Today we’d like to introduce you to Emmanuel Vargas and Paul Brea.
Hi Emmanuel and Paul, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Myself (Emmanuel Vargas & Paul Brea) started our business on February 19th of 2022. We are cousins originally from Bronx, NY, and grew up in Allentown, PA. We moved here to Texas 10 years ago to start a better life for ourselves. I am Dominican/Puerto Rican and Paul is Dominican. We wanted to show our roots of New York and our culture and wanted to bring that energy to the DFW area. Originally, we moved here to Texas because the city we are from was getting worse and worse with crime and we wanted to better our lives with opportunity and a chance to do better at life. Growing up in the city fashion was always taken serious by our counterparts. Everyone always wanted the new Jordans or Nike’s that came out. We grew up with great loving parents but definitely could not ask for $300 shoes. Our parents always kept us in the right track in life and can honestly say they are the reason we are both in the position we are. Growing up in certain environments can definitely be tempting to a young person growing up trying to figure out life. We both started working when we were 13 at an amusement park and started making money enough to keep up with the fashion choices we had, where we could buy the shoes and clothes we wanted. When we were 22/23, we started an online business called Project First Ave. We created a website selling independent up & coming brands. We would buy merch from the brands all over the world. We had brands from Paris, New Orleans, New York, etc. Our goal was to highlight these unique brands and one-off pieces consumers could not find at their normal store. We would also buy and sell sneakers but at a lower level than what the industry is today. We both started working at AT&T as premise technicians installing tv and internet commercially and residential. Emmanuel continued his career and after a few years became a network engineer. Paul continued with At&t for years, becoming one of the top technicians in the area. Our love for fashion always continued, it was more than just a passion, it was a lifestyle. Paul who goes by Fresco started his brand “Fresco”. With the success of the brand and our love for fashion we always dreamed of owning our own store. decided to open our store in Denton, TX. Why Denton? we feel like resell stores were popping up a lot in the Dallas area and there was a void needing to be filled I the Denton area. Denton is home to one of the biggest universities in the DFW area (University of North Texas) and about 6 high schools. We are also close to Oklahoma and nearby cities in Texas that sit close to that border. We wanted to pay homage to our city we are from New York and give it that city feel with our brick walls and setting up the store in a fashion showing different parts of the city. We wanted to bring exclusive brands to the store and in a full circle moment we have a section named ‘Project first ave” highlighting independent brands!
Our ultimate goal is to bring a new experience to the area of Denton and DFW. We know we are not inventing a wheel, but we always ask ourselves what can we do different? What is our goal? It’s simple, we want people to be able to afford these luxury items. We saw a hole in the market of price gaging. We want to also bring new brands and visions to our store. We want to bring different experiences (gaming tournaments, raffles, celebrity/influencer meet and greets, etc.). We want to connect to the community, teach kids about business and let them know that they’re on the right path. We live in a society where social media is king and people compare their lives every day. We want to teach them the Kul way, to be unique to themselves.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has been a smooth road in the sense that we are doing everything we said we would do and exceeded it in many ways. Most of the struggles were more in new people wanting to come in and join the business in some capacity and really learning to trust new people you have never met. Owning a clothing and sneaker store we get approached every day by someone trying to sell us something. Oftentimes some of these people are really in need of money, so we will buy. Often times we get street resellers who are usually use to a store pricing high and when they meet us, they realize we price to sell and for our customers to afford. Most people think when you open a business your day ends at some point. It doesn’t. This a 24/7 operation but it is our passion and we love it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Kul?
We specialize in selling exclusive sneakers and clothing from established brands as well as independent brands. We are most proud of our work ethic and our love of the culture. We meet so many people in the community and know a lot of people by first name basis now in the area, even met some of their family and even hung out with a few outside of the store. We are always going to try and give our customers the best prices and experience in this industry. We always fight to get sneakers and clothing at the cheapest price so we can in return sell for a lower cost. We have sold a lot of people their first pair of Jordans or there first Supreme shirt etc. Our goal is to keep building and bringing nothing but heat to the community! We also offer sneaker restoration and even started an in-store podcast where we highlight Entrepreneurship, the sneaker culture, the latest news in the fashion world, sports, etc.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Build a great team around you. Nothing is done best by yourself. Once you have a solid team around you with the same vision you can only win from there. Take the first few months to learn your clientele and see what they want. Always think of the consumer first, in our case we buy based off what our customers would like not to just what we like.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @shopkul_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FrescoxAmber
