Retail Brand

By the time I was hired, the client was already “below 14th Street famous.” Two retail locations. A creative agency. Lines around the block. Release days announced and anticipated. People arrived early and stayed late. The product and the design justified the attention.

The neighborhood filled in the rest.

City kids. Skateboarder kids. Graffiti kids. Kids with video cameras. Gay kids. Straight kids. Trust-fund kids. Ghetto kids. Kids who didn’t bother sorting themselves out yet. Even a few actors from the actual movie Kids.

This was post-9/11, George W. Bush-era New York City, Lower East Side. The long echo of the Ramones, early hip-hop, and the Andy Warhol-Keith Haring art world colliding. A moment when magazines still shaped taste, and neighborhoods still carried identity.

Street culture carried forward. Rebels, yes, but also working people, building and redefining the Lower East Side in real time.

They weren’t just shop owners. They were designers.

They cut patterns. Chose fabrics. Worked fits. They traveled to legacy denim mills. They did pop-ups. Fashion that sought legitimacy, not just attention.

They were early to collaborations. Sneakers with Nike. Adidas. Limited runs. Being early gave the business favorable pricing and terms, real leverage in an increasingly competitive environment. The brands needed the credibility as much as the shops needed the product. That leverage mattered. It kept things moving.

One shop had a backyard patio. It became a quiet center of gravity. One weekend it was Bun B. Another weekend it was John Mayer. They played, performed, sat, talked, laughed, then disappeared back into the city.

When I arrived, there were three owners. A fourth, previously romantically involved with one of them, sold her shares and handed off the books. That handoff is how The Tunstall Organization was hired.

One owner came up through graffiti, or close enough that the distinction didn’t matter. Around him formed an orbit of aspiring artists. Another was a graphic designer. Another was deep into shoes. Walls became canvases. Boundaries felt porous. It was framed as expression, as culture, as commerce.

I understood the appeal. At their core, they were culture purveyors. And no matter one’s vocation, the city is the city. The air is the air.

Once, an artist faxed his ID from another state to claim a pair of sneakers. I had the responsibility of approving it. At the time, the artist’s name was Kanye West. Like parking John Lennon’s car, or pulling Pamela Anderson out of a house fire. Proximity through function and commerce.

The Tunstall Organization handled the bookkeeping. Multiple entities. Multiple revenue streams. And expenses.

On paper, the challenge was simple. Accounting. Internal controls. Cost controls. Payroll. Sales tax. Inventory. Reconciliations. Filings. In practice, the work was reporting to different stakeholders in a way that tried to keep the business together as long as possible.

When the numbers were laid out, stress often followed. Not because they were wrong, but because clarity forces decisions. What to fund. What to grow. What was carrying what. Momentum had hidden that before.

Creativity led. Structure came in after to clean up.

Over time, ownership shifted. Some stayed. Some exited. Parts of the creative core endured. Momentum doesn’t disappear. It moves into whatever can hold it next.

The business outcome was clean enough. A liquidity event for those who sold. A creative outlet for those who stayed.

The narrative wasn’t.

I don’t remember a final day with that client. That feels right. In worlds governed by momentum, departures don’t get ceremony. People simply stop appearing.

What I do remember is the winter chill on Orchard Street. Crossing West Broadway into SoHo. The facades returning. The walking. The characters.

Only later did it come into focus that in business, just as in real estate, infrastructure matters as much as aesthetics.

And as usual, quietly, through it all, the city kept the books.

The lesson: Creative momentum in a business is powerful, but a solid financial infrastructure is what keeps that energy focused, challenged, and sustainable.

If you know a business owner who needs systems to channel momentum, feel free to connect us:
https://go.oncehub.com/tunstallorg-30mins