story

"The product that you buy here, we'd like to think of it almost as like a souvenir."

"Whether it's a physical journey here or a mental or spiritual or an emotional journey of how a certain garment of fashion..."

"...helps you tell the story of your life. Peace y'all. This is Chris Gibbs. We're here in sunny Los Angeles at the Union LA Store. I am the owner and Creative Director over here sitting with my man, 50 grand. Victor..."

"...introduce yourself. My name is Victor Nguyen. I am the Chief of Operations at Union. I've been here four plus years now."

"Yo, what's good. My name is Jordan Johnson. I used to come here when I was 16 and now I'm the GM at the LA store. Being younger, going to certain shops, I'd have anxiety just from being there because the energy was just kind of off."

"So me taking that into consideration, I do love that this place is somewhat of like a community space."

"We think of ourselves as kind of like a modern barber shop. People just come in and can talk. The staff here is pretty diverse and eclectic."

"So you get to learn a lot about different people's ways of lives and cultures. You can just come by. You don't have to buy something, but just be able to experience the staff we have, the stores we have."

"The name Union, to me, it just means this meeting place of like-minded individuals, creatives, whether it be fashion, music, whatever. Creatives can come share their ideas..."

"…sell them maybe in a marketplace. Talk about what's going on. This place just holds a lot of weight. This is what companies were looking to be. This was the start of pretty much street wear…"

"…which is very crazy. Everyone that runs this place is a good person. And it's been that way since the beginning. If I had to summarize all my years at Union…"

"...it would probably be knowledge, because I've learned a lot from being here, even beyond clothing."

"Just life experiences, travel, meeting Chris who's... Yeah. I knew you for 12 years, 12 years. That's crazy. Sorry, bud."

"There's tons of stores, both in LA and America, globally that have come and gone in the 30 years we've been here. Those stores largely are stores that are jumping on a trend."

"And when that trend dies, the store doesn't have any foundation to live on. I think there's a DNA to Union that we try to always stick to…"

"...and then one of the words Chris always uses was organic, we want to be able to work with brands and bring in brands that feel organic. There's always been..."

"...a lot of brands that say, oh, this is a really dope brand. But, it feels a little bit off if we bring it in. We've been able to do it for 30 years because we actually don't jump on these trends and we try and stay away from..."

"...trendy brands that are just of the moment because pop culture says it's cool, but more about something that's establishing a new kind of idea in fashion..."

"...or continuing what I guess what we would consider to be, I don't know, the principles of street wear."

"It's been fun catching up with Victor. Appreciate everybody listening here on Talking Shop. If you get a chance to come to LA and check us out, please do. And we hope you have a good experience."

Talking Shop

UNION Part 1 - The Shop