We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Robin Weiss. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Robin below.
Robin, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
I think about legacy all the time. Being an older single entrepreneurial mother of 8 year old twins who are super passionate about technology and are very aware of conscious consumerism, I want to build something that is constantly creatively and culturally evolving. Being a traditional old school retailer and out of the box thinker; I know I have no choice but to constantly keep up and reinvent by creating fresh authentic concepts as well as keep things in perspective so my kids I hope will want to be part of it. I strongly believe that the theory of legacy has evolved and that today is very much about community not just family genes.
Currently, I am building The Mixxe a modern legacy start-up: An innovative sustainable culture + commerce marketplace. @lovethemixxe
Robin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a mother of incredible curious twin girls. We currently live in Merida, Mexico along with my mother of 83 years in a house I designed and built from the ground up in the historic center of the capitol of The Yucatan. Our house is currently in contract and our next adventure will be on to Mexico City to consult for a jewelry startup. I am a multi-passionate consultant – Luxury Brand Strategist and Creative Retail Entrepreneur. I thrive when I am building businesses where innovation becomes tradition.
My longtime creative hustle – since 2015; I co-founded Dake’s Shoppe in Harbour Island, The Bahamas with Dake Gonzalez, owner and CFO. Dake and I met at Burning Man and the rest is history!
How I was introduced to working in retail – I was part of the shopkeepers who pioneered downtown Brooklyn – Atlantic ave – post 9/11. I was living in LA working as a stylist then moved to Brooklyn and joined the family business as a partner in what became Butter a retail phenomena. Butter was one of a kind – electric. At that time – Brooklyn was like the wild west. Butter sold Levi’s and t-shirts and as we grew, the concept organically morphed into a multi-brand sustainable fashion institution. We brought designers like ALAIA, Marni, Margiela and Sacai to Brooklyn and my ultimate DVN. Dries came to NYC for a book signing event and we received a call from PR Consulting that Dries himself is on his way. He wanted to come and see the store! He was walking over the bridge. DRIES in the flesh! It was a highlight for sure. One of many. As we stocked such memorable collections. This was pre-social media and pre-website days. Our team built a very special community through passion and true love of what we were doing. The client became a friend and then family. Still rings true today – community and conversations build genuine culture.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My first few retail stores I funded them a few different ways… or a combination of ways.
– A small loan from my mother – no interest :)
– Cash advance off of too many credit cards ($100,000 to $200,000) (thank goodness it was successful!)
– Eventually Bank loans as we built the business – which became credit from vendors as we built even more
One mistake I did make in the first store was not pay myself. ALWAYS pay yourself – even if you reinvest back into the business.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I manufactured a small line of cotton striped t-shirts called Small Trades in a 100 year old factory in Pennsylvania.
The owner of the mill also manufactured his own line but it was super basic and I saw room to redesign his basics. I learned completely by doing. Meaning, visiting and working in the factory. As well as reading and researching a lot. I was self taught and very passionate. I also made a lot of mistakes – you figure out so much by stumbling. I was always on the buying, sourcing and selling side of the industry which came naturally. Manufacturing is a beast and so hard and so costly.
It worked really well for a while. I had a great sales director and local shipping queen. The factory owner was an aging man who was in financial trouble. He thought working with other NYC designers with a lot more cash flow would be his answer to his debt. He thought it would work, it didn’t. I closed my business pretty soon after he started multi-diversifying – he didn’t really know how small the fashion industry was… The specialness lost it’s speciality… The other moneyed brands shut down as the factory had no choice but to to close. He sold it off piece by piece down to the last sewing machine.
So many lessons learned. I loved every minute of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.robinweissprojects.com/
- Instagram: @robinweissprojects @lovethemixxe @tres.casitas.merida
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-weiss-13544046/
- Other: https://substack.com/@lovethemixxe
Image Credit:
Royal Laken