Peer Portraits: Chrys Nguyen and Jonathan Elias, Lost & Found

Shopping at Lost & Found in Toronto is a uniquely personal experience. Visits to the store may include in depth chats about life, the future of fashion, why Japan is so special or construction details on a pair of Engineered Garments coveralls. It is likely that you will get the chance to speak with Chrys (buying director), Jonathan (co-founder), or Justin (co-founder) while browsing their selection of Norse, Bather, Nike, The Real McCoy’s and HNDSM. 

We visited the shop on a Sunday one time, in the final minutes before closing. We had such a positive experience with the staff that I felt compelled to email the owners to let them know about it. Everyone on the floor seemed to have such a sense of pride in being a part of the crew. It felt like everyone operated like it was their own store. Nunu and I sat down with Chrys and Jonathan on a winter afternoon in Toronto to better understand the minds that influence this culture.

The Origin Stories:

Nunu was curious about the lead up to Lost & Found and how all their paths converged. 

Chrys - I was born in Winnipeg because that’s where my parents ended up after escaping from Vietnam. We moved to Victoria, then Toronto by the time I was two and a half. We lived in Toronto until I was 5. I grew up in Mississauga and then I went to U of T (University of Toronto). I studied English Lit and French Linguistics and then I did teacher’s college. It was quite a roller coaster of two and three year stints of figuring out what I wanted to do. When I met Jonathon, I was working at Uncle Otis. I worked on the wholesale side of things at Trilux. I learned a lot there. Jonathan was paying attention to my path and kind of scooped me up. I remember vividly what he said: aside from what you know about menswear, you are a very emotionally intelligent person. To him that was the most important part and I think he was right because after ten years I can say our relationship is better than ever. We get each other and we work really well together.

Nunu - Were you always attracted to menswear?

Chrys - No, not at all. It wasn’t until I worked at Uncle Otis and saw there was this whole other world that I didn’t know about. Not to downplay womenswear, but I find menswear to be more interesting. It’s so much more precise because the forms are always more simple and structured. Womenswear can get a little more organic. A lot of menswear takes cues from military and workwear and I find that all fascinating. That’s how I got here. I’ve been here for over six years. 

Nunu - That’s a solid chunk of time.

Chrys - It is…I gave you my best years. [Everyone laughs].

Nunu - You were initially drawn to teaching? 

Chyrs - That’s my more emotional “I want to make a difference” side. Now, I truly believe that you can make a difference in anything you choose to do.

Jonathan -  We’re hippy capitalists. I was born and raised in Toronto. North York, Forest Hill and then the Annex. I went to U of T for undergrad, worked for Mercer Consulting for 2 years and then did my MBA at U of T. I didn’t like to travel far from home. When I graduated, I went to San Francisco and worked for The Gap as a merchant. Then I came home and started a website called ShopMyClothes. A place to buy/sell used clothing. Actually, we started a clothing brand during MBA school. That failed. It was just a fun little thing. The website [ShopMyClothes], I loved, but I didn’t have the knowledge.

Chrys - It was 4 years ahead of its time.

Jonathan -  We didn’t know what we were doing. We were kids. It was at a time, pre-shopify, where you had to build your own back end. What I know now, if I could apply back then, I would be a different person. I have more passion for Lost and Found though. About two years into ShopMyClothes, Justin, Zai and I started Lost & Found on Dundas in January 2011. Then we transitioned into all mens, one and a half years later. We were in a pretty small store for three years. Then we moved to Ossington in 2013. Two months after, we opened Working Title. Now we’ve been here [Lost & Found on Ossington] for six years. The store has transformed year after year. Every time it transforms, it’s like starting from scratch. You are relearning as you’ve never been in this situation before. It’s like pressing the reset button every time you grow and you’re learning all over again. But we have a crazy good team. That’s the biggest thing for us. I was told really early on, when you go to a store and you keep seeing the same people, that’s a good sign. We pride ourselves on keeping our employees. It’s like a family. Hence why we all yell at each other in this jovial way. Everyone who’s worked with us has been here for a long period of time. We get to see them grow and flourish as individuals. We try not to let them be static, we try to give them opportunities to do new things and be creative. It’s a good working environment to be in especially as a young person. If you’re able to afford that opportunity for yourself growing up, we would have jumped at it.

