Hello [RECIPIENT], happy [DAY OF THE WEEK HERE]! Just kidding, you don't think I'd actually leave draft scraps in here, do you? Anyways, uh, good morning.

— Francis, Content at Air

This week’s plot:

• The opposite of gatekeeping
• Scaling (sometimes) sucks
• 🤔 The Future is CaaS (curation-as-a-service)

Much ink has been spilled over the years on the death of retail — but brick and mortar hasn’t given up the ghost. Turns out people still like having somewhere to go and try stuff on. The Metaverse hasn’t subsumed us all. Yet.

The future of retail seems to live in small, highly personal boutiques. Places like Humboldt House in Chicago; Saint Seneca in NYC; and YOWIE, in Philly. These shops specifically could accurately be described as lifestyle purveyors.

YOWIE, from their Instagram — I’ll, um, need a bigger bag.

Each of the above shops are unique, but what they have in common is thoughtful curation of (often locally sourced) home goods, in a broad sense. Yes, towels and vases — but also sweatpants, coffee table books, and a tasteful selection of pantry items. Note that all three stock (un)official Millennial-Gen Z condiment-lifestyle brand Fly by Jing.

We reached out to Shannon Maldonado, the owner and operator of YOWIE, to talk curation, community, and conscious growth.

As a kid, Maldonado was an avid eBayer. Still is. That same curious, rabbit-hole mindset is very much alive in YOWIE — a shop full of treats and treasures, all lovingly sourced. Here, hot CPG brands like Ghia, Graza, and Salsita Mao share shelf space with Somaya Critchlow books and whimsically patterned trashcans. It’s a lifestyle — Maldonado’s lifestyle, specifically.

Maldonado is a multi-hyphenate (in her past life, she was a fashion designer), but two descriptors define her work with YOWIE: curator and community builder. Put simply, it is a venue for her to share her taste and bring people together. She’s the opposite of a gatekeeper.

On Brand: So many brands want to to build a community but fail. You’ve built a strong community — do you have any advice?

Shannon Maldonado: When I was younger, I really had to seek out community. People around me weren’t into the specific things I was into, so I got good at finding those who were. Now with YOWIE, it’s a cultivation of all the things I’ve always been into; it’s like a beacon for people who like similar things.

I’m very open, I avoid making anything we do feel exclusive or difficult to engage with. We’ve had workshops that people tell me I should charge for, but I’ve said no — if the people who attend buy something after the event, that’s cool, but what’s important is just giving people the experience.

OB: YOWIE is very much an extension of you. Are there any moves you’d never make?

SM: I would never scale for the sake of scale. I don’t have a plan to scale. I want to be in Philly, I want to control the output and the narrative. We’re moving to a bigger location because there’s a demand for it, but I’m not looking for the next location in the next city.

I'm fascinated by and read a lot about startups, DTC brands, founder culture — but it’s just not how I think. It feels radical to want to stay small, to say you don’t have to scale. I just want to go to work and love what I do, every day.

Ultimately, it’s about following my feelings. Five years ago I wouldn’t have said I’d want to open a hotel, but here we are.

OB: How do you think about the relationship between your online store and your physical shop?

SM: Well, when I just had the online store, all my inventory was in my apartment. It was impossible to escape work, so opening the shop gave me balance.

When someone comes to your website, looks at your wares, and leaves, you have no real idea why. With a shop — especially in a small space — you overhear everything. “This is really cute but too expensive,” or they’re questioning the function. You start to understand the customer feedback. That was the most valuable change when I opened the shop, getting to speak to the products in-person.

You can do a lot with copy, but having a conversation, smiling, sharing an anecdote — it’s so different. That’s why in-person retail will never go away.

• The success of a given collaboration comes down to communication.
  • Get on the same page before you get going.
• If working on a product, define price limits at the start. Price for the context and work backwards from there.
• Collaborative projects should be collaborative. If either side feels they’re forcing it, it won’t be good.
• Don’t work with other brands whose values don’t align with yours.
• Sometimes, no matter how well you prepare, projects go wrong.
  • People lost interest, get distracted — it just happens.
  • Ideas get lost in translation — if you’re not clicking, you’re not clicking.
  • When this happens...communicate! Don’t be afraid to put a stop to a project.

• Above all, trust your intuition.
  • If you believe in a project or collaborator, do what you need to do to make a project work.
  • If it feels off, it probably is. Don’t start it, or if you have, stop it.

Must-reads, hot takes, and rising trends:

• El*n M*sk now owns 9.2% of Twitter. What should we make of this? Are we getting an edit button?? I’m scared.
• A cynical perspective on the state of DTC branding — where do we go from here?
• Fake holiday April Fool’s was last week. I fell for and tried to buy this fake product.

Marketing + Creative jobs at our favorite brand-forward companies:

• Morning Brew needs a Creative Director
• Cann needs a Brand Designer
• Italic needs a Social Media Coordinator

Air is also hiring for a variety of roles! Click here to apply.

Remember those StoryCorp animations? Where they’d interview people and animate their stories and everyone cried? Well, we do. We tried to hire the animators but they said no, so instead we found an anime studio from Indonesia on Fiverr. And honestly? Way sicker. What do you think? Let me know, all replies will go straight to my inbox.

— Francis Zierer, Content at Air

On Brand is a bi-monthly newsletter where we dissect viral #branded moments, interview marketers and creatives at the most on-it brands, and generally vibe out on the wide world of brands.

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