Vincent Shim got into repairing bikes after he founded the VS Social clothing store. Now with two locations in Minneapolis, VS Social boasts a 50-50 share between peddling sneakers and clothing, and bikes and biking accessories.

Frank151: Tell us about the history of your store.
VS Social: I'd been working as a buyer for different shops for over ten years and then in November of 2007, I opened the first one in Edina, Minnesota and the second one opened in July of 2008, so a few months later. Pretty quick. Started as a lifestyle store and eventually we started selling bike parts, repairing bikes, fixing bikes. And that part of the shop took off and we're at a 50/50 spread now between apparel, accessories, footwear, and bikes.

Our second store is in the uptown area of Minneapolis, that's more of a central location. And that's the one that deals mainly in bike parts. When I first moved here I hardly saw any fixed gear riders, now there are too many to count. They are all over the place. It's all over the country.

F151: Were there any other shops that inspired you?
VSS: One of the first shops that inspired me to go down this route was Prohibit on Elizabeth street in NoLita in NYC. I went to college and grew up in New York. I left New York in 2002. And a skate store called Clientele was like my homebase, back in the day. I was always interested in stores, but never had the idea of opening up my own, but those were the stores that drew me into it.

F151: How would you describe the design of your store? What was the inspiration behind it and what type of environment are you trying to create?
VSS: Well, I tried to make it really minimal. I don't like the product too in-your-face. I like it to blend in with the aesthetics of the shop. I have really minimal shelving with the product on it, I try not to over-merch the shop and make it super packed with items. I usually have one of every piece out and stock in the back which sorta gets to be hectic. It took awhile, especially in Minneapolis, for people to catch onto that concept. Everyone thought I had like one of each shirt in a medium and I'm like, “Well, treat it like a Foot Locker or something, they don't only sell left sizes.” We have a bench outside and in the shop. All the homies that ride, we have a little crew here, we used to be called the Drop Outs, but a lot of ‘em sorta... dropped out. [laughs] And there's always new kids coming by. And this is like what Clientele was to me when I was a kid skating, ya know. Homebase for them with their bikes. After school, all the kids will show up with their bikes. And the local sponsored riders in the city like Mike Carney, Jeff Frame, they typically come here and hang out and try to lure me out of my work responsibilities to go ride with them. Which usually works on days like today when it's super nice out.   

F151: How did you decide on your location? How important has the location been?
VSS: Location is key. Our first store is kinda in a suburb of the city. It's got a lot of money flowing through it, near the richest suburb of Minneapolis. And that location, picking that location, was huge. There's a lot of money to be spent out there, people are up on their culture though, it's not total suburbs. The vibe is definitely there. It allowed us to open a second store pretty fast. The second store is uptown, where all the bars are and the lakes, our beaches. Everyone goes there to hang out. 

F151: What brands do you carry, and which are your top sellers?
VSS: Right now, we're carrying brands like Mishka, Benny Gold, Reason, Flying Coffin, we have a local brand called Check Your Six. Another one called Burlesque that prints a lot of shirts. One of their graphic designers, Mike Davis, did a series for Kid Robot, that Alphabet series they came out with, and he's part owner of Burlesque here and we carry their stuff. Those are our main brands right now. Benny Gold is huge, I wish he'd come out with stuff more often but he does what he does.

F151: What brands or specific products are you excited about for Spring / Summer 2010?
VSS: We sort of cater to the selvage denim crowd, the raw denim crowd, and we're seeing a huge surge in that area of our business. We started out carrying A.P.C., the funny thing is, people weren't hyped on it yet. People didn't know that GQ rated them as the best denim in the world. We got them in our second year, and there were some people who were really into it. But then all the rap stars, Kanye and Kid Cudi, started rocking A.P.C.s last year and all of a sudden there's a huge surge in that. We just picked up another line called Naked & Famous and honestly I like their stuff a lot better right now. That's what I'm rocking right now.  The denim line on the HBO show "How To Make It in America" is loosely based on the Naked & Famous model. When the main character is working at Barneys and he's folding jeans, he's folding Naked & Famous. They're based out of Montreal, the company is really cool. The guy who owns it is fourth generation of a denim business family. So he really knows what he's doing.

I'm going to carry a line called Chrome. They make messenger bags, but they started making shoes for bikers. They have a hard sole and a really nice top made out of the same material as the bags so they're real durable. And they look real fresh too, they look like Chucks, which is nice.          
 
F151: How has social networking (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) affected retail for your store and retail in general?
VSS: It was MySpace back then. [laughs] I don't even like, I think that's the first time I've said MySpace in years. Twitter, I mean things move exponentially faster.  Facebook came and it was faster than MySpace and now there's Twitter and that's way faster than Facebook. Foursquare is coming up now. It's a cool idea, but if you have a stalker it might not be so great. But an example of how it’s affected us, we had an instore with Wiz Khalifa, and we didn't confirm it until the day before. I had 23 hours before the thing was going to happen to get the word out. So I just told all my friends to tweet it and within a day of that, we had 300 people here. It was crazy. I was like, “Holy crap, Twitter actually works!” 

We have a blog too. When we started we were getting like around 100 hits a day.  Lately, we're getting closer to like 400 which is nice. We're a small city.

F151: What about ecommerce? What effect has online sales had on your store and on the broader retail industry?
VSS: We're working on an online store now. I have to get into it, that's why I'm working on one. At first, I was sorta opposed to it because like, how can I compete with the heavy hitters like Karmaloop? But there's something about having a brick and mortar store and then having an online store as well because I have a lot of visitors to the shop, and they like the atmosphere and they're always looking for an online store so I'm putting it up for them. I'm not going to do mass marketing where I advertise on Hypebeast, but for people who need it or want it, I'll provide.

F151: What future plans for your store do you have that you’d like to share?

VSS: Right now, I think as far as our city goes, I've expanded as much as I could.  Minneapolis is a big city but it's no Chicago by any means, it's no New York. And I think adding another store would be overkill or oversaturation. I'm thinking about moving out to the West Coast so perhaps if I can get everything set up here, I might open one in Seattle.

F151: What Scion promotional items have been the most popular with your staff and with customers?
VSS: Dude, your socks. Socks are the best.

F151: Can you explain the cult following for Scion socks?
VSS: Are you familiar with that Japanther tweet? The infamous one: right after they got a box from you guys, they tweeted, "Scion should stop making cars and just make socks." We all love Japanther, they rock. This happened the day I got them and I was just giving them away and so I was like, “Well maybe I should try some,” so I tried some on and they were awesome. They're a little big for my feet, if you guys sent me some smaller ones I'd wear ‘em everyday. And I'm a sock connoisseur.  Bad socks will ruin your day. I found a wholesale deal where I can wear a new pair of socks everyday for .15. So I order them twice a year, I have half at home, half at work. My friends need a pair, I throw ‘em a couple. And then I end up donating a big pile of socks at the end of every month to Goodwill.

F151: Do you have a favorite Scion music compilation? Did any of the compilations make it into your store’s music rotation?
VSS: The Trouble & Bass one got mad play in the store for a long time and I've been to a couple of their parties and they kill it. Especially that Little Jinder track, that was my soundtrack for like all of last year.