He puts on newly sourced vintage items and takes a photo to post to Instagram Story every morning, unless he is out for fun. About ten items posted every morning are marked “Sold” in hours, or even in minutes sometimes, and reposted to Instagram Story again. On a sunny day, he posts photos of himself riding on a bike with a heads-up that he’s away from the store. The vintage clothes he wears in the photo are quickly sold out too.
Most of his vintage clothes are sold online without ever being available to see in person. So, he made it crystal clear you need to make an appointment before visiting as he doesn’t really stick around the store.
I wondered a lot about this guy, founder and CEO of Bedford Brooklyn, with tattoos all over his body, low hanging denim shorts, key rings loosely hanging around his waist, a hat nonchalantly on his head, hip moustache and dark sunglasses.
I really wanted to get to know the CEO of this vintage clothing store who obviously has his own unique fashion. So, I direct messaged him to set up an appointment. He looks like a tough guy but melted my heart with his kind messages. Let’s go to Bedford Brooklyn in Itaewon, Seoul.
I met with Sinho Kim, founder and CEO of Bedford Brooklyn. He spoke very straightforwardly, but politely.
Bedford Brooklyn is a three-year-old vintage clothing shop, a relatively short history compared to other vintage clothing stores. He went to the States where his sister lives and stayed for five years in Brooklyn, New York. What he saw and experienced back then was helpful in starting his business. After he came back to Korea, he worked as a PE teacher at an international school for six years during which he learned of purchase routes for vintage clothes from his friends and opened Bedford Brooklyn in Itaewon.
He did all interior decorations by himself with less than $1,000. And one of his close friends set up the glass door for free. It is monetary and talent contributions from nice people around Sinho that gave birth to Bedford Brooklyn. Even each of the paintings on the walls was all gifted. Sinho’s words that he cannot but be grateful for everything touched my heart.
Sinho doesn’t want anything to hold him back in his life. So, he always wanted to do something for a living that allows him full control over his time. He loves what he’s doing now as he can buy and sell vintage clothes at his convenience and whatever way he wants. It is fun. That’s what kept him in the business at the beginning. Bedford Brooklyn didn’t make money at all in its early days.
Genuine, non-commercial relationships between Sinho and Bedford Brooklyn customers are literally like brothers and friends. Sinho and these likeminded people just hang out together, talking about clothes, and sharing worries and recent updates in their life, during which some folks offhandedly snap up Bedford’s vintages.
It’s these relationships and people that enabled Bedford Brooklyn to come this far. Actually, many items were being sold via Instagram while I was speaking with Sinho. Customers just go with the clothes recommended by the bro they fully trust, Sinho Kim, without asking for details or negotiating prices.
What kinds of vintage clothes can be found at Bedford Brooklyn? The answer is, long story short, clothes that look great on Sinho Kim. Bedford Brooklyn is filled with items representative of Sinho’s styles based on street moods that have a roomy and comfy silhouette. How did such a style start?
“It originates from New York. I worked as a messenger man handing out sample products and naturally had tons of opportunities to look at people on the streets. To me, garbage men picking up trash bags looked way cooler than those fashionable folks walking on the 5th avenue.
Why so? Cause they don’t give a shit about what other people think about them. They passionately took care of the business in baggy Levi’s jeans that seemed to have been manufactured in the 90s, a thermal hoodie, a high visibility vest and a beanie that was put on so casually. That’s the real street fashion. I just fell in love with it at a first glance.”
While listening to his story, I thought Sinho did excellent branding, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that cohesively connects his philosophies on fashion, the name of his vintage shop and the vintage clothes sold at Bedford Brooklyn all together.
“I like people with their own styles. So, ‘Color yourself’ is my motto, as well as Bedford Brooklyn’s. People with crystal clear colors for themselves are so cool. OK, here’s an example. There are a number of chefs better than Jong-won Baek in Korea. But people are crazy about him, not these better chefs. Why? It’s because of his unique colors.
People with strong colors know themselves pretty well, what they like and who they are. Coming back to us, what does it mean? It means that you and I know how to style ourselves. I have no intention at all to make everyone happy.
I just want to preselect vintage clothes based on my experience and styles for those who like the Bedford styles to shop easily without wasting time. Come on, we don’t even have enough time to hang out talking about something fun together.”
