Sean Wotherspoon Talks Round Two, Resell Culture & Going Print.

Tate: “What’s going on everybody my name is Tate Canyon and I am here with Round Two Magazine, today we are here to do the issue 1 interview with Sean Wotherspoon. What is going on man?”

Sean: “Yo.”

Tate: So we are excited to talk about the lore of the brand and the future of the brand, along with what we are doing here. So to start off, how did Round Two start? What were your early interests in starting the brand?”

Sean: “Me, Chris, and Luke were you know thrifter, vintage, reseller type. Just going to, not even just vintage clothes, but you know always reselling our sneakers or trying to buy shoes off friends, trade with friends. It wasn’t really resale culture back then it was just like sneakerheads..”

Tate: “Yeah that being said how would you buy/sell stuff back then?”

Sean: “I mean this was like 15 years ago, Facebook groups, Instagram had started in 2012 and I had started using it to sell stuff. Or I would bike around, I would sell like $5 polos around Richmond at barbershops. I would do, me and Chris would do, like little events and stuff like sneaker shows. So yeah you know, just random, sold wherever you could.”

Tate: “Now there is a big huge vintage boom right now, there are a few different eras of t-shirts that have been around for a while. But before actually starting that show, what was that first hit where you guys were like “Oh yeah vintage is its own market?”

Sean: “Uh, just second hand was its own market. People wanted really nice stuff for a fraction of the price. You have the same Ralph Lauren shirt that is on the rack at the Ralph Lauren store, but it is 1/10th of the retail price because it has been worn a few times, it is guaranteed business man.”

Tate: “A lot of the stuff with Round Two that people have come to love early on and later on was the curation status. You guys had some of the best curation in Hollywood and Chicago, Miami, New York. Everyone crowned Round Two off of the style. With that being said, “How were you able to curate such a dope selection of stuff consistently compared to other people?”

Sean: “People brought in really good stuff for us to buy but also I think like we just had good taste. We still have good taste, but it's just all mixed together now. But I think we had just good taste and we were buying based on that taste, putting it in the store or on Instagram for people to see.”

Tate: “So within the store, what were some of the first steps that you remember of actually getting the store? And any advice to someone out there who may want to start their own vintage store?”

Sean: “Yeah, I don’t know.. If you want to start your own store I would get a business degree and I would learn as much about business and taxes and finance as possible!”

Tate: “Did you do that?”

Sean: “No, absolutely not.”

Tate: “So why would you give that advice to somebody else?”

Sean: “Because if you want to have something successful you have to know how to run it. Just because you know how to sell t-shirts doesn’t mean you are a business professional..or finance professional.. I think that is my best advice because then it lets your creativity last longer.”

Tate: “What about maybe for someone in your shoes who may not have the money to go to college or get that business degree? What are some best steps you could give to that person?”

Sean: “Just start reading. It is all free. It is all free knowledge, it is everywhere. We are just never told we should read up on how to create tax breaks for your business or you know what I mean? It’s just like all kinds of stuff that we are not super keen on. I think we should just read more, spend more time reading about things because you can Google right now a tax course, and take a tax course through reading it so yeah people should read more. I think if we read more as a whole as people we would know a lot more.”

Tate: “Totally agree. Something super early on with the brand that was super big was the Youtube channel, just you guys capitalizing off of the daily life of a vintage store. So while creating the Round Two show, what do you think were some key elements in getting that off of the ground?”

Sean: “The Round Two show I mean it was like you know not scripted, it was filmed very well. You know Graham, my friend who filmed it. He just knew us really well and stuff like that and so he just knew what moments to catch, when to catch them. Our whole thing was documenting what was going on everyday. I’m not all hip to this shit so maybe I am just talking shit and I’m wrong but tell me if I am right.. When we started the Youtube show in 2014 or whatever it was, was Mr. Beast around? Like Mr. Beast and these big Youtube dudes, was that a thing?”

Tate: “Not particularly in the sense of when Round Two was a real show.”Sean: “Because like we didn’t know.. We weren’t like, “Oh yeah we are going to get subscribers and become the next Mr. Beast. Youtube, the subscribers meant nothing and we used music that we didn’t have the rights to, monetization wasn’t really on our plate, we were just like whatever. It was a way to advertise and like if you want to make your own show you can post it on Youtube and they aren’t going to charge you for it. And so that was never the end goal. It wasn't like how can we blow up or edit it the right way, it was more us just showing everyday for fun.”

