The Power Up ⎯ SN.03/EP.04
Harness The Power Of Tourism Like Deadstock OC
If you know anything about sneaker culture, it’s all about being unique and keeping your shoes looking fresh. That’s why personalized shopping and shoe care are huge focuses for how Andrew Davis runs Deadstock OC. From shoe icing services to buy and trade appointments, customers receive one-on-one expert service.
Deadstock OC’s sales strategy doesn’t end there though. E-commerce plays a large role in their business. Since their storefronts are located in tourist towns, they see most of their in-person sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day. However, most tourists leave with a business card in hand and can make online purchases when they return home.
When the next season comes around, Drew sees the impact of having a store built around an experience. Drew shares, “Ocean City has always been a nostalgic [place]. I’m trying to create the experience with my store being a part of that nostalgia. I’ve had people come back year after year and are looking forward to seeing what’s new.”
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About The Business
Business name: Deadstock OC
Founded: 2014
Owner: Andrew Davis
Location: Ocean City, Maryland
Website: https://www.deadstockoc.com
Sales diversification strategy: Storefront, e-commerce, shopping appointments, shoe care services
About Our Guest
In 2014, Drew took special notice of the sneaker culture beginning to emerge and saw it as an opportunity to be a part of it. He flew out to Portland, Oregon, where Nike is headquartered, to experience it for himself. There, he visited tons of sneaker stores and came up with a vision that he wanted to incorporate into a store of his own in Maryland. Drew is credited with bringing sneaker culture to the area which has exploded since.
Drew knew it was important to take it a step further and build a community. At the front of their store, there’s a space for shoppers to hang out, listen to music, and play old video games. The Deadstock OC team regularly hosts events for the community, like Hoops of the Avenue which is an arts and music festival with 3-on-3 basketball tournaments.
Full Transcript
Sean (Thrive): Hello everyone, it’s Sean from Thrive with another episode of The Power Up, where I meet with successful small business owners and operators to learn about their business strategy so you can take their insights and level up your own business. Once your business is ready to expand, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. Our guests have some creative solutions for how they’ve tackled tricky problems and turned them into growth opportunities.
Now, let’s dive into today’s episode.
Our guest today is Drew. Drew is the owner of Deadstock OC in Salisbury, Maryland. Deadstock OC was founded during the sneaker culture craze emerging in 2014. As an early adopter, Drew was able to corner and change a large part of the market on the lower Eastern Shore, focusing on rare clothes, footwear, and accessories.
In addition to an exclusive product line, Deadstock OC also offers a variety of services from shoe cleaning and repair to shopping appointments curated to enhance the customer journey and loyalty.
So, are you ready to get started with us?
Drew (Deadstock OC): Absolutely, let’s do it.
Sean: Alright, fill in the gaps. Tell us a little bit more about Deadstock OC and your experience with the business.
Drew: So, you nailed it in the idea that there was a craze in the early part of this sneaker culture that’s blossomed in the last decade. We saw an opportunity. I actually traveled to Portland, which is Nike Town, and they had a plethora of shops just like mine.
I was inspired, I saw a vision, and I wanted to bring it back home and add some culture to our area, which on the Eastern Shore is a lot of cornfields, a lot of stretches from Baltimore to Ocean City. But where I’m from, there’s not a whole lot of culture. So, we wanted to bring some of that down to the lower Eastern Shore and add to the flavor that I think has enhanced the area.
Sean: Sure, and how big is your team?
Drew: It fluctuates. We’re a seasonal town in Ocean City, so our busiest dates are basically Memorial Day to Labor Day. We get up to about six staff during that time period. In the winter, we run a little lean, people go back to their homes, and it becomes slow in Ocean City. So, we run with about three or four people in the winter.
Sean: Got it. So you’re heading into selling season right now?
Drew: Yeah, we’re gearing up. We just had Memorial Day weekend, which was fantastic. It’s always nice to have that fresh first pop of cash flow in the summertime. So yeah, we’re gearing up right now.