Deep into the conversation with Sinho, I suddenly wanted to know more about Bedford Brooklyn customers who are indeed like brothers to Sinho. Obviously, Sinho’s style is the main factor that keeps attracting them to the store. But what kinds of vintage clothes do they actually prefer?
“What our customers prefer could be boiled down to ‘size matters’. The most popular size at our store is X-Large in US size, or around 110–115 in Korean sizes.”
Bedford Brooklyn is actually frequented by big guys. Bedford Brooklyn is a place that helps you wear big-sized vintage clothes stylishly and has many cool larger-sized vintage clothes. Also, those who like street moods enjoy oversized clothes even if they are not that big themselves. So, most clothes at Bedford Brooklyn are large with colorful graphics and loud embroidery designs. Growth for Bedford Brooklyn has been driven by word of mouth.
Bedford Brooklyn has phenomenal customer relationships as most of its customers have homogeneous tastes in fashion. Another reason is Sinho, who looks like a rough person but is actually so sweet. He offers discounts proactively for those who have mutual trust with him.
What is the bestselling item at Bedford Brooklyn? He said it’s probably ‘Sun Denim’. “Sun Denim? What is that?” I thought to myself. But what he meant was denim shorts converted from denim jeans which he cuts off around the thigh area with a knife or scissors. Sun means ‘cut off’ in Korean.
“I bought 45 pairs of vintage jeans one day and posted their photos online. Direct messages flooded in and 35 of them (converted to Sun Denims) were sold on the same day. I was expected to procure more like them the next day but didn’t. I just didn’t want to be another vintage clothing seller.”
He suddenly picked scissors and cut jeans off during an interview without hesitation. He seemed to just cut corners, but they actually look great. Wouldn’t they look even greater on me?
There is one more thing special to Bedford Brooklyn. In general, returns or exchanges are not accepted at vintage clothing stores as it cannot be told how much vintage clothes are worn by purchasers. But return or exchange requests are all welcome here at Bedford Brooklyn.
One exception—the store doesn’t accept return/exchange requests due to stains or distressed fabrics as Sinho believes they show a lack of understanding of vintage clothes. Besides that, returns or exchanges are available unconditionally. Even if you simply think the items you got don’t look as cool as you initially thought on you or you changed your mind later. It is whether customers are satisfied with their purchases from Bedford Brooklyn, not some boring policies, that matters to Sinho.
Interestingly, Bedford Brooklyn don’t take hold requests for their clothes. Sinho just ships clothes first before receiving payments. He just waits for the customers to pay for the clothes or gives them a few weeks to make payments.
Such occasions usually happen to those in their early 20s. Sinho was in their shoes and so knows well how it feels like to wait for a paycheck for buying clothes. Mutual trust developed through such experiences lead to additional purchases down the road. It is more important to have an eye for people than for money or vintage clothes. That’s one of Sinho’s strong beliefs. I finally got to understand how Instagram sales accounted for 95% of total sales of Bedford Brooklyn.
Bedford Brooklyn and Soobaak Vintage, introduced earlier, initiated an irregular market called ‘Vintage is the future’ along with other vintage stores. Sinho wanted to make a small, but interesting flea market where vintage clothes, furniture and books can be shopped one stop.
So, he keeps on running the projects in Seoul and Busan in cooperation with CEOs of other vintage stores who share the same vision with him. Sinho plans to continue doing the market as far as vintage shops that organize the market together have fun with it. He thinks that’s more than a good enough reason for running the market.
“I didn’t and still don’t study vintage clothes that much. I’m afraid that I would buy only those items that are valuable, popular and likely to be sold well if I have too much knowledge in vintage clothing. I just buy whatever looks good to me and check fabrics and sizes only. Vintage clothes with good fabrics last long and size is one of the most important considerations for our customers.”
Sinho wants to keep doing his job steady and slow while having a lot of fun with it. Spending almost five days a week on sourcing vintage clothes, he is so happy to be able to shop vintage clothes he loves even if they will eventually become someone else’s.
It’s important to live such a fun life you love like Sinho. The happiness he experiences every day might just flow to his customers along with vintage clothes.
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