Pitstop Vintage

BRIEF

In September 2022 I founded the brand Pitstop Vintage with a partner. Our goal was to curate vintage clothing that fit along with our brand identity. In the pursuit of reselling vintage clothing, my friends and I regularly would go to thrifts all around our area hoping to catch some rare pieces. Around this time, I gained an appreciation for retro eras, I was heavily into different decades of movies, graphics, and clothing designs. I recall being eager to take everything I had seen and create original Pitstop clothing. While only one original collection of clothes hit the stores, we sold over 100+ hoodies and shirts of original merchandise and over 200+ items of vintage clothing.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

Natural Tones. Concise designs. In the design process of branding, clothing, and marketing it was crucial to stick with earthy tones and get rid of clutter as much as possible. I always imagined Pitstop to feel like a home in California, somewhere between the valleys and the water, the sunsets are unreal and the roads are all vintage Mercedes and convertibles. With that image in mind, I settled on a natural brand palette.

MARKETING

The local community around me was always at the forefront of my mind in regards to Pitstop. That said, it was most crucial to be active in the area with whatever events or opportunities came up. Even in social media, the decision to involve our immediate community was deliberate, everyone we had modeled in our clothing was our friends. Continuing on the topic of social media, this was a huge space for Pitstop, and arguably my favorite part of the process.

As seen in these images, Pitstop delivered on a cinematic appeal, in product photos, videography, and general photography. These pictures and videos were all edited by me. In retrospect, I realize it was this introduction to high-definition content that made me never look back, now the majority of the content I produce is recorded on a camera.

IMPACT

This experience bootstrapped necessary business knowledge for me. From creating and manufacturing products to building a website, to selling in person, I was fed with numerous situations I will inevitably face again. Some more behind-the-scenes pictures are down below.