The Now of Springy Jeans
Written and photos by Hal Lueking
A local vintage clothing start-up collaboratively founded by Elijah Baig and Sam Fuson (@elijahbaig_ & @sam.fuson on Instagram), Springy Jeans has catapulted its way toward success. Specializing in curated vintage pieces, Springy drops new collections every weekend, with said drops happening digitally as well as in their retail space. Since last interviewing with the brand about two years ago, Springy Jeans as a brand has made its way into the hearts of those who love refined vintage pieces. Elijah and Sam, the co-founders have since moved to Los Angeles, now primarily doing pop-up shops around the iconic city, putting pieces up for sale on their website, as well as managing their flagship store, Springy on Walnut, here in downtown Springfield. Wanting to do an update to document their recent success, I reached out to Sam to ask a few questions.
How has Springy Jeans as a brand grown since the Fall of 2019?
“Since the fall of 2019, we have grown exponentially. We have brought on eleven more employees, opened our first store in Springfield, grew our online presence by nearly three times, moved our team and online business to Los Angeles, and continued to scale our online drops every weekend.” Fuson said.
Your retail space has been open for over a year now, so how has that helped push the vision of the brand further, and what sort of things have you adapted/changed since being open to the public?“We put our heart and souls into our Springfield location (Springy on Walnut) and we are super proud of how it turned out. We worked with local architects (Arkifex) to help us with the design and execution of it, and they really helped us bring our vision for the store to life. It gave the customers more of an insight into our taste in interior design, architecture, as well as a psychical representation of our brand. We chose to use whole, real materials in the store such as the ash wood walls, concrete floors, and the clothing rails being made of unfinished metal. All these things are going to patina over time, and this is parallel to the clothing we sell and how we embrace the aging of the pieces. Everything will just continue to get better over time,” said Sam.
With designated new clothing drops, how have you curated clothing differently from how you may have done it in the past?
“The past year or two we have really put our curation efforts into earth tones and mixing vintage pieces with things you can wear every day. We have really shifted into a “cozy” aesthetic with our styling, and enjoy working with silhouettes and reworking pieces to have the kind of fit we would also want to wear. Whether that's cropping things, hemming them to a different inseam, or dying them a different color entirely. We’ve also really leaned into doing styling outfit pictures that help to show how we would wear our pieces and give inspiration as well,” Fuson said.
Along with curating vintage clothing, how has the experience of selling local artisans’ work in your store been? What are some of your favorite pieces that you’ve been able to sell?“Since opening the store, we have really loved being able to showcase the work and designs of local creatives alongside our clothing! Carrying additional pieces such as jewelry and candles that are either sourced locally or by other small businesses has been really fun, and we really look forward to being able to continue to add to this as time goes on. Some of my favorite pieces to carry in the store have been jewelry from Erin Tyler and Kadie Foo- more specifically Erin’s freshwater pearl rings/Kadie’s silver and ribbon necklaces, as well as SGFCO’s Pineapple Whip candles. Springfield has so many talented creatives, and we love being able to showcase them in our store,” said Sam.
Since our last interview with Springy Jeans, the goals you set out to achieve have been reached, so what are your new long-term goals for the brand?
“Our new long-term goals would probably be to continue to grow our weekly vintage drops online, opening more retail locations, and launching our own clothing designs,” said Sam.
What is one of your most memorable moments in the last couple of years relating to Springy?
“Some of our most memorable moments in these last few years for Springy would probably be all of our pop-up shops, opening our first store, all of the buying trips we’ve been able to go on since getting our Springy van, all of the great people we’ve been able to meet because of Springy (customers, other business owners, new friends), moving our online operations to Los Angeles and the whole team moving in together to make it happen, and honestly just getting to work and spend every day with our best friends. We feel so lucky to be doing something we love, and are so thankful for everyone who has supported us over the years,” Sam said.
Overall, Springy Jeans and its founders have seen resounding success. With a beautiful retail space, stellar curation of vintage clothes, and extremely friendly staff, a stop at Springy on Walnut will have you walking out with some staple pieces for your wardrobe. Being an extremely successful brand so far, I cannot wait to see how they grow further and to find more curated vintage clothing to add to my wardrobe.