Tate: “Totally. And it gained a whole new audience would you say from uploading and introducing the people in Miami, New York, Los Angeles..”

Sean: “Yeah I think people wanted to be on the show. Right? So then people would just come into the stores thinking that they would be like on the show and maybe their friends are watching it. So it was a cool way to the start of Round Two.”

Tate: “So moving forward with Round Two, the pandemic comes around and you guys start shutting down the store. Could you give some context as to what happened in 2020/2021 with the brand?”

Sean: “I think if we are going to talk about the Round Two Magazine, I think the beauty of the magazine is that it is not Round Two.. Finally we can talk about something that is other than ourselves. We are talking about you, we are talking about your brand, your favorite sneakers, whoevers favorite fucking designer now, my favorite restaurants when I go eat vegan food, whether you care or not.. My favorite places to shop.. You know it is a magazine that is about all these other things, our favorite brands, what our friends are doing, what the community is doing. This is Round Two’s way of saying you know “thank you for everything now let us talk about you”, you know? Thanks for the last 10 years, 15 years, whatever it is and like now Round Two is going to make itself a platform that maybe we can write about the next upcoming resale store or we can tell someones fucking come up story who is doing something like what we did back then and be the platform that we didn’t have. And so really Round Two Magazine is our final form of giving back. You know we have been a resale store, we have been a boutique,  we’ve been a brand you know we have done all this stuff and we went through it all and we learned about it. The greatest thing that we can give to anyone is like yeah just a collection of Round Two shit is cool but a magazine is great because it is sustainable for us to keep around we can still inject our brand and our heritage and personality into it but the best thing is we can talk about everyone else and what they are doing. Just filling a place that wasn’t really filled for us.. Anytime a magazine would come to us and write about us we were so hyped, but that doesn’t really happen anymore. A lot of platforms started going digital. You know, like who is really writing paperbacks anymore? So this is like our give back.”

Tate: “Yeah and I feel like give back back then in 2013-2017 ish was on the Youtube show. Where you guys were giving back to people while giving them a peek into Los Angeles.”

Sean: “Yeah I mean we were taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss every single year just to put that show out and never monetize a dollar of it so yeah it truly was a give back. Pretty similar.”

Tate: “Similar yeah, putting the spotlight on other people so we could then have them give their sauce and give it to people in the same way but with a magazine.”

Sean: “Yeah, the next version of the show is the magazine. This one we want to put in your hands and we kind of want to bring it back to more like analog time. You know? Because it feels like people are moving in that direction anyways. Trying you know tape decks, vinyls, etc so you know we are doing a zine.”

Tate: “Could you explain to the audience what is up with the covers?”

Sean: “Yeah I mean look Tate is really the genius behind the cover and stuff like that. It is all vintage t-shirts, he is hand screening them and hand printing them. Also you know this has been a big thing for Round Two and the brand and the store itself is not like letting go but also for me just letting it live through someone else’s perspective, you know what I mean? I have spent the last 10-15 years with Chris and Luke trying to constantly battle to show Round Two through all of our different visions and so it is nice to see someone like Tate come along and give a fresh view on what Round Two could be, what it can be, and how we can still use some of what we do to be a part of this new thing. Vintage tees as the covers is cool and I think people really fuck with it. And you know with coming issues it is going to be cool! We are going to keep involving our world. I like doing my little food review sections and so yeah I mean it is going to be super fun.”

Tate: “And just to talk about our worlds and linking things together, Japan and Tokyo?”

Sean: “Round Two is growing in its new form. We still have our Chicago location which is our flagship. It is beautiful. Chris and Dom have put everything into it and it shows. Round Two has our vintage store on Melrose still, were still the brand and yeah I spend a lot of my time in Tokyo.  Working out there doing collaborations and whatever we can do to keep the life cycle of Round Two going.”

Tate: “Is there anything for the future we can talk about?”

Sean: “I have no idea.. It is not coming out right now.. They can Google it all.”

Tate: “Okay so if you want to keep up with what Sean may have going on in the future you will have to keep up with him and make sure to Google him. Anyways, I am Tate Canyon with Round Two magazine and this was the issue one interview with Sean Wotherspoon. Anything else you want to add Sean?”

Sean: “No, I am really hyped about the magazine. I am excited. I think the first issue 000 I talked about food reviews in Atlanta that I like and we are going to keep switching it up.”

Tate: “Hell yeah.”

Sean: “Appreciate you sir. “

Tate: “Yeah appreciate you too gang.”