You sell sunglasses inside a shipping container. What was building the store like?
It was hell. Imagine sweating inside a metal box filled with sawdust in a shadeless parking lot during a heat wave.
What does YakBlak mean?
People call my partner Yak, and I’ve always gone by Amn Blak, so it’s a mash-up.
And your tagline: “Fix your face”?
I’m of Lebanese and Jamaican descent, and it’s one of those old sayings. When you have an attitude and a twisted-up facial expression, they’ll say, “Fix your face!”
Where do you get your inventory?
Our first 6,000 were $1 apiece from a merchant in Harlem. They were all misaligned and scuffed up with junky hardware, and we restored them. Most are from Italy and France, from the sixties through the eighties.
What’s the trick to selling a pair of glasses?
A lot of people think they look bad in sunglasses. You just have to get them to play dress-up a bit.
See Also:
A Complete Guide to Dekalb Market