If big-box stores are conquering suburban America by making smaller mall retailers obsolete, then Internet retailer, Karmaloop, is conquering streetwear storefronts by providing a one, two, three shopping experience. Karmaloop CEO, Greg Selkoe, acknowledges the logistical and technical challenges of operating Karmaloop, however, he sees a lot advantages, too. “The primary one being it is a rapidly growing retail channel while offline retail is not showing much growth,” says Selkoe.

With the American economy near recession, a lot of businesses are antsy to see how American consumers spend their dollars, but Selkoe is an optimist. “We have a ton of international customers scooping up gear from us, because their currency is so strong so it is cheaper for them to buy from Karmaloop,” says Selkoe.

With its catalog of nearly every major streetwear brand, Karmaloop plans to be more than a store as Karmaloop TV (KLTV) is the next ambition by the Boston based company. “We have incredible access to get amazing content that other people can’t; when we call up a Talib Kweli or DMC, they know about Karmaloop and are like, ‘Cool I’ll do that,’” says Selkoe.

“A lot of yuppies are moving into Boston…”

Format: What challenges does Karmaloop, as an Internet retailer, face that storefront retailers do not encounter?
Greg Selkoe: Well finding customers is always a challenge. It took us a longtime to build up a critical mass. When you open a store you tend to get some foot traffic, but when you set-up a website it is like being in the most remote location in town and then you have to go out to the Main Street and flag everyone down and direct them to come check out your store. Also, there are a lot of technical and process logistical challenges getting orders in packed and out the door. But there are definitely a lot of advantages of being online over bricks and mortar, as well. The primary one being it is a rapidly growing retail channel while offline retail is not showing much growth.

Format: Karmaloop has its flagship storefront in Boston. Will Karmaloop expand its storefront presence to other cities?
Selkoe: Our store in Boston is there, because that is our hometown and people were on us to open a store, we have a lot of parties and events there. We are actually about to closedown for a total, gut renovation. A lot of dope streetwear stores have opened in Boston and we need to keep up, I am confident people will be feeling the new design! We have had plans at certain times to open more storefronts but they were scrapped, because the website business is growing so quickly that we need to put all of our efforts there to keep building and making it better. Scaling costs very little online we can ad another $1,000,000 in sales and barely add any more staff. Plus we are branching out into more content and KarmaloopTV.com. The future is all online!

Format: Recently, Karmaloop teamed up with streetwear kingpin, Crooks & Castles, and, basically, Crooks & Castles took over front page presence of Karmaloop. How did the Karmaloop and Crooks & Castles partnership materialize and why is it mutually beneficial?
Selkoe: We always felt that Karmaloop was the right place for Crooks to grow online, plus we were getting tons of requests for the brand. Dennis and the whole Crooks team know what they are doing; they are innovating the brand, it is pure fire. We just kept talking to them about how the brand would do once it dropped on Karmaloop. This is

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