I reminisced over the first time I crossed paths with Jonathan in 2011 at the original Lost & Found location. “Do you remember the first time we met was through ShopMyClothes? I sold you a pair of Play Converses. They were $50 and we met at the shop. I wore them once, got caught in the rain at an MIA concert and they shrunk.”

Jonathan -  Yes! I remember that. And then we met again through Paul [Shkordoff] who had modeled for HNDSM. At the time, graphic t-shirts. You were selling at Nomad.

Comic Books and Quiksilver:

Jonathan explored his teenage work experience at a comic book store and we reflected on how this set the foundation for both his (mind blowing) art collecting and serial entrepreneurial projects. 

Nunu - Were you always into clothing?

Jonathan -  Oh ya! I thought I was going to create the next Quiksilver. That was quickly dashed. Specifically, Quiksilver and I’ll tell you why. I went to U of T and we would drive up Avenue Road and pass by this store called Lunatic Fringe. They had Quiksilver. It was 1996 and there was not much cool shit going on at the time, especially in Toronto. I would buy a t-shirt every three weeks. I had no money but whatever. I ended up working with Andrew on ShopMyClothes and told him we need to start a clothing line and be the next Quiksilver. When I was in MBA school I knew I was going to work in retail. I didn’t think of that as fashion. I thought of fashion and retail as different until I worked at the Gap and saw the connection. I had worked in retail when I was 14 at a comic book store. I ran the shop, which I still don’t understand to this day. “In Advance” in the Forest Hill Village. I thought it was normal that I was 14 and running the store. When I started working for Gap I thought it was weird that I had no experience working on a retail floor in fashion. [“He’s a natural,” says Chrys.] I think I have a genuine interest in people so it went well. I’ve always liked fashion which is from my Mom. She’s very fashionable. Fashion is my creative outlet because I was never a good painter. Fashion was my outlet in that sense and I really, really enjoy it. I have a bit of a moral dilemma because of the consumption aspect to it and the constant renewing and buying and renewing. I think what we do is a bit different than mass consumption. Talking before about being a hippie capitalist - we like to sell things but we like to sell things that are well made that you only need to buy once or twice in a lifetime. And that kind of validates what we do here as opposed to fast fashion.

AJ - For sure. Creating products with longevity is a big part of our ethos at HNDSM. 

Jonathan -  Definitely. That reminds me of the article about Forever 21. They are shutting down because, one, their rent was sky high, two, the younger generation is moving away from fast fashion. They care about the environment and don’t want to see more landfills. I find that fascinating because I think our generation will be the last generation that will consume a lot. Our parents generation was the most selfish generation of all time. That trickled down to us and then the newer generation cannot afford to behave like this. I am curious to see what happens in the next fifteen years in terms of retail and what survives, what thrives. Also, we talk about the customer service aspect of retail and it is so shit. It is so fucking bad. It’s a lost art and nobody gives a shit. It’s kind of sad.

Nunu - How did your experience at the comic book store influence you?

Jonathan -  It made me buy more comic books (laughs all around). I never took home a paycheck. My mom, my dad, everybody in the Forest Hill Village called me the mayor. I was a 14 year old kid running around. From an early age, I enjoyed that experience; meeting people, helping them out, making them happy, educating them. Comic books were my life from age 11-16. That’s all I focused on with a dabble in women, but they didn’t like me. I loved collecting. Comic books were interesting to me because it was art. All of these artists were the fucking coolest and I wanted to be them. I wanted to act like them. Working at the comic book store, I got to buy the comics for the store, which was insane because I was 14. That influenced the direction of part of my life: collecting, art, retail, etc. There was a huge subconscious aspect there. Looking back, I had such an interest in that realm, that it became my goal. I had a great interest in fashion later and then that became my goal. That was the realm that I wanted to enter into. It hasn’t really changed in the last 17 years. It has definitely influenced me.

AJ - Super cool. It’s crazy to see the parallel with your art collecting and retail business. You got into comic books for the love with no commercial aspirations. Today, it’s almost impossible to love something without some consideration of the resale aspect with art, collectibles, sneakers and fashion.

Jonathan -  But why is that?

AJ - You can’t remove the knowledge that something can appreciate so much and that there is an accessible market to sell these things now. I don’t think it can be removed from the equation.