Sean: Great. How do you handle staffing? Do you do seasonal employees? Do they know they’re seasonal going into it? What’s your process for that?
Drew: We kind of keep a VIP list of people that we’ve worked with, people that are eager and have expressed interest in the store. It’s kind of like a “your chosen type” situation come summertime. We have about five or six people waiting to see if they’ll be hired for the summer. It’s pretty easy.
Our type of employee needs to be knowledgeable about sneakers, understand the sneaker market and pricing, and understand sales in a way similar to someone selling cars. You have to be very knowledgeable of your craft to execute the sale.
Sean: That’s great. I want to go back to what I mentioned in the bio about curated appointments. Talk us through that experience for a customer.
Drew: We use our website for all our bookings. We buy and consign. Sometimes, there are certain sizes we don’t necessarily have fully stocked with our own inventory, so we might steer people towards the consignment route so they can put some extra money in their pocket.
It creates a streamlined process. We send them to the website where they have options, whether they want cleaning, drop off consignments for review, or trade shoes.
We evaluate trades sometimes on the spot. We have two days a week open where people can bring stuff into the store, and we’ll look at it right then. Outside of that, we run appointments through the weekend because that’s our busiest time. We focus on sales and customer service over buying and trading then.
Sean: What do you run your website on?
Drew: Shopify. We’ve been with Shopify since day one. They were emerging and have adapted over time.
Sean: And what do you use for your appointment booking tool?
Drew: It was an app or widget offered through Shopify’s store. It’s a straightforward process. We only have three tabs: buying and cleaning, consignment, and trade. If it were more complicated, we’d need something else, but we’re good with what we have.
Sean: Are you the one managing that, or do you have staff handling customer support for the online store?
Drew: All employees are logged into the Shopify customer service app on their phones. Whoever sees it first jumps on it and communicates with the customer. We monitor it constantly for order concerns or questions about buying or appointments.
We also do a lot of correspondence through social media. My general manager handles inventory input and works with me to make sure it’s done. We use Thrive as a key component to allow my Clover POS system in-store and Shopify to communicate seamlessly, which helps the process and saves time.
Sean: Makes a ton of sense. You have physical locations, so how does business look online versus in-store?
Drew: It really depends on the season. Around Christmas, we see a lot of online orders. Having a base in Ocean City and Salisbury for a long time has grown our customer base. People who come as tourists in the summer leave with a cart, buying Christmas gifts for their kids or significant others.
In-store business is always more solid, in my opinion. Online sales are great, but what we do with consigned sneakers, the experience helps people make decisions. Sometimes when you’re looking at shoes on your phone, it’s more of a buyer’s way now, wondering if the shoe is fake or real. Our niche requires people to see and feel the shoe and have the experience of being in-store with knowledgeable staff.
Sean: How do you think about seasonality? When you go into the off-season, do you spend a lot on online advertising to boost sales? How do you mitigate that?
Drew: I start planning now. You prepare when it’s good for the lean times. We’re constantly running ads through social media, Shopify, and Google Ads. Sometimes they send us codes, and we use any benefits or added bucks for advertising.
We also do traditional marketing like billboards going down Route 50. If you see a Deadstock sign three times, hopefully, you’ll stop by. Planning ahead is important. By fall, I have a nice push leading to Black Friday, which gets us to Christmas, then we ramp up again. It’s a rinse and repeat strategy.
Sean: You’re doing legitimate billboard advertising. I don’t think many in our audience do that. Why did you go that route, and how is it working?
Drew: Ocean City has always been nostalgic for me. I want to create that experience with my store. People come back year after year, looking forward to what’s new and the feel of the store changing.
When I was a kid, riding down the road to Ocean City, I always had time to look at billboards. Your head’s almost clear, not on your phone, because you’re about to be at the beach, on vacation, toes in the sand.
