For millions of people across the world, fashion is more than just clothes – it’s also about finding items that cause whiplash as people try to catch a second glimpse. Such neck-turning gear is hard to come by in most local malls, so many turn to Karmaloop.com. Launched in 1999, the Boston-based online retailer has helped streetwear enthusiasts close the gaps between their selective tastes and the scarce supply that often comes with it. Dedicated collectors of urban fashion have grown accustomed to searching high and low for unique brands like Creative Recreation or Staple, but a few mouse clicks and a valid credit card can secure the same goods on the web. Providing ease of us to members of a complicated subculture has helped Karmaloop become the go-to source for shoppers who want more than what standard retailers have to offer.

Karmaloop almost missed its chance at being a premiere online retailer. When owner Greg Selkoe started the website, his only assets were an Internet connection and space in his parents’ basement. To make matters worse, the company’s budget was thinner than the paper it was printed on, and Selkoe’s squad always seemed in danger of falling into the dot-com graveyard. Quite a bit of grime went into making the world look good. Since those troubling times, Karmaloop has become a leading distributor of urban fashion and a $4 million dollar company, according to Small Biz magazine. DXStyle spoke with Selkoe and Giovannah Chiu, director of lifestyle marketing at Karmaloop, and we discovered how the company went from startup to style king.

DXStyle: Why did you decide to wage war against “McFashion”?

Greg: That was really the motivation behind Karmaloop from day one – to give people a choice. People were and still are sick of all the wack department chains.

Giovannah: We just wanted to put out clothing that was against the standard, cookie-cutter fashion that you would see at the time. Abercrombie was big and all these more preppy, monochromatic simple type of styles [were popular]. We’ve evolved in terms of the brands that we carry but it’s always been our vision to put out clothes for people who like different stuff but don’t have access to stores.

DXStyle: What were some of the challenges when you started?

Greg: Do you have two hours? There were too many of them to name. I was working another job when we first started and I had no money. The warehouse for our clothes was my parents’ basement. There were times when I couldn’t afford to pay people and it was hard to get them to stay with the company. Then there was the dot-com crash [in 2000] that had people nervous about online businesses. It was a struggle just to keep the lights on. I wasn’t really nervous because I’ve always believed in the Internet. You have some people who didn’t really think [online retailers] would last, but I had faith in it.

DXStyle: Do you recall any funny or odd stories?

Greg: So many; we have been through some crazy ass times! They are funny now looking back, but weren’t that funny when they happened. We maxed out credit cards, borrowed tons of money, survived a flood of the office, the roof collapsing in the warehouse, staying at crazy, busted hotels – the list goes on. We once had a crackhead come into the office and I had to chase him out, and he grabbed a broken laptop on the way out.

DXStyle: Time has obviously been better to you. Now, you have Gym Class Heroes and a few other celebrities modeling for Karmaloop. How do those connections form?

Giovannah: I’m happy that you asked that question. We’re starting a new section for the site that’s going to be content-based and it’s called Karmaloop TV. Basically, we have a lot of connections with record labels and iconic figures of people in the streetwear culture. We decided to start doing interviews with people we connect with through the industry and we’ve been lucky enough to have them come through and support our brand and do some modeling for us. DMC from Run-DMC was on here and he’s done that for us. Slum Village came through, too. There’s been a bunch of people who I can’t really talk about yet, but you’ll be able to see on our site in a few weeks.

DXStyle: What about the brands on Karmaloop? How often are you approached by people trying to get on?

Greg: We get hit up all the time. There’s so many people trying to get on that we had to create the Karmaloop Kazbah, just because we couldn’t possibly put on as many brands as we’re approached by. It’s too much shit for us to inventory all the brands that approach us, and it’s just as much work to promote a small brand as it is to put up a larger brand on the site. The payoff isn’t always there. The Kazbah gives us and the smaller brands a chance to address that because we hook the customers up with the brands that are doing really good stuff, but haven’t built themselves all the way up yet.

DXStyle: How many of those submissions do you approve?

Giovannah: We can’t always accept every single brand that comes to us. Some brands just aren’t up to par with the game. But a lot of it is the fact that smaller brands are really sick and putting out awesome product, but because we have a very heavy volume of visitors, they need to be able to produce a lot of t-shirts at once. There’s just too much of a demand on the regular site, but the Kazbah has been a great place for that. It’s like its own little marketplace.

DXStyle: So why did you start the flagship store in Boston?

Giovannah: The company had been doing really well online and it had a nice cult following of people all around. We kind of wanted to give fans of Karmaloop a tangible destination to [experience] what this online cyber store was. Boston is our hometown where our headquarters are so we just decided to open up this store and locally help push forward this whole streetwear culture and movement.

DXStyle: Besides the way you get the product out, what’s the difference between running an online business and having a physical store?

Giovannah: The site is little more difficult because you’re catering to a huge audience of people and you need to know whose going to your site, which is basically anybody with access to the web. The store is more local and it’s a contained demographic, so we kind of know a little bit more about what people are feeling here because we’re around. The site is the same way since we talk to our reps in L.A., New York or wherever, but more goes into it. Timing is also a huge thing online just because blogs pick up certain products so fast. Usually, you want to be able to have a product up on your site before it’s displayed online because people know about it more. In the [physical] store, somebody might see something that’s been out for a month or two and say, “Yo, this fits good, I want to buy it.” The time factor is a big difference between the two.

DXStyle: Do blogs help or hurt the way you run the business? I remember when those LRG “Dead Serious” hoodies were posted on blogs, people were talking about them before stores even had the product.

Giovannah: I think it helps because it allows people to know what’s going on and what’s coming up. If anything, it makes brands and retailers push the bar on what the next hot thing is going to be because if everybody’s seen something on the blogs for a minute, it’s already done. The next thing you come up with has to be the next wave. It raises the bar and allows people to get information they normally wouldn’t, so it’s definitely a good thing.

DXStyle: Do you do think online shopping could one day overtake in-store shopping?

Giovannah: No, I don’t think so. Not unless it’s the future where everything’s a hologram and everything’s on the net. I think the experience of going to a store and meeting the staff, feeling the culture and trying on clothing is something that’s very unique. I don’t think one will ever eliminate the other one.

DXStyle: One thing that helped Karmaloop grow online was the use of reps (customers who promote the brand in exchange for discounts). Why did you create the program?

Giovannah: We had a huge following of Karmaloop ambassadors – people who were really feeling us. We had people who stuck with us for a long time and were sending us messages like, “Hey, I love the site, I told all my friends about it.” We just decided to start this program that allowed people to get something back for spreading the word on the site. There’s a system where they make points off all the sales that their friends use and they can cash that in for gift certificates. At this point, we have about 5,000 reps worldwide.

DXStyle: Wow.

Giovannah: Yeah, the program grew legs and really took off. It’s pretty sick because from that program alone, a large percentage of our sales come from people telling their friends about the site.

DXStyle: With so many people, is there a common thread among them that indicates who might be a good rep?

Giovannah: Oh, yeah, certainly. A lot of our reps are fashion savvy and tech savvy. Some of our best performing reps have their own websites or blogs that they like to rep our website with. A lot of them are promoters and have parties or weekly events that they use as an avenue to promote for us. It’s usually those types of individuals who are exposed to a lot of people and have the trust of a certain audience that work the best.

DXStyle: Some sneakerheads have complained that too many companies and consumers have oversaturated the culture. Do you see that happening in streetwear?

Greg: It could happen, but I feel like the best designers and brands will still rise to the top. I think we’re just in the beginning of an explosion.

Giovannah: Anything that’s a culture is going to have people submerged in it and have people who want to try it out and make a t-shirt that they think is cool. But it only makes people who are really on the cusps of what’s going on raise their tastes and sift through what’s nice and what’s not.

DXStyle: Karmaloop has built an empire for streetwear distribution. What’s next?

Giovannah: We’re working on [an online meeting place]. We’re going to have a forum for people to talk about ideas, give feedback, make comments and build a community for our customers so they can talk to us or to each other and see what’s good. The Icons Project for Karmaloop TV is going to be a big deal, too.

Greg: Supply Circuit, an invite-only section of the website for super-rare shit, is coming. Real exclusive stuff. Also, Karmaloop TV, which is video on streetwear movers and designers. We just added Nike to our store and the sneaker selection is just getting tighter! There’s a lot going on for us.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.