Jonathan -  When I first started collecting toys, I did it because I was fascinated. I was super lucky. I moved to San Francisco and lived 2 blocks from Frank Kozik. I would go there once a month just to talk with him. I would get some custom pieces and he would say, “Jonathan, this is affordable art. Not many people can buy a one off piece.” For me, I’m 26, I’ve just finished my MBA, I have this amount of debt, this amount of money and I couldn’t afford a painting but I could afford a $50 toy. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. People would say I was crazy. I would say, “Oh ya? It’s worth this much now.” I didn’t give a shit how much it was worth, but that’s how I would validate my collecting. People would still say I was crazy for buying toys. I would tell them it was art, affordable art and I love art. They would say I was wasting my money. Baseball cards, comic books, toys, the resale value has never been a factor. If you love something and dedicate your life to it, the monetary value shouldn’t matter. 

AJ - If you look at pieces you’ve collected, do you feel differently about pieces based on their appreciation in value?

Jonathan -  No. There are some that are less valuable than others that I would rather keep. But I fucking love all of them. It’s so weird. It’s maybe this collecting mentality - I’m probably a hoarder. I’m definitely a hoarder in some respects. It’s some mental illness that I have. There was a time when I was making money working at Gap and I wanted to buy everything. Anytime a piece would come out, I would buy it. Anytime there were 6 different color ways I would buy all 6. I was insane. But it was that collectors mentality. I would buy what I loved. As I got older, I had less and less money as I was investing it into the store, kind of the reverse thing you want in life, but I think having no money and living lean for a long period of time made me focus on what I wanted to collect. Literally, if I had a house I would fill the entire thing with toys and let people come and see them. I want people to experience this. There were pieces that people will never get to see in person. There are 10 pieces and 9 of them, people will never exhibit or sell them. To have one that you can see is kind of a cool thing. More people need to do that. I was watching a documentary on Billionaires and Carnegie said if you die with money you die a wasteful person in some respect. That’s why there’s so much Carnegie in the world. Listen, we are lucky. We live in Toronto, we live great lives, so we should be doing things and offering opportunities for others to see and experience things that they otherwise would not be able to. That should be a major goal of anybody who has access to things that other people don’t. It’s important. Imagine you can inspire somebody? That would be the most amazing thing to do. To set them on a path of success or something positive.

Nunu - I think you’re going to have this house.

Jonathan -  I’m going to have some sort of space for people to go in and experience these things. I’ll keep one piece for retirement and the rest can go to this. I will start this at some point, with the government, that will give an opportunity to the younger generation to see these things. When I was 4 months old, my mom would take me to art galleries and just sit in-front of paintings. Why should we not allow kids to come into a space and just be amazed by toys? I would get made fun of while growing up and then my friend Tom would say “You guys are stupid, because Jonathan is actually buying things while we are spending our money on booze and food. He’s got all these things and we’ve got nothing in the morning but a hangover.”

AJ - I think your intention is unique in that you want to collect art pieces to share them and for the love.

Jonathan -  I know lots of people who buy art to invest. That’s good because the people who were there early benefited. These things are amazing to look at and we need to share these things and inspire people. I feel like we don’t do enough of that. People want to sell their things but in actuality we should be sharing them. When I set up the house for people to view the art, I’m doing this for free or for a donation. The problem is you have the cost of the space, staff, insurance. We would do it here but we don’t have the space.

The Vision: 

Jonathan -  When Chrys came on [at the old store], she was sitting in this tiny space, on a computer, at a counter and it wasn’t clear what was going on. I don’t think we would have gone as far as we have today had we started it today in that small space.

Nunu - It’s neat that you [Chrys] were part of the transition from the old store to the new and saw the roots.

Jonathan -  Chrys had been coming in for a couple of months before that. She has essentially been here from the beginning. It was the beginning given that it’s been 6.5 out of our 9 years total. I am kind of amazed that she has stayed for this long. It is a long time to stay at one job.

Chrys - That’s because I truly believe in it. I’m excited to see where we are in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years.

AJ - What is the vision?

Jonathan -  There is a lot of talk. We dream out loud a lot. The immediate goal is to grow e-commerce to where we can be more comfortable. We need a bigger space, even for storage. That’s been the goal for the last five years. When you have a store, you have a limit to what can fit in store. Online, you have access to the world. I don’t know how stores can survive without online. How can they grow? We’re launching our new website in 2 weeks and it's a big endeavor. I think our biggest challenge as a store is conveying our personality online. We’re fun and happy. Our website is good, not great. It was a placeholder for us for the last five years. Now it’s time for us to mimic our in store experience online. That’s our immediate goal. We have a lot of ideas that we don’t want to get into because there are so many. Everything we do is organic. We don’t grow beyond our means. We moved because the opportunity came up, we renovated because it came up, we adopted Morty [who is perched comfortably on Chrys’ lap] because it just came up.