I appeal to a younger age bracket, so the billboards aren’t for Mom and Dad riding down the road, they’re for your 15-year-old kid whose phone died a half hour ago, and they see “Deadstock” and wonder what it is. It’s a strategy unique to my situation. I understand why billboards aren’t as popular as before, but for that element, it’s still effective.
Sean: Do you see that manifest in the demographic coming in? Younger folks hanging out?
Drew: Yes. Over the weekend, half a dozen people said they saw the sign and wanted to stop by. We have a tight local base of kids into sneakers and culture. We have a cool space up front with arcade games and Nintendo, not PS5, but old Sega, Nintendo, and NBA Jam, which creates a community inside the store.
Sean: Nice. I was going to ask if you have a Nintendo 64 out front for people to play.
Drew: We fried the N64. It’s sitting on display in the window now. Nostalgia feel.
Sean: How do you think about ROI on billboards?
Drew: On the Eastern Shore, billboards are super affordable now. You’re not spending $2-3,000 like in the early 2000s. Radio advertising is also effective here because people turn on the radio to see what’s going on locally.
Sometimes, billboards and radio can be as cost-effective as online campaigns, which can get pricey. You try to be strategic. Radio can hit 50,000 people; a billboard can get 200,000 impressions a day from people coming from Baltimore, DC, Philly, and Ocean City. It makes sense for what I do.
Sean: For anyone interested in starting billboard advertising, do you use an online hub or repository to find billboards?
Drew: Clear Channel is our local billboard SES person. I also do event marketing. For example, I have an event called Hoops on the Ave on June 22nd. I’m using digital billboard advertising through a site called Blip.
Blip lets you upload digital designs to boards. It’s like Airbnb for billboards, independent owners can sell advertising straight to people. It’s cost-effective and works well with online impressions and ad runs to boost exposure.
Sean: Great. How about social media traction?
Drew: For the store, it’s Deadstock OC. We had Deadstock Spy, which was more popular, but we closed it in early 2023 due to consumer buying slowing down and moving into a larger retail space. Strip malls are struggling, but we still have a solid base in Ocean City.
Sean: Got it. So you closed the Deadstock Spy location, but still have the main Deadstock OC store?
Drew: Exactly. The Spy location was more of a sneaker consignment and resale spot, but the market shifted, and it wasn’t sustainable. We decided to focus on the main store and build the brand there.
Sean: Makes sense. How do you engage with your customers on social media?
Drew: We use Instagram primarily. We post new arrivals, sneaker drops, and community events. We also do Instagram Stories and Reels to show behind-the-scenes content and sneaker care tips. It helps build trust and keeps our followers engaged.
Sean: Do you run paid ads on social media?
Drew: Yes, especially around major sneaker releases and holidays. We target local demographics and sneaker enthusiasts. It’s a good way to get immediate traction and bring people into the store or to the website.
Sean: What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced running Deadstock OC?
Drew: Inventory management is always a challenge. Sneakers and streetwear can be fickle. Trends change quickly, and you have to anticipate what will sell. We’ve learned to stay flexible and maintain good relationships with suppliers and customers to keep inventory moving.
Sean: How do you stay ahead of sneaker trends?
Drew: We monitor sneaker forums, social media influencers, and industry news daily. We also listen to our customers and see what they’re asking for. Being part of the sneaker community helps a lot.
Sean: What advice would you give to someone looking to start a sneaker or streetwear store?
Drew: Focus on building relationships and community first. Don’t just sell products, create an experience. Know your market, stay authentic, and be ready to adapt. It’s a competitive space, but passion and knowledge go a long way.
Sean: That’s great advice. Where do you see Deadstock OC in the next five years?
Drew: I want to expand into more locations along the East Coast and grow our online presence significantly. We’re also looking into collaborations with brands and hosting bigger community events. The goal is to become a staple in sneaker culture beyond just our local area.
Sean: Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing your story and insights, Drew.
Drew: Thank you, Sean. I appreciate the opportunity.
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