Jannis Thein dares to take the step and opens his own shop in Würzburg as a young entrepreneur in March. He previously worked for the Nuremberg luxury retailer Emerson Renaldi, most recently as Senior Operations Manager. Now he is swapping employment for self-employment.
Under the name ‘Neverlnd’, he opened an approximately 80 square meter retail space at Marktplatz 10 in his home country. He received support from his family environment, who helped him with start-up capital, but also actively helped, Thein explains in an interview with FashionUnited. His partner is initially responsible for marketing and social media and, together with her sister, also helps with the opening. External employees will be hired later. The plan is to have one full-time employee and up to two working students to help out.
Your own store in eight months
He only took the first steps towards owning his own store almost eight months ago, when Thein developed the business plan and started looking for investors. Instead of high interest rates from the banks and investors who want to have a say, he then received two private loans from his “close relatives”. A month later he contacted the first brands and received the first commitments from better-known labels like “relatively early”. Marni.
He then used the Italian luxury brand and others as a basis to expand his portfolio with other brands from the upscale streetwear sector such as Misbhv and Daily Paper, but also high-priced brands such as Fiorucci, Kenzo and JW Anderson. To achieve this, he tried to make as many new contacts as possible in the current order round. Thein was in Düsseldorf, Munich and Paris during men’s fashion week in January.
Stay young like Peter Pan
There are also a few smaller brands such as Perplex from Frankfurt, Reternity from Oldenburg and LC23 from Italy. The retailer is placing a strong focus on menswear with 70 percent in the first season, which can of course also be used by people who do not read as male.
When making his selection, Thein tries to mix personal favorites that may not appeal to the general public, but still have something for everyone, explains the young shop owner. In addition to clothing, other product groups such as home and living as well as accessories will also be offered. For the latter, Thein again receives support from his family. This time from his father, who is a self-employed jeweler and also enables him to offer his own ‘Neverlnd’ products. The range is rounded off by books from the publisher Assouline, which once again builds a bridge to the retailer’s fashion range with works such as series on the French fashion houses Dior and Louis Vuitton.
The range was put together by the 24-year-old to appeal to a target group between the ages of 16 and 35. His customers want to “always stay young,” which also goes hand in hand with the store name ‘Neverlnd’ – based on the fictional homeland of Peter Pan, who doesn’t want to grow up. They should not only have a store in a city that, according to Thein, has no comparable retailers, but also a location to network and take part in “cool events”, which the student city also lacks. It should start right at the opening on March 2nd with DJs, a small capsule and other activities. Similar concepts and pop-ups with brands will be based on this later.
The store itself has less to do with Peter Pan’s enchanted dream island and focuses more on the essentials. The interior is clean, with brushed stainless steel and just a few color accents in beige, green and gray. An eye-catcher is the storefront itself, which is impressive not because of its size, but because of its visualization. The two display cases that make up the outside view will be fitted with LED panels and will play video installations that will arouse the curiosity of customers.
Nevertheless, at a time when the fashion trade is not doing so well in many places, such a new opening remains as exciting as a duel between Pan and his opponent Captain Hook. Thiel remains calm and sees the start of this new adventure as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
“I see the opportunity to start at a time when many people are doing poorly and to act countercyclically. “If everyone is on a high anyway, you’ll be swept away by the big guys more quickly,” explains Thein, explaining his move towards self-employment. “But if they are also in trouble, there is an opportunity for a fresh concept. This situation forms the basis for the start and is also taken into account by me in topics such as order and budget planning.”
