SpearTalks: Steve @ Krudmart

Yesterday evening, in the middle of too much green tea at a local sushi spot, a friend asked me what today’s interview was going to be about. I kind of mumbled the answer; “Krudmart, with this guy Steve,” expecting the response of a few politely interested, half-garbled-sushi grunts. However, I was met with the opposite reaction, as several of the table’s occupants mentioned they’d been to Krudmart, or emailed with Steve, or had “…really wanted this one v-neck t-shirt there, even though, ugh; hate v-necks.” I was kind of shocked, because Krudmart is a young streetwear shop located in Buffalo, NY — making it about 3,000 miles away from the location of our little dinner party — and a strange-ish subject on which to find common ground.

That conversation solidified what I was already thinking about Krudmart: Aside from being a ground-up operation that has made a huge name for itself (with a very un-huge amount of people power), the small store has one very big thing going for it. This is sort of a risk, but I’m going to say it anyway; that “thing” could very possibly be a man who calls himself Steve Kay. Krudmart’s founder, visionary, and voice (though in all fairness, I have to point out that the entire team over there kills it), Steve has taken a place to buy jeans and turned it into something worth knowing about… even on the opposite coast.

This interview is probably going to make you laugh. That’s an awesome thing, because it’s Friday, and we all need to shake off the shoulder tension that’s been building over the work week. If you quit laughing long enough to experience befuddlement over the question regarding a brick, it will help to note that that is in reference to a little act of vandalism that recently befell the shop. If you want the juicy details of that story, crawl over this way; if you’re ready for another tasty SpearTalks, scroll on down…

Joshspear.com: Walk us through Krudmart; its roots, its progress, its future…

Steve: I started out in 2002. I’d just come off a year and a half stint of moving around (Australia, LA) and learning a bunch of random life lessons but had no real direction, money or college education. I went back to the skate shop I worked at right out of high school and talked the owner into letting me sell some of his inventory online and taking a percentage of the sales. Shit blew up pretty quickly and even though we were friends, he and I weren’t seeing eye to eye on where to take the project so I went off on my own.

From there I started working out of my dad’s apartment. Growth was slow but steady for a year or so then it just kind of went nuts again. From there on there was a pretty substantial step up every year. Got an employee, then we moved to the office store, then this year I got a BMW and another employee. Next year I’m putting in a lap pool.

JS: So, “Best Men’s Shop in Buffalo,” eh? Are you brainwashing people, or is there some secret to your success?

Steve: We are remarkably fly. There’s no way around that. But really, winning that award here is about as relevant as the South Beach Diet at a bulimia clinic.

JS: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?

Steve: The messed up thing is, and I was just talking to Don about this last night, I really have a hard time “learning a lesson” because I just do whatever I feel like doing. If it works, awesome. If it doesn’t and shit starts to fall to pieces I’ll just do something else and it always works out. There have been so many times I almost ran out of money and basically put myself under the bus but I just figure something out and everything’s all good again. I’m a pretty blessed individual.

The real lesson is that when I decided for sure that I was going to do this I just had to focus and make it happen. That’s as simple and as complicated as it is. That lesson also applies to just about anything else in life.

JS: What’s your method for hunting down new brands to stock?

Steve: For us to take on something new out of the blue, it has to be pretty fantastic. So many of the line sheets we get are just progressively weaker versions of things we’ve already seen.

There’s no set method but the best indicator is to listen to the customers. If people email us or call us asking about a brand we’ll investigate it. I don’t want anyone getting any ideas though, it’s pretty easy to figure out when people are trying to drum up interest for their own stuff. We also get referrals from brands we already deal with and friends of ours with good taste.

JS: What are a few of the newest things/attitudes you’ve been noticing in today’s streetwear? How does it differ from, or reflect, the stuff of yesterday?

Steve: It seems to be splitting into two different factions. There are kids, either as consumers or as people trying to put out their own stuff, that really don’t remember how things started. For instance, I’m only 27 but I had a chance to catch skateboard graphics in the late 80’s and brands like Fuct blowing up in the early 90’s. I’m kind of on the tail end of it though so there are a lot of people in their early 20’s who see a Lemar & Dauley hoodie on MTV or on eBay and that’s their starting point.

Basically I feel like the younger kids are going to just do their thing and wild out (which I’m totally fine with by the way) and us salty old guys are going to probably start stripping things down and get back to basics a bit more.

JS: A few brands to watch?

Steve: Rockett, which we just started carrying has done really well for us. The guys that run it are really cool and they’re doing something a bit different. I’m also really feeling Eriffs and Franco Shade but they’re so new to us it’s hard to say how they’ll do.

JS: Next punk who tries to smash a brick through your front door; how does he go down?

Steve: I’d like to come off all bad ass and say I’ll handle him myself but the last time I got in a fight I did 20 hours in county lock down. I’m way too pretty for jail. We know a lot of roughneck types that offered to put a hurting on the culprit so should anyone ever get caught acting up we got some gorillas ready.

JS: The Krudmart Mixtape; who are you listening to while you fold those tee shirts?

Steve: I was on a huge Clipse kick all summer. Hell Hath No Fury is still in the rotation. The new Common and Kanye albums are really a lot better than I expected. Also this Silversun Pickups song Lazy Eye. I really don’t listen to a lot of guitar music or whatever but there’s always one song every few months that catches my ear in spite of my disdain for indie rock kids.

Other than that, Don listens to Howard Stern all day long which annoys me 90% of the time and makes me laugh the other 10 and then Ray just sits in the back of the office and makes up songs about drugs and girls and smoking cigarettes.

In closing, I want to give a shout out to all the beautiful female sales reps in the industry and I want to say what’s up to my dog Pippa even though she can’t even read the internet.

Get ready. We’re seriously about to step our game up.