No Idea's Original

Sneaker boutiques like A-Life Rivington Club and Bodega show the creativity all future stores should strive for in their conceptions. HGTV representatives don't need to design the place but at least let the store represent your own innovative blueprint. Hoping to see something fresh last Saturday, the Paid and Popular team went to Las Olas in Ft. Lauderdale for the Liberty premium sneaker boutique grand opening.

The digital fliers didn't list a time so word of mouth spread of it's 6pm opening. A customer I was speaking with close to the opening time stated,"I have $200 to spend but since they're taking so long I'm not spending it in there anymore", not a good look. At 9:30pm when the doors actually opened, a crowd of restless sneaker connoisseurs and hypebeasts spilled in to find a small & brightly lit white room with a meager selection of merchandise. What immediately caught my eye was the resemblance to another established South Florida boutique Culture Kings. (see juxtaposition below; Liberty on the right)



There's no excuse for a lack of creativity. As a business owner you want to emulate the success of your competitors through innovation, not imitation.

A certain Queens MC clarifies my point perfectly:
"No idea's original, there's nothing new under the sun//It's never what you do but how it's done"
-Nas

All photographs are the copyrighted property of Kevin Clancy.