Need Supply Co.’s Chris Bossola and Gabriel Ricioppo have succeeded in the tough world of fashion retailing by keeping it personal.
Chris Bossola and Gabriel Ricioppo.
In the fall of 2015, when Richmond-based clothing retailer Need Supply Co. opened its second and third brick-and-mortar stores, both in Japan—in Tokyo’s Shibuya district and further south in Kumamoto—the decision to do so wasn’t based on market research or a five-year plan. Rather, it was the Japanese distributors of the brand’s bi-annual lifestyle magazine the Human Being Journal (who are also in the retail business)—who suggested to the duo behind Need, Chris Bossola and Gabriel Ricioppo, that they set up shop in the Land of the Rising Sun. “They approached us and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to work with you all and do some stores in Japan,’” says Bossola, co-owner and founder. “It just evolved from a relationship with people we liked to work with. They liked us and we liked them … I’d like to tell you it was part of a grand plan, but it wasn’t.”
And so far, keeping themselves open to new ideas and opportunities has paid off. In 2013, Inc. magazine named Need among the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the nation, citing the retailer’s 640 percent growth over the course of four years and $3.9 million in revenue in 2012. With the recent renovation of the brand’s Carytown flagship store, the launch of an in-house line of men’s and women’s wear, and the debut of a lifestyle department, the future of Need Supply Co. looks as bright as a pair of the white sneakers on its sales floor.
In its first incarnation, Need Supply—opened in a small Richmond storefront in 1996 by Bossola as Blues Clothing—was part passion project and part answer to the simple call of supply and demand. The idea for Blues, which specialized in vintage Levi’s, sprang from a summer Bossola spent in Southern California, where the iconic denim was plentiful. “I thought it was an interesting idea that hadn’t happened here yet,” explains Bossola, who has a background in finance and moved to Richmond with his wife so she could go to law school. Then, sensing a dearth in the local market for fashion-forward clothing, he began adding brands unavailable in Richmond, expanding his offerings to include full departments for womenswear, menswear and accessories, rebranding as Need Supply Co. in 1999.
NEED Collection 01. Womenswear.
Bossola and Ricioppo got together in 2005 through Bossola’s original business partner, who was leaving the company and also happened to be Ricioppo’s best friend from childhood; he suggested the two would be a good fit. (Though they didn’t know each other then, they had both grown up in the surf culture of Virginia Beach.)
Ricioppo had recently moved to Richmond after a seven-year stint in Georgia where he had earned a degree in graphic design at the Art Institute of Atlanta and worked for various studios (he also started a t-shirt line). He and Bossola hit it off, and Ricioppo joined Need as art director. Ricioppo initially came on board to give the website a much-needed makeover, but quickly began establishing himself as a vital component to the brand’s future. “You take ownership of something and take pride in your work, and you consistently over deliver. Chris started to understand what he could expect from me …. he knew I could deliver. When you have people like that,” says Ricioppo, “you start giving them everything you can.” (He became partner and co-owner in 2008.)
Ricioppo says he quickly realized that “the website really needed to tell a bigger story about the brand.” He began by creating a full screen video featuring employees, which was “very progressive at the time,” says Ricioppo. This was one of the first steps in establishing the brand’s culture: a community of impossibly cool but approachable creative types who invite customers into their world of tasteful, carefully curated clothing and wares. Says Ricioppo: “At that time, in my mind, the DNA in a small store like that is going to be the culture.”
Establishing ecommerce was their next goal, which they both say they had to learn by doing. In 2008, they succeeded, and since then the brand has dug out a comfortable—and global—niche in the world of affordable minimalist fashion. “At that time it was good for us, because it was a way for us to expand,” says Bossola. “It became more difficult for us to offer things to the Richmond market that weren’t available. Suddenly we had this global marketplace.”
The move allowed the brand to add makers and styles that might not have flourished without a much larger customer base. Today, the website carries hundreds of brands. The lines are clean, the colors are neutral, and the labels, such as Cheap Monday and Comme des Garçons Play, are “accessible, not so expensive that no one can buy” them, says Bossola. Adds Ricioppo: “Our goal is to be sophisticated but approachable. A lot of our customers are our friends, we figure anyone in our circle is a friend of ours.”
The Human Being Journal, first printed in spring 2011, is a perfect example of the company’s socially-focused approach to branding and marketing, which feels more like an invitation to an exclusive club than a traditional sales pitch. “It was another opportunity to connect with our customer, tell them what we’re excited about, in a format that they could hold on to,” says Ricciopo.
Content in the Human Being Journal includes personal essays by members of the team and guest contributors, and interviews with creators of all types (past issues have included Tanya Cauthen of Richmond’s Belmont Butchery and the New York City-based duo behind cult handbag label Mansur Gavriel), as well as the more traditional fashion spreads one would expect from a branded publication. Editorial, layout and design are done entirely in-house.
Slated to open in November, the brand’s new 2,000-square-foot digs have been designed to seamlessly transition customers between shopping online and in store. “I don’t see them as different,” says Ricioppo with a laugh, “the language, the motivation, the intent is the same. It’s just to try to be the best. That’s always our goal.” A key part of that process has been making sure that some of the more convenient aspects of online shopping are translated into a brick-and-mortar format, specifically being able to come in and quickly see what’s new.
NEED Collection 01. Menswear.
And with the new store comes new product, including in-house line NEED. Launched last spring, the garments flow along the same clean lines as the collections the store carries, but afford the brand an opportunity to fill any holes that outside labels can’t provide. “You may see trends coming and you want to respond, but you’re left with what’s developed by other people,” says Ricioppo, who also serves as the brand’s creative director. Plus, he adds, “After a while of doing the curation side, you realize you have your own point of view and you really want to provide that for your customer.”
All of the new product is designed and produced in Los Angeles, where Ricioppo and wife Krystal Kemp, the brand’s director of women’s fashion, relocated last year to take a hands-on approach to the production. “We want to make sure the product is right, so we’re going through that process right now … it’s very different to curate than it is to design,” says Ricioppo.
There are financial benefits to having an in-house line: Along with better control of distribution, they can further differentiate the brand in an increasingly crowded contemporary clothing market. “We went through a time period where there were some bigger competitors, but not nearly as many as there are today,” explains Ricioppo. Still, much of the motive behind creating their own designs is visceral. Says Ricioppo: “I have a lot of desire to create, at the end of the day that’s what I want to do—create new things and tell a story.”
Need also debuted a Life section on its website last August. Though they’ve sold accessories for years, the expanded section moves the Need Supply aesthetic from the closet into the kitchen, the office and more. “I’ve always said the person that’s going to buy jeans from us is going to do something in those jeans,” says Ricioppo. Hard-to-find magazines and coffee table books are displayed alongside tchotchkes with a mid-century bent and 600-thread-count sheets. Down the road, Ricioppo would like to see the department grow “into something really robust, even furniture.”
Though the duo has many dreams for the future—an increased global presence, growing the editorial division and maybe even inventing “a few things along the way that aren’t there yet,” says Ricioppo—adhering to a strict 10-year plan isn’t really their style. “It’s just about being open minded and keeping our eyes open for the right opportunities and the right partnerships,” says Bossola. “And we’ll land where we may.” NeedSupply.com
This article originally appeared in our December 2016 issue.