Seeing The World: 

Nunu - Okay, so we can move on to some lighter questions…

Chrys - So…what’s your favorite color? [everyone laughs]

Nunu - What is the most special place you’ve been to?

Chrys - Together: Japan. It’s magical. This past summer, I did a motorcycle ride in the South West. I’ve never been in the desert. It’s so beautiful. When I came back there was an article in the NYT and they did a seismic reading of the one of the rock formations, and when they sped it up it actually sounds like a human heart.

Jonathan -  That’s why there’s a higher power up there…

Chrys - It was one of the most profound experiences I have ever had.

Jonathan -  There are too many. I’ve been really blessed with travel. For me, I love the energy of different places. The energy I’ve felt in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Tokyo are just special. When you get there, there is something that just inspires you. Also, Thailand is kind of fucked up special. In terms of relaxation, Costa Rica and Hawaii. Costa Rica is kind of like a cheap Hawaii. As I get older, I tell people to travel as much as you can. The age of cities also creates beauty. You see it in places like Amsterdam and Paris.

Chrys - You feel the presence of all these previous generations.

Nunu - If you would live elsewhere, where would you live? Practical or impractical.

Jonathan -  I would go to a beach. I’m a beach and ocean guy. I would go to Costa Rica, but I would miss the busyness of a big city. I guess for me, it would be Amsterdam.

Chrys - If I was retired, the south of France. Something quiet. A small town.

Jonathan -  The ocean heals. It’s so crazy. Internally and externally.

An exploration on family, life and death: 

We are perpetually intrigued by people’s names and the impact that this has on their lives. A chat about our names quickly evolved into an exploration of our parents, family legacy and life force. 

AJ - Did you go by “Chrys” growing up?

Chrys - No. My mom was raised Catholic and I was the only one in the family born in Canada so she wanted to give me a Western name. She didn’t want to spell it “Crystal” like the gem so she said, “Let me add an H like in Christ”. So I was Chrystal. After university, I found it hard to apply for jobs with the name Chrystal. I changed my name to Chrys on my resumes and applied for the same jobs and received responses.

AJ - That’s so crazy. Did you like your name growing up?

Chrys - I did. Part of me wants to go back to it. Part of me likes that I work in menswear and have a gender ambiguous name. In emails, I get a lot of “Sorry about that man.” Chrystal sounds like I should be from the south of Florida. 

AJ - Jonathan, did you like your name growing up?

Jonathan -  I did as long as people didn’t call me Jon. Elias is a good name. But I’m the last Elias in my family. There are no Elias males out there.

Chrys - Well there’s Morty Elias. [Referring to Jonathan’s dog and a friendly fixture at the shop].

Jonathan -  Both my sisters are married so the name is left with me, which is kind of interesting. That kind of fucks with my mind. I know that my dad would be like you better have six sons. I know that my dad would definitely want me to continue the legacy of our name. It’s whatever is meant for me. Whenever I say my name, it reminds me of my dad. I think that’s why I like my last name so much. I’m proud of that name because of my dad. It’s our history. 

AJ - Thank you for sharing that. What is one thing that you think everyone should experience in their life?

Chrys - Love. Cheesy, but true. Loving oneself and loving someone else.

Jonathan -  I feel like tragedy should be a part of someone's life. When you experience tragedy early on..there’s different degrees, but I feel like it shapes your life. We talk about these life altering moments that change the way you think or push you along. When you have them earlier on, you are infinitely ahead of those who haven’t experienced these things. 

Chrys - I know people who are older than us who have not really lost. I can see how fearful they are when they face adversity. For us, we at least have been through these hardships.

