INDEPENDENT SHOPS Part1: Natterjacks

3 Friday July 23 2010 Written by flyprints
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Like Mary Portas I have a thing for independently owned shops there’s something about independently owned shops which takes me back to my childhood. You remember that magical feeling you got from looking at toys in the Argos catalogue (UK thing). That’s how i feel about independently own clothing stores. The layout, the unique stock and the passionate staff. This is the first series of our look at independent stores, last week I was back in my uni town Kingston and I remembered that the only shop with a bit of swag (style) was Natterjacks. This is the only shop in Kingston who supplies street wear. I did an interview with one of their staff.

Tell me about Natter jacks?

We’re an independently owned street wear store doing different kinds of things.

What kind of brands does this shop stock?

We have quite a big range on street wear brands. We got like Obey, Undefeated, hundreds and Mishka but then we have other brands that are like bread and butter every day brands for example Franklin and Marshall, Carhartt, Penguin, Fred Perry and Lyle and Scott even.

So who decides what goes in the shop?

Basically it’s the owner.

So he has a keen taste for street wear then?

I mean he’s been in the business for a good 20 years so, I mean he knows he’s stuff well. He knows what’s going to make him the money, at the end of the day we are a business and we’re here to make money. I have a certain influence on certain things in here at the moment in just foot wear. I know my footwear, I know my clothing as well and slowly ,slowly I’m influencing what we have in the shop with brands like Undefeated ,Norse, huff and you know stuff like that.

So in your opinion what kind of foot wear would you say is doing it at the moment?

In my opinion I’m a Nike guy always have been so, I’m going to be biased and say Nike. I mean Adidas and Vans is always up there. Even Supra, Supra are killing it at the moment it’s one of our best selling brands. The Skytops (supra), the TK society’s all that of shoes are quite big. On the flip side we’ve got shoes like Van’s which is killing it! I mean they are a good price and there’s a vast range of colours people just like to switch up.

In you opinion what makes a good brand?

Quality, I mean you’ve definitely got to have quality and aesthetics in the actual garment. I mean you can’t just make something and it falls to pieces in a couple of days. You can go to Primark and buy a T-shirt for £2 but is it going to last you the same amount of time of like an Obey t-shirt which cost £35 I mean, the quality in that is completely different. The quality of cotton, the prints better. Definitely quality…. Quality and design.

So what would you say to an upcoming designer who was trying to get their stuff into shops, how do you think they should go about it?

I mean you can go about it in a variety of ways, I can’t speak because I have no experience in that but I’d say bring in what you’ve got. Like a look book or some samples. Approach the owner or buyer of the store you’re going into especially if it’s an independent. Show the where you going where your heading what your aim is and what kind of brand you are.

So do you get allot of people coming in here trying to get their stuff into your shop?

Yea occasionally we do.

So what happens then?

It depends on the kind of brand, if it’s not our kind of thing then we send them to another store. It just depends init everything has to fit and these days everybody is trying to do their own brand it’s hard to be original with it you know. Everyone has the same kind of generic….. Basic kind of screen print it doesn’t always work like that sometimes you have to have a little bit more. If you have a bigger range than just T-shirts then your going to do well. Trap Star for example UK brand they’ve got a big selection and they are doing well?

So do you stock Trapstar?

We used to…

but… they weren’t selling?

to be honest I don’t really know what the deal was with …. because I wasn’t here when we was selling Trap star….. I don’t know what happened with trap star.

So has any celebrities come into the shop before?

With the Chelsea training ground being so close we have a big support from the Chelsea players like Michael Essien, Jeffrey Bruma, Daniel Sturridge, Jeffrey Bruma is probably the most regular he buys allot of kicks from us. He’s a nice guy as well. We’ve had fat boy slim, Zoe Ball and some chick of Eastenders I don’t even know her name (lol)

So what separates Natterjacks from the competition do you think?

Locally in Kingston their really isn’t competition for what we do. We’re the only independently owned store that does this kind of thing so we don’t really have competition in the local area.

So say the big kind of shops like Zara and top shops….?

Basically with like Zara Top shop, their all like quick fashion .So everything what they produce seen on the cat walk one week is in the store next week. Whereas with us it’s carefully thought out by seasons, the brands, we do the selective buy for it. I’d say definitely quite allot more unique stuff. We’ve got brands here with a good Heritage, Fila and especially Adidas has vast clientele from old people to young people who just want something different from what you can find for your average JD sports or Footlocker. With us having a better account we have better access to limited stock. You know they just want exclusivity.

So anything special happening in the near future?

We might have something coming up in the near future just stayed tuned on our website. we’ve defiantly got some good product coming. The original Jordan 3′s coming, the original Colour way. We’re waiting for the air max 90 infra reds all big shoes to come. We’ve got some good brands dropping we’ve got A life. So yea defiantly good stuff coming.

Website: http://www.natterjacks.com/shop/

Location:22A Fife Road
Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey KT1 1SZ
020 8546 9613

Train: Kingston Rail Station