Covington is a burgeoning incubator for entrepreneurs within Northern Kentucky.
Nick Wade, executive director of Renaissance Covington, has wanted to provide more pathways for entrepreneurship within the city. Wade thought a great way to provide prospective shop owners with storefront property.
In 2016, Renaissance Covington hosted the “Make Covington Pop!” The program allowed local entrepreneurs to sell their products at 31-33 Pike Street in their Passionate Arts space. The goal of the program was to promote local entrepreneurship, but to also help revitalize Covington’s urban core.
The success of “Make Covington Pop!” led to the creation of the Pike St. Pop Up, a quarterly rotating retail space that welcomes small businesses.
“The Pike St. Pop-Up is the former office of Renaissance Covington,” Wade said. “As we watched the area around the office change into a vibrant part of the City we felt it was time to part ways with our beloved office and return the space into a place that supported the vibrancy along Pike St. The pop-up shop was a nice way for Renaissance Covington to support entrepreneurs, while building upon the success of the organization previous Make Covington Pop! program which activated vacant storefronts with retail for the holiday season.”
Wade said Covington was an ideal location for a pop-up shop because the city actively promotes their small business sector. He believes Covington’s focus on economic authenticity sets it apart from other cities in the area. While Wade believed Covington was primed for an urban retail experiment like a pop-up shop, he was still unsure of the shop’s long term viability. After all, this was something Covington had never really seen before.
“We weren’t sure if the pop-up would be successful or not. Things started slow, but they have definitely picked up over the last few months,” Wade said. “Right now, one of the biggest challenges is that the pop-up rents for almost market rate. We would love to find a partner that would help us subsidize part of the rent to make the program more accessible to early stage businesses, artists, or underserved entrepreneurs that may not have the capital for market rate prices.”
The pop-up shop model is perfect for young entrepreneurs like Kayla Braden and Caden Adams, both seniors at Northern Kentucky University, who own Peachy and Vintage, a multiplatform thrift and vintage clothing store where they sell menswear, womenswear, and unisex clothing. Peachy and Vintage are the current tenants of the Pike St. Pop Up. Their lease expires in June.
Peachy and Vintage operate primarily off Depop, where they are a verified top seller. They can also be found on popular e-commerce apps such as Mercari, Curtsy, and Etsy. What started as a hobby for photographing clothes around their apartment has turned into a thriving small business that promotes sustainable clothing practices.
“We did a lot of thrifting together and we found the coolest items that weren’t in our size but we couldn’t leave behind,” Braden said. “Peachy and Vintage started as a hobby, photographing clothing around the apartment that needed a new home and listing it on Depop. After receiving interest and sales picking up we realized that people liked our style and there was a demand for our clothing. We started putting aside time and making weekly schedules for taking photos and thrifting.”
For Braden and Adams, the Pike St. Pop Up provided them with a convenient location to prove their business in a brick and mortar retail space. Braden and Adams have lived in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area for the past four years while they attended NKU.
They had built up brand equity and familiarity with their local consumer base. Due to the trust they built between themselves and their customers, it gave Braden and Adams enough moxie to take a leap of faith and move beyond the digital realm. A successful stint in a brick and mortar store could provide them with intrapersonal experiences between themselves and customers that an e-commerce app can’t necessarily provide.
The young entrepreneurs were introduced to the leadership of Renaissance Covington through NKU Entrepreneurship professors Zac Strobl and Jeffrey Varrone. The Pike St. Pop Up was not only affordable, but provided them with adequate space. The space came pre-furnished so Braden and Adams wouldn’t have to spend capital on furnishing their store.
“The Covington Pike Street area is great for attracting new customers. There are a lot of other shops as well as restaurants and bars in the area,” Adams said. “We have already attracted new customers that live in the area and shop there frequently. We have received great feedback from customers that appreciate having a vintage shop in the area.”
Braden and Adams had successful stints in shorter term pop-up shops before. The Pike St. Pop Up would allow them to test their businesses sustainability and community impact in a longer timeframe.
“We think that pop-ups are such a great resource for the beginning stages of business. Since our shop was started online we have learned the ins and outs of selling clothing online. We have done one to two day pop-ups at City Flea, Off-Market, and a few others,” Braden said. “The Pike St. Pop Up Shop gives us the opportunity to test our online business in a brick-and-mortar location and get to know local customers in the Covington and Cincinnati area.
Braden and Adams’ leap of faith paid off. Their stint at the Pike St. Pop Up has been a successful one. Their business has a large, growing inventory. Braden and Adams are actively searching for a permanent space after their stint at the Pike St. Pop Up. Their current lease ends in June.
“We have already had multiple customers asking if we will get a permanent location after the Pop-Up which is really great feedback,” Adams said. “Pop-ups are a low-risk way to see how your business runs in a temporary location.”
Wade is well-aware of the impact the Pike St. Pop Up has on early-stage entrepreneurs. The pop-up can provide entrepreneurs with perspective. Maybe their business is successful from a revenue standpoint, but they learn Covington might not be the right community for them to operate. The Pike St. Pop Up can help the business owners learn these valuable lessons, without costing them tens of thousands of dollars.
“The pop-up allows entrepreneurs in the early stages of their business or in a place where they are looking for permanency to test out their concept in a low-risk environment,” Wade said. “Because Renaissance Covington holds the lease on the space, the entrepreneurs do not have to sign a multi-year agreement for a business that may not work.”
Pop-up shops are typically urban retail experiments tested in larger cities such as New York, Chicago, Nashville and Los Angeles. Covington’s historic architecture, pro-small business city leadership, and revitalized urban core make it the perfect starting ground for young entrepreneurs to cut their teeth. Pop-up shops like the one on Pike Street are another example of Covingtonians using creativity to promote economic development in their home city.