Jonathan -  I think everyone starts life at 100. Every time you experience some kind of moment, life alternating space, you get knocked down a little. You never can get back to that space of 100. It’s going to happen to everyone at different points. It slows you down and the earlier you have it, the more it makes you appreciate life. Every time you experience this through deaths, break ups, moving to a different country, job loss, starting a business, that takes a big part of your life and slows you down. To the point, where you cannot get back to that 100 place. The universe is taking some of your life force so you can do this and you can never get that back. I’ve felt it. It’s not necessarily based on age because I was younger when things happened and I could feel it. It’s actual moments. Think about it. When you are starting a business or taking care of someone who is sick, you are like this [tenses fists] all the time. When it stops, everything lets go. You rest and when you rest, you never get it back. I think it’s bananas. As I get older and I see friends deal with a true death in their family, it messes with their mind. When you are 40, it’s different than when you are 20. When you are 20 you’re like “someone passed away, that’s crazy.” When you are 40 you’re thinking, “That’s pretty close to me in age.” It just kind of changes the way you look at things. I don’t recommend that everyone follows their heart without thinking about it. But if you are going to live life, you should be happy and do something that you love. If you wake up and dread going to work everyday of your life, then that’s a fucked up life. I don’t understand how people do that. It makes me cringe at the thought of doing that. I think a lot of people do that. The time we live in, it’s designed for that.

Chrys - A lot of people hate their jobs, but you need to change how you think about your job. You need to change your mindset and make the most of it…We’re lucky.

Jonathan -  We are super lucky. I think it’s important though. We make our own luck in the sense that we work hard at what we do so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labors. But it’s part of it. The reason we work so hard is because we love what we do, then work enables us to do other things that we love. Money will never be the motivating factor for the store; money has never been it. The motivating factor for the store is being the best. Growth, not being stagnant. Money is a necessity for the other side of the equation. The love, the growth, the excitement, being good, the respect, creating something that other people love. That’s why you work.

Nunu - When you say you are at 100 what is that referring to?

Jonathan -  Your life force. You are born at 100 and then it depletes over time. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. One of my friend’s wives passed away who was my other friend’s sister. It’s been an overarching thing. I thought about it when my dad passed away. I thought about it more when she passed away. Mainly because in my mind, I’ve never been at peace with a death other than my first dog. I was preparing for it, I was taking care of him and I understood what was going to happen. With Jen, I was the eternal optimist. “She’s going to survive.” Then, when she passed away, I was affected. But I kind of was at peace with it because maybe this was her life force ending. When I saw her at the hospital, I saw her life force had left. I thought it went out into the universe as it should. I was thinking in my mind, “Well, she had given her life to kids, she had given her life to her friends, she had given her life to her family.” She had done things that she should have never done to get to that point. I thought that maybe that was it. That is what she was meant to do. As hard as that is; she had given everything to get to that point. And if you hear stories about her, that is what she was all about. She was all about everybody else. I feel like that was when her life force ended. She had given herself to everything, she had done everything she needed to do for the world. That is what I think about a lot. When you start off with your life force at the beginning, you have no idea when it is going to end but you can feel it internally. You need to be in tune with the internal part of your body and understanding how much energy you have. I, for example, am never in tune with my body. I work, I work, I work until I get sick. Just go go go. But I worry about it a lot. This is the problem with being an entrepreneur and business owner. You are constantly thinking about work. It does not turn off. It’s your other baby. You’re constantly worried about it because we are stupid and we are in a realm where we have to worry about every single day between sales, this, that, whatever. You are never turning off. People ask me if I get home and decompress and I do try. I try, but I’ll be talking to people and my mind is thinking about what I have to do tomorrow. It’s hard to turn off. I don’t know how. Getting back to it, I worry because I’m constantly worrying about it [the business]. Am I depleting my life faster than I should be? So I take care of myself like crazy. I do things that will hopefully mitigate the other things. Chrys sees me go to yoga, eat well. Whatever you put in your body is literally what you will get out of it. I need to learn to slow down and listen to my body. Don’t play basketball with a hurt back.

AJ - Just to fully grasp this, when you go through a tragedy for example, it takes a certain toll on you and your life force, but that is what gives you the perspective to understand that the life force is finite and to guide your decisions?

Jonathan -  Totally. You learn and you alter your habits. As sad as it is when you’re young, it completely alters your future. And I think for the better.

We went deeper into the impact of parents and our ability to appreciate them more now that we are adults. 

Chrys - For me, I was thirteen when I lost my mother. She was 41; a year younger than Jonathan. It forces you to think about the most important things in life. Nothing else matters. By the time I was in high school, all my friends were trying to be popular and smoke weed. For what? 

