Conversations with The Local Supermarket

Today we’d like to introduce you to The Local Supermarket.

The Local, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Supermarket started from an idea of creating t-shirts for local taco stands, one in particular that we would frequent all the time. We honestly just wanted to rock our favorite spot. The designs started to gain some traction and friends, and even people we didn’t know, started asking about the shirts. We felt this brought us all a little closer to our community, and so the idea snowballed and we’ve just been expanding from there.

We really want community and a neighborhood forward ethos to be our focus. With our originals, we want to call to mind the kind of t-shirt you may have been handed down by your parents, maybe highlighting a local bar or restaurant they would frequent growing up; something that feels like it could be vintage but also timeless, capturing the spirit of what it might feel like to hang at your favorite neighborhood spot. We want folks to feel that nostalgia, and simultaneously bring a quality product that doesn’t deteriorate like the newer shirts you might find to be pretty common today. Our hope is that our apparel has the same resilience that these establishments we represent, have themselves.

We are at such an early stage now, but are so excited about the people we’ve met and the collaborations we’ve had so far, as well as the collaborations we have planned for the near future.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
So far, the hardest part has really been related to securing collaborations. However, we’ve been grateful that there are people within the community that see our vision and want to work with us!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think the thing we are most proud of in terms of creativity so far is our ode to vintage/retro restaurant apparel. Nothing special, nothing beyond innovative, we’ve always been huge fans of a simple tee that can still represent a lifestyle and stands for something. Wearing a tee with a local establishment on it means that you support local business and community – it’s so simple but impactful. Why not represent your community?

We also want to bring a strong sense of visual storytelling and worldbuilding to our branding process. We’re really inspired by the innovation and quirkiness that we’re seeing in the media offerings of a lot of up and coming brands, and we want to do our own unique take on that with Supermarket; produce something striking, but also fun and inviting. It’s the dual process of creating a world that matches the vibrant style of our apparel, but also captures the ethos of community, environment and togetherness that we want the brand to embody. It’s been a blast so far synthesizing these ideas in our visuals, we’re just having fun bringing them to life.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We are really excited about niche clothing brands popping up over the next few years. We are already seeing it now, and certainly have been for some time, but with the ease of access to design tools and social media/internet to find factories, it is getting easier for very specific styles to be represented by independent brands, and we think that is really cool. An instagram page could have 80k followers and sell enough so the founder can make a living, but also deliver real quality clothes to a niche customer base that really loves that specific style. I think it’s a win-win for customers and for small business – cutting down on over production and fast fashion is cool.

Pricing:

• A portion of our proceeds go back to the community in a number of ways. Whether splitting profits with the places we collab with, donating to Restaurants Care, or providing grants to establishments in need, we have a number of ways we like to support the places we represent.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thelocalsupermarket.com
• Instagram: @the.localsupermarket
• Other: Tik Tok: @the.localsupermarket