The ConfirmedStock Pop-Up Recap

If covering an art exhibit wasn’t enough excitement for me for one Saturday, I also attended the Confirmed Stock Pop-Up Shop that I mentioned here a few weeks ago. The turn out was great! Great vendors, great customers and great products. It was held in an abandon church that looked like it has been waiting 10 years for this exact pop-up to come and give it some energy.

This Baltimore City flag is all the restoration the church needed

I met some new movers and shakers in the blogosphere like Summer from S.L Sterling and Skip from Alexander Grant who actually covered this event for Complex Magazine. I informed a few friends so they could come and check out some goods. I met some followers of my own blog and some of my former customers from Banana Republic. I even saw Oliver who, for a short time, was something like a mentor for me. Most people may know him from Baltimore’s first designer/streetwear boutique Shop Gentei. (bring that back one day)

I was pretty impressed by how many good products were being produced and sold so close to Baltimore. Our city is in this weird in between spot as far as location and fashion. Its technically Southern but its not rural at all, in fact it has the 8th largest metro area in the entire U.S giving it a bit of big city, urban appeal. On the menswear front that creates various styles and demographics jockeying for postion from sneaker culture, college frat boy to prep and heritage influenced lifestyles. Confirmed Stock was right on time to represent for the heritage demographic that draws from more classic, functional, leather and hard goods inspirations.

Blue Claw Worton Weekender Bag

As soon as you entered pass the custom build Confirmed Stock sign you saw this beautiful weekend back from Blue Claw Co. All the Blue Claw products are handmade here in Maryland and sold all over from here to Japan. I’ve come to find out that the crafter doesn’t have a degree in design, crafting of carpentry. He just say a problem that he needed to fixed and became passionate about it. Now he’s creating incredible products and working on what he loves. Inspiration! This weekender back was great but my favorite piece were their new iPad cases. They’re simple clean and the leather is so heavy and perfectly cut that it hold shut themselves and don’t need any fussing buttons or snaps.

Blue Claw iPad cases

Lumina Clothing Company

Lumina Clothing company is an oline menswear shop based in Raliegh, NC. Lumina focused on high-quality made clothes at affordable prices. There’s a bit of an industrial aesthetic mixed with Southern-European vibe, probably because the climate in N.C is pretty similar to that region of Europe. The founders were really nice young gentlemen who look like and live what their brand is about.

Shirts from Lumina

Ties and Accessories from Lumina

The great thing about events like this is that you get to put a face to URL link and shake a few hands. I had a chance to do that with the cool cats from Two Inch Cuffs. I first found about Two Inch Cuffs last year and instantly became a fan of there online catalogs. Their site was pretty innovative, well executed and really seemed to tell the story of rediscovered American heritage (as told from the site itself).

Two Inch Cuffs display

The team from Two Inch Cuffs

Another cool thing about pop-up markets is that you find very creative approaches to entrepreneurship. Greenwich Vintage Co. is a showroom out in Minneapolis, Minnesota where there’s a carefully curated stock of vintage menswear, a barber and cobbler who customizes and re-soles shoes. I met Max of G.V the night before at the Confirmed Stock pre-party and I knew that I’d be hitting there space at the pop-up to check out there services. I have a pair of wingtips that have a sole that I’m eager to get rid of so this would be perfect for me. Zen “the Fresh Maker” is the in-house cobbler that restores shoes and boots with color soles to give them a modern twist.

Shoe from Greenwich Vintage Co.

Before I even arrived to Confirmed Stock my homie hit me up to tell me about a vintage Christian Dior trench that he wanted but couldn’t fit because his arms were too long, so I arrived to their space with a bit of a shopping agenda. Max recognized me from the night before and Zen was like my personal salesman putting me up on the shoes and helping me out the with the trench. He has a hell of a personality and that makes for a great, relatable salesman. He knows he stuff and doesn’t come of like he’s trying t swindle you for anything, just get you interest in quality products.

Christian Dior Monsieur...the elder gent to the later established Dior of the 2000's

Me in the Christian Dior trench. Fits perfect

Full body view

I didn’t purchase the trench so its still available for one of you lucky guys out there. Just contact them at their site. I did pick up great piece piece that you’ll see in a later post.

There were other great brands there like Ruell and Ray denim based out of Virginia and Cause and Effect that crafted hand made belts and accessories.