Jonathan -  Barring that, single parent. Blows my mind. I don’t know how anybody does it. I don’t know how anybody does it with two parents.

Nunu - Chrys, you must have a really special relationship with your dad. 

Chrys - I do. He was always good at being the breadwinner in our house. I get it. Coming from that refugee background, money is security and money is caring for someone. But it took my mom passing to force us to be closer. Parents are just human. Society tells us that parents are king, but they’re just guessing at life. Everyone is winging it.

Jonathan - I agree with you but they have the experience now. When you think about it, your parents are guiding you based on what happened to them. 

AJ - It’s like if you could speak to 20 year old Chrys, you would have something really worth sharing.

Jonathan -  Take it one step further. I think the greatest tragedy is not being able to hang out with your parents at the same age. Imagine hanging out with your dad and mom at 20. Just to see what they’re like. My dad was in the war in Vietnam. I would want to know what he was thinking at the time. Were you scared shitless? I’d be scared shitless. 

Chrys - My dad was experiencing the war. We had to leave [Vietnam] because my dad was a filmmaker and he was filming this thing called ‘Mothers of Vietnam’. Basically, the communists were lying about how many soldiers were dying. They wouldn’t report who passed, so the families would know. So they were a whistleblower broadcast station. They would tell the people who had passed. It was actually all shot in the same building as the CIA. 

Jonathan -  I’m convinced that our dads crossed paths. My dad was there for 4 years. 

Chrys - My dad’s office was on the same floor as the spy unit. If the communists knew that, they would have killed him right after. My dad has crazy stories. Completely different experience than mine. He lets me know it every time. “You don’t know…”

Nunu - It's so interesting because growing up, your parents are like Gods. They’re the most important people to you as a kid, but they were struggling too. Just like us, they were trying to figure it out.

 
Legacy: 

AJ - Last question, what was your favorite moment today?

Chrys - Today…connecting with you guys.

Jonathan -  My favorite moment today: talking about toys. 100%. I could talk about that for hours. No problem. I’m giving a toy to each of my nephews and nieces for university. And one to my godson. It just makes sense. I can do this for them and they don’t have to worry.

AJ - I think that hearing you talk about the energy that it can bring to people, like a kid seeing a four foot companion is super valuable. It’s super cool that they wouldn’t simply covet the item, they might look at life differently or want to do things differently. 

Jonathan -  I also think it changes your life in terms of legacy. You are able to offer both from an outside and inside perspective. You are offering access to people to see things that they would not normally see. Also, people know that it’s you who is doing this good deed. It makes you feel good. That is important. As much as I hate to say it, we need validation in some aspects of life. We do good just to do good, but it’s nice to get recognition and inspire other people to do that. 

Nunu - I also think, speaking for myself, I grew up in an entrepreneurial household. Both my parents were entrepreneurs so sometimes it’s hard to detach from that proposition of how much is this worth? How much could this be worth? How do we grow this? I think that’s how I’m wired.

Jonathan -  That’s my dad. My dad would identify things and how to make money on it. My mom is me. “Do what you love and work crazy hard.” Things will come, hopefully. My dad was the least amount of work for the most amount of money and my mom did the most amount of work for the least amount of money. I don’t know why I follow suit with that. 

Nunu - It’s working.

Chrys - It’s working for your mom. [everyone laughs].

Jonathan - My mom is a fucking G. That’s why. She’s been doing it for 32 years. Both my parents were entrepreneurs. I don’t think they wanted me to become one at all. Anyone who is an entrepreneur doesn’t want to see their kids become entrepreneurs. When people ask us if they should start a store, I will never say don’t do it. I will say do you love it? Do you care about money? Do you care about living lean? Then do it. But you have to embrace those things. The opportunity cost of becoming an entrepreneur is crazy high but it’s also crazy low in terms of happiness.

Nunu - This has been really nice. A conversation like this validates this series. We just want to connect with people. Recently, it feels like the community element in business interactions has been lost. 

Jonathan -  You don’t know anything about anybody until you meet them. You don’t know what the store is about until they come in and talk to us. People don’t know what HNDSM is about until they meet you. It just gets lost.

Nunu - It’s also the interest. Is someone interested in learning about you, the store, us? We are.

Jonathan -  I’m super interested. I prefer talking to people more than anything and learning about their background. We’ll do an interview with you guys. Just to find out. We’ll turn the tables. 

Photography by Nunu Jamani