It was a time of feast. It was a time of famine. Fortunes were easily made and just as easily lost in the blink of an eye. If years, like babies where given names it could have been called Joy or just as easily Pain, either would have been accurate for people living during those times. It could have been 2005, 2006, 2007, or 2008. Dates blur when you’re on the run, fighting for justice, disrupting institutions, annoying billionaires and challenging the status quo.
Part lawyer, part fashion guru, part reformed supervillain entrepreneur with a heart of gold…you could say I was a combination of Lorelia & Emily Gilmore, Malcolm X, and Batman. Sitting in my Detroit lair at my quantum computer the universe sent me the best idea since the internet. Seconds felt like hours as I waited to see if the domain gods would say your domain is available. I couldn’t believe it! There was no way the name was available. There it was written in black and white by GoDaddy himself so it had to be true…“aboxfelloffatruck.com available”.
All my life I’ve been a true deal finder. Whether it’s groceries, automobiles, or travel. But it wasn’t until I turned my attention to fashion that I found my true passion. It all kind of happened by accident. Of course, I could never personally take advantage of all the deals I found. Nor could I pass them on to others. It always frustrated me that unlike grocery, cars, and travel fashion deals were difficult to pass onto friends and the people that really needed them. Often times by the time I told them about the item I saw on this site or at store X it would be gone or the sale off. That’s until I discovered Ebay via a friend.
Ebay gave me a platform to use my shopping superpowers for good. I received so much joy to find great deals in-store, online and through brokers and pass them on to fashionably gifted! It truly made my heart smile to see a review from someone that loved the item I found. However, as a seller on I was disheartened to see the presence of so many fakes, over priced items, and low quality items. I hated being associated with those sellers.
At the same time, there was little to no curation on many platforms. You have to search, dig, click, and hunt to find that one item worth buying. Then once purchased I would great price swings in the same item and all of the brands across the web. I would buy something then the next day I would see for a lower price and a different style. In order to avoid buyer’s remorse, I had to put in hours, days and sometimes months search to insure I was getting the best deal. This was true whether I was shopping in Los Angeles, Milan, Dubai or Bali. And I’m talking about price differentials outside of VAT and currency conversion.
In short, online & in-store shopping was and are still chaotic due variation in price, quality, style, and lack of curation. It costs the customer unnecessary time and money as inventory is spread throughout various unknown sites and stores at prices that vary widely for no logical reason. People shouldn’t have to spend hours comparison shopping for style, value, quality, authenticity and price. Only to complete the purchase and find that there was a better version, lower price, free shipping or entirely different product I never had seen before on a site associated with a boutique in Dubai. People shouldn’t have to go through what I was going through. Lack whether that be lack of knowledge or money shouldn’t be the determining factors in a person right access the best in the world. It’s emotional rollercoaster of elation and buyer’s remorse. Armed with my nefarious shopping hacking skills I fought back.
One day in the midst of an epic shopping battle at Neiman Marcus “Self, what if there was one place to go for all the best ish at the best price.” What if there was a place to go for:
• All the Best Ish Up To 99% Off!
• Curated Merchandise – Save Hours! No More Hunting!
• Free Shipping – Save Lots of Scratch!
• Free Returns – Buy & Try!
• Lowest Price Guarantee – No More Buyer’s Remorse!
• Free Yes Free Gifts with Purchase –
• Free Sales Newsletters – No More Searching for Sales!
• Authenticity Guarantee – Buy with Confidence!
And so began the creation of a force that would give people more value, more access, more fairness, more time…more life. We put the world on the streets that I was looking for rebels, radicals, rogues, revolutionaries ..you know troublemakers. The type of people that know how to get shxt done. They don’t tell you how they get it done and you don’t want to know. Why do we do it? So you pay what we pay...
