore. It’s about the fact of having a Diamond shirt or having a Ralph Lauren shirt.
Luke: I think also with social media, kids want to have something fresh on every day to put on Instagram, or have something new and flossy. They’ll wear it a couple times and then bring it in here.

Going back to the Ralph Lauren thing, that’s one of those designers that if you have a shirt from ten, twenty years ago…it’s still going to look good.

Chris: That’s something we’ll always be able to have, that people will always want to have. You could literally buy five to seven, depending on the condition, for the price of one.
Sean: That’s sort of the theme here though: timeless. Jordan–timeless brand, they keep retro-ing every year, and people want more and more. Ralph Lauren… timeless. Nike… timeless. We have a lot of Lacoste. It’s stuff like that, even NBA jerseys. Stuff you’re always going to want, it’s never going to go out. A lot of times now there’s not one specific style. People take different pieces and match stuff together. You can get really fancy, or whatever else you want to look like.

So, why is it that people are willing to get rid of this timeless stuff? Usually when I think of streetwear, most people don’t even want to give up stuff that doesn’t fit them anymore.

Chris: I think the main thing is that they went off to college and this is their clothing from high school. So, it’ll be that OG Stussy or Diamond that kids are looking for now. How I see it is, there’s the older crowd that’s selling their stuff, and the younger generation buying it because they’re hyped on [it]. It’s just how the streetwear brands go: the older it is, the better.
Sean: I’m 23, and everyone that’s around my age that was into this stuff when we were 14, 15, 16. So like, 2004, 2005, 2006. I’ve noticed a pattern that a lot of the stuff coming in, like all the Jordans we get, are from around those years because that’s when people our age were really into this stuff and buying it heavy. You could get easily because there wasn’t tons of hype around it so everyone stocked up. Anyone that we’re getting good stuff from in high volume is from that person. You’re probably 22-28 right now, you’ve [been] collecting stuff [since] the early 2000’s when it was cheap and you [could] get a lot of it. And now you’ve lost interest because so many people are into it. We also get the people who are younger kids who’d rather buy a new shirt, wear it, and then rather it sitting in their closet, they’d like to get five or ten bucks for it store credit, or buy a new shirt.
Chris: The trading factor is a really big thing here too, because a lot of kids will see a picture of a shoe we have and be like “oh shit, I need that!” So they’ll come in the next day, after digging through their closet, and trade that in for the shoes that they want. At that point it’s worth it because we move shoes so quick. If you don’t have the cash, you have to come off some stuff.
Sean: It’s hard to explain why people are cool with coming off this stuff. I can tell you honestly that one of our friends brought in stuff today that other people would never in their life come off of. We really do have people selling us amazing stuff. They appreciate what we’re doing. He sold us a lot of old Supreme stuff, and knows that we’re going to give it a good home. We’ve been doing this our whole lives, you can’t just find this stuff overnight, if you want to open a store. A lot of this stuff is from friends of ours who say, “I love what you guys are doing. I’m going to come off this stuff I really love because I know you guys are going to sell it to someone that really loves it. I know you guys appreciate having it in the store.” Which we do. We could care less if people spend a lot of money here. If you can come in here and appreciate what we have going on and talk kicks or whatever, that’s cool. I think people appreciate that, and we’re lucky to have all the good stuff we do. Honestly, we wouldn’t be running right now if people didn’t sell us this stuff.

Would you say your store has more of an intimate culture because it’s specifically for men into street and men’s wear?

Chris: I would say 100%. I feel like we connect with our customers on a whole different level. Almost every single person that walks through this door is interested in at least one thing in the store. And we can almost shoot the shit with them for a while. Through doing this, I’ve gotten a personal connection with so many people I would’ve never talked to before. When people come in, I’ll end up talking to them for a while and hear a crazy story I would’ve never guessed from this person. It’s awesome the people you get to meet; I think it’s my favorite part.
Sean: We’ve gotten good feedback too, as far as the vibe and whatnot. People are cool with coming by and chilling.
Luke: I think the difference is that other stores entrench the idea of a thrift store, but we’re a boutique at the end of the day.

Have you all seen another store like this anywhere?

Sean: Honestly, I think we’re the only store doing this right now. We had this guy, Andre Houston Mac, who collaborates with a lot of high-end street wear companies like The Hundreds. He made his first million a couple years ago… anyways, he told us he’s never seen anything like this even in New York. We had a lady from Philly who said she’s never seen anything like it. David Arquette came in here, dropped a ton of money, and said he’s never seen this in LA or anywhere else. He tweeted we were the best store in Richmond, and he made us realize that, “Wow, if he’s never seen a store like this then we might be the only one out there.”

Richmond seems to have a very specific style in what they like.

Sean: The big thing in Richmond is a lot of people have really nice stuff, but do not look like it. You’ll have a kid that’ll ride in here on his board in super fucked-up skate shoes, cutoff jeans, and a brand new Supreme shirt and five-panel. It’s weird–people are hip to stuff. They aren’t hip to fashion, but they like nice stuff.
Chris: Everyone has their own style here and you see everything. That’s why we try to carry such diverse stuff, so anyone can come in here and find something.

—–

Round Two Vintage is located at 104 W. Broad St and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 AM until 8 PM. Keep up with them on twitter and facebook.

Words by Joseph Genest
Images by Brian Noble

Marilyn Drew Necci

Marilyn Drew Necci

Former GayRVA editor-in-chief, RVA Magazine editor for print and web. Anxiety expert, proud trans woman, happily married.




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