Dong Lee, Sarah Berns, Mack McCracken, and Lilly Russell work at City Fun NYC which sells officially licensed band merchandise.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Exciting new developments are in store for City Fun NYC, located at 45 1st Ave., between Second and Third Streets in the East Village.
The band tee heaven is a destination for music fans, offering a wide range of artists. In honor of Hip Hop’s big 5 “Oh,” City Fun restocked its shirt inventory featuring rap legends Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Tupac, Biggie Small, and Aliyah.
Jathiya Kelly stopped by the store to buy an Aliyah shirt. Kelly grew up in the Lower East Side but now lives in Harlem.
Kelly said she was familiar with City Fun NYC and said the store was part of the community.
“The atmosphere and just the collection of clothing really just sparks this great creativity in the neighborhood,” Kelly said, pointing out the importance of featuring hip-hop artists.
“Most of the music that we listen to today, most of the beats and lyrics come from previous artists,” Kelly said. “Hip hop is here to stay, and it’s not going anywhere.”
Social-media-savvy store manager Lilly Russell, who regularly posts content to Instagram and TikTok, also thinks it is crucial to have a small business listed on Google and Apple Maps and review and social networking websites like Yelp.
Foreign tourists have found the store by searching for band T-shirts using maps or Yelp.
“There was a family that came in. They were from China. I asked them, ‘How’d you hear about us? And they were like, ‘Oh, just Yelp. We just typed band T-shirts into Yelp,’” Russell said. “We really try to use all the different tools.”
The store is also revamping its web presence.
Russell explained that they are switching to a different e-commerce provider, and she now has a team in charge of the website so that she can focus on the social media presence.
“We’ve already the past two years of running an…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply