The fashion world of Philadelphia has long been its own animal. A balance of niches, styles and influences has been the City of Brotherly Love very dynamic in its way, and from the good (vintage Nikes) to the questionable (dudes wearing Capris), the two-one-five refuses to stylistically live in New York’s shadow.

To keep the pot stirred, stores are legendary in this city. Right on North 3rd Street, just spitting distance from Bobbito Garcia’s old storefront, WTHN welcomes all types of people. Owned and operated by Mason Warner, who helped make some of the biggest local and national stores what they are, this independent operation might be a labor of love, but one with tremendous potential.  Having sold thousands of his personal collection to get WTHN’s funding, Warner turned his passion into his dream. And with an outspoken approach to selling, store cooperation and artistic patronage, the true beauty lies WTHN. The Evil Collector explores.

The Evil Collector: Tell me a little bit about the history of the store…

Mason Warner: I originally worked for Ubiq, designing and opening the first Ubiq on Walnut Street. I did that for a couple years. I didn’t really like how it was going – too many cooks in the kitchen, so I talked to key vendors, “Hey look, I think I’m going to leave. If I bounce and do my own thing, can I get some support? Can I get an account?” Everybody 99.9% was like, “Yeah, cool dude, let’s do this.” I borrowed some money, went into debt – typical fuckin’ American story and opened my own store. We’ve been open two years now.

TEC: Philadelphia is often described as a sneaker city. Now that you’re here, your livelihood depends on that, is it?

MW: It always is. Basically, even before Ubiq, a lot of the mom and pop stores are Korean-owned, and they’re tight-knit. You’ve got Joseph’s, Samsun, Olympia, and basically what happened up until five-six years ago, pre-Ubiq, people would go under the El; that’s where [the main stores] used to be. Dudes like us, that were into more vintage Nikes or spots that didn’t really get checked out… so say a certain Jordan came out and you missed it, well instead of fucking with eBay or pulling your hair out, you could go to one of these spots around the city and still probably find it. You could probably get it for a little bit cheaper than retail. What was cool was dudes like me and my little crew, the vintage stuff was phenomenal. It’s been pretty picked over the last few years, but you can still find pieces here and there if you go to the right spot. The whole thing was, a lot of the stuff was in the basements, not on the wall. You’d have to show up pretty frequently, once or twice a month, show your face, spend a lil’ money with them so they recognized you. Then, once you feel like you’ve got it in good, “Hey buddy, think I could look in the basement?” Make up some bullshit story – “Hey, I’m a teacher for a sports bookin’ jawn and we’re looking for discounts on basketball sneakers.” Whatever it took. Some people were cool, some people weren’t. That was the Philly thing. People from New York, DC, Baltimore – even California, “Oh shit, you’re from Philly. What’s up with those sneaker spots?” Because without you actually going to those spots, it’s legend.

TEC: Do you have a background in design?

MW: Yeah, I worked at Urban Outfitters for 10 years.

TEC: The corporate Urban Outfitters here in Philly, right?

MW: Yeah. The creative director, Susan Otto, I worked for her. We would do window installations, we would work on store design. We would open huge stores. That’s kind of where my background was. I started in California, but in 1994, [we] moved to Philadelphia. At that point, I was 24 years old, wasn’t married, had no mortgage, why the fuck not? I’d never been to Philly. Sure man, cool. At my 10-year point with Urban, I was like, “This is cool. I’ve traveled the world. I’ve made decent money, but I’m always gonna be middle-management guy. I’m never gonna own it, or a part of it, or anything.” So at that time, that’s when I was going to Ubiq a lot.

TEC: Has it been a weird transition for you to go from consumer to now having a store where people might be trying to get cool with you to either get a job or see inside the basement?

MW: For me, it was natural. Before there was the term “streetwear,” I used to wear Bape, I used to wear Supreme, Evisu, collect new and vintage Nike whatever, quickstrike. I feel that my lifestyle is pretty on par with what I do professionally. So I haven’t really noticed it. I’m one of the few though, in Philly, that can trace the history of brands and or people that have been doing brands for 10-plus years. There used to be a small core of us that knew what Bathing Ape was, or Stussy for that matter, and now it’s just commonplace. What I kinda do with WTHN is I kinda feel like I’m a filter per se. So if you see some shit in my store, you should recognize a few brands that you should feel comfortable with. That’s how I get you in the store. Then, if there’s a few brands that you don’t necessarily know about, you should feel comfortable to buy them or that they’re fine or they’re cool.

TEC: With all the stores in Philly, what would you say is your niche?

MW: It’s brands. Within Nike, it’s tiers. I get some product that Ubiq doesn’t get; they get some product that I don’t get. Pretty much, between Ubiq and I, if you’re lookin’ for a particular Nike, we can find it. With clothing, there’s a few brands that I carry exclusively in Philadelphia. That’s what sets me apart. Because of my relationship with those brands, I’d like to feel that it’s pretty unique. Plus, the books, zines, mixtapes and even the walls and the toys that we carry, it’s pretty unique to Philadelphia. Eighty percent of what I carry, I’m the only in the city who has it. I try to be cool with everyone who has stores and conscious of what other people are selling, and don’t step on toes. In the same respect, there’s four or five of us in Philly who own stores, and try to [cooperate with each other]. Some dudes aren’t really playing fair, but fuck ‘em; that’s life.

TEC: Do you still get much traffic from New York?

MW: Yeah man. Because A) over $100, we don’t have tax. B) I’m one of three stores on the east coast that carries certain New Balance. Sometimes I get Nike product that doesn’t even drop in New York. We still a get a lot of dudes that come down to save money, or shit’ll sell out way quicker in New York than it will in Philly.

TEC: Now that you’ve achieved your dream as an owner, do you wake up everyday with a smile or wake up everyday stressed out?

MW: I’m more stressed now than I’ve ever been in my life, ‘cause I don’t have a steady paycheck; I don’t have that salary, that 401K anymore. But I don’t have to answer to anybody, bottom line. I make a little money sometimes, sometimes I lose money. It is what it is. The store’s been open two years. We’re looking to do another store soon. The website is crackin’. The accounts are 90% there. I wouldn’t trade it, to answer your question.

TEC: As you go through the seasons, how does WTHN cater to whether it’s varying styles of the parts of the city, or the different sub-cultures of consumers?

MW: The way I buy, basically, is if it’s the warmer six months of the year, I buy mostly white t-shirts. If it’s the colder six months, I buy mostly black-based t-shirts. I kinda don’t play the rainbow game anymore. I put a lot of faith in the brands I carry, that their designs are the ones that kids are gonna want. I just buy like that. Dudes in the Northeast are still into tall tees and Jordan shorts. Dudes in South Philly, the hipster crowd, they’re starting to wear tighter jeans, tighter fitting clothing. It is what it is. I pay attention, but I don’t let it influence me 100%.

TEC: In two years here, what’s been the one item that caused the biggest line?

MW: We’ve had a few lineups. Nike did One Time Only a year and a half ago; we had a line for that. The Hundreds, when the Adam Bomb hats dropped, we had a line for that. It’s mostly Nike that we get lines for. It just depends.

TEC: Philadelphia has First Friday, a street-artist friendly open air event every month in this neighborhood. Although that’s a different crowd, does WTHN benefit?

MW: Yeah, it’s cool. A lot of people would just stop in because they haven’t seen anything like this before. We’ll get a lot of repeat customers, like maybe the next day. It’s cool. Plus, with the walls, we try to keep [the store] artistic too. We’ve collaborated with a few galleries too. I’m trying to do shit where it’s not just a sneaker store.

TEC: Is that a focus for the future?

MW: Yes and no. It still is a retail store. So we don’t have enough space to sell art per se. Every season we try to work with three or four local artists and do shirts from them. Or kids that go to Temple or whatever, that are starting their own clothing lines, we’ll do shit on consignment. I don’t try to be so close-minded. I try to be out the box.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Products, Interview, Hats, Toys, Shoes, Store Watch. 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.