About Us

When we decided to open up our doors in 2012, the first, and hardest task was naming the shop. Our name isn’t simply two words pulled from a hat with an ampersand shoved in there for aesthetics - it comes straight from Jane Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities, in reference to the recycling of urban real estate and how it leads to finding the standard next to the strange. We found this fitting, as our first location had previously been a storage locker, and was originally a horse stable for the City of Oakland.

We’ve grown and changed since then, moved into another re-used space - this time, one of the oldest masonry buildings in Oakland, grown our online presence, and honed our brand list to something we really deeply believe in.

Our rules for what we sell are simple: It had be something we would wear; it has to be built to last; and it has to be manufactured ethically. We take these to heart - we wear what we sell and we beat the hell of out it.

The foundation of these rules is built on our relationships with our brands - relationships built through years of traveling around the world, drinking together in Japanese izakayas and German biergartens and a deep respect of each other’s craft.

We believe in old world style customer service - greeting you with a smile, giving our honest opinion (including ‘that looks terrible on you’) and doing our damndest to make you feel welcome and leave happier than when you came in. 

All that said, we invite you to stop in and browse, either in our Oakland location or online, and of course, if you have any question at all, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can email us anytime at hello@standardandstrange.com or use our contact form here.