Standard & Strange

Our story started with two guys, Neil Berrett and Jeremy Smith, who met through the San Francisco Bay Area cycling scene in the early 2000s. Their first venture, Cedar Cycling, introduced them to the world of textiles and garment manufacturing, which led to the creation of Standard & Strange. Opened on Temescal Alley in Oakland in 2012, the shop was positioned as a hub for exceptionally-crafted apparel produced locally in the USA, with a focus on denim and heritage styles.

“Standard & Strange” wasn’t just another trendy millennial name pairing two adjectives with an ampersand—it came directly from that original Temescal Alley storefront. As cyclists and urban dwellers, Jeremy and Neil both respected and admired author Jane Jacobs, a pioneer in pushing back against “Urban Renewal”, and a believer in cities as human environments.

Jacobs is best known for her masterpiece The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which champions the idea of “new uses for old spaces.” Within that work, they were drawn to a specific passage that captured the spirit of the emergent Temescal Alley and reflected the kind of store they aspired to create:

"Cities, however, are the natural homes of supermarkets and standard movie houses plus delicatessens, Viennese bakeries, foreign groceries, art movies, and so on, all of which can be found co-existing, the standard with the strange, the large with the small."

(Image via: Slate.com)

In 2015, Jeremy and Neil traveled to Japan for the first time to meet new brands and expand the lineup beyond a strict focus on American-made goods. The goal was to find the best versions of the things they already wore and loved. They spent a month traveling around the country, visiting stores to discover new and unfamiliar brands, then meeting the people behind them and asking to be the first to carry their products overseas in our store.

Experiencing retail executed at the highest level, flawless hospitality, and a deep commitment to craft helped shape every aspect of what Standard & Strange could and should be. That first trip marked a transformative moment in our history, and since then, we've returned at least twice a year—visiting mills, workshops, and factories with the intention of sharpening our product knowledge to the highest level in the industry. Meeting reps and designers face to face has allowed us to build lasting relationships and carry garments that would otherwise be completely inaccessible outside Japan.

By 2018, we found ourselves in a position to seriously consider opening a second shop. We weren’t in any rush, and we weren’t interested in doing it just because we could. We spent months discussing potential locations for “Standard & Strange 2” before landing, decisively, on Santa Fe, New Mexico. To us, it was the ideal intersection of art, culture, and taste—and it lacked any comparable shop in our category.

Site selection mattered to us just as much the second time around. We turned down a handful of cheap-but-workable options while holding out for the right fit. Eventually, the exact space we had in mind opened up downtown: a former gas station turned art gallery, just steps from the plaza. After a few months of hard work, we officially opened the Santa Fe shop in October 2019.

Five months after opening the Santa Fe location, Covid hit—and in-store retail disappeared overnight. Like everyone else in the industry, we assumed this might be the end. But we weren’t ready to go down without a fight, and both shops pivoted to online-only for as long as necessary.

Fortunately, years of careful, intentional growth gave us options. We kept a steady hand on the wheel, focusing on retaining our entire staff at full pay and benefits. We moved to staggered shifts for shipping, receiving, photography, and all the other tasks that can’t be done remotely. Over the 15 months we were closed to the public, we managed to photograph, measure, and post every single piece that came through the door.

To supplement income, we issued bonuses and released a run of limited-edition custom shop tees, with 100% of revenue going straight into our team’s pockets. When lockdowns were lifted, we had retained our entire team, all operating at a higher level than before and fully ready to resume in-person retail by June 2021.

That same year, we saw a once-in-a-lifetime chance to expand to New York City and open a third store. The first space we looked at was 238 Mulberry—one we liked, but weren’t ready to jump on right away. After months of flying back and forth and viewing other options, we landed right back where we started. We signed the lease, and by October, the doors were open.

It didn’t take long for the shop to become a fixture on the block, tuned to both the tastes of New Yorkers and the city’s dramatic seasons. Just like in Santa Fe, Mulberry Street carries styles and brands you’ll only find there, alongside the “core” pieces we consider essential to the lineup everywhere. It also features a fully functional motorized dry-cleaning rack for garment storage, and if you ask nicely, we might let you push the buttons to make it move. No promises though.