Who: Seven Points
Where: Downtown LA, USA
Why we love Seven Points:
Having worked in downtown LA since the early 2000s, the five-person team behind Seven Points has witnessed the revitalization of LA’s downtown first-hand. The Seven Points store itself, which opened in 2013, exemplifies this. We spoke to Adam, one of the co-founders, to learn more about how the brand came about.
How did you get started?
My co-founder Jamaal and I have been in the wholesale apparel business for 20 years, and spent a lot of our time in downtown LA. Back then, it was over-run by gangs and drug-dealers, but in recent years we’ve witnessed a huge revitalization of the area. A lot of art, style and culture is being injected here, and it’s sparked a really rad sub-culture.
Given the changes in the area, we figured the time was right to launch our first customer-facing store. We started working on the space in 2012, and opened our doors in October 2013. Even during that time, we’ve seen a lot of new stores, like Urban Outfitters and Acne for example, opening up around us.
What is your vision & philosophy for the brand?
With Seven Points, we’re looking to create a shopping experience out of the 1920s, but in a modern setting: think old-school gentleman’s respect and relationship in-store, but with a modern format and a modern range. Our range also reflects what we see as a really cool turning point in men’s style, where streetwear and contemporary wear is blending – there’s a lot of overlap, a lot of mixing and juxtaposition of taste. At Seven Points, we can go from street-wear, to contemporary mens’ bow-ties, 3-piece suits, etc – we bridge that whole range.
Do you get a lot of online sales?
These days, it’s pretty easy to market yourself globally – someone from Indonesia could buy something from us tomorrow. But there’s also a lot of competition online. Customers have a lot of choice, and it’s much harder to convert traffic into sales. So sales to local customers are still really important to us.
What brought you to Vend and how have you found it?
As we were setting up from scratch, we were able to conduct a thorough selection process for POS, accounting systems, etc. And having worked in the business for a while, we had a lot of people we could ask about POS systems. Throughout our process, Vend really stood out.
Firstly, Vend being a cloud-based solution is great. I still do wholesale business, and so being able to review and manage the retail business remotely from Vend’s dashboard is huge. Secondly, we only have one person working full-time in our retail store, and so it’s really important for us to have a system that’s incredibly streamlined, and still as effective as possible. Vend helps us by integrating directly with our sales analytics, accounting, and card processing providers. This removes a bunch of manual steps, saving us time and effort.
– Adam Redhead, Co-Founder / Seven Points
Do you have an awesome success story? Share it with Grace and the 15,000-strong Vend community!
About Austin Gunter
Austin helps run the North American marketing efforts for Vend. Growing up around his family's Honey Farm and store in Texas, he has a passion for small business in his DNA. Austin is a writer, a traveler, and a live-music lover. Ask him what he's reading this week!
Reply