Like Prism, but with a totally edgy A
Tell me about Prisma…
James T: We are predominantly a menswear brand.
James K: Prisma started as an online brand but it’s more than just the clothes, we’re a culture. You’ve seen it in action. You’ve seen what we’re about at our Prisma Live events at Spanky Van Dykes. The fun, the laughs, the music, the sessions.
Are you planning on carrying on with the events like Prisma Live?
James T: We’ve actually spoke about going bigger.
James K: A rapper called Kyze came in the other day on the off chance and he really liked our stuff, so we’re thinking about doing a session with him. He’s going to send some of our stuff to his collective, Giggs. I think we’re going to do our launch event in-store so we’ll get him down for that.
James T: With a few other musicians that we like.
James K: Maybe Huskies.
How long has Prisma been going now?
James T: One year and three months.
Did you celebrate the birthday?
James T: We put a nice Facebook status saying “We’re one today.” That was it. We didn’t have any money to celebrate.
What’s the next step?
James K: We want to get more of a bigger name in Nottingham, just so everyone knows what we are. We’d like to open a store in Bristol, but we’d need to get someone else to run this. We can split up though.
James T: Yeah. I’d probably carry on in Nottingham, and then Kellet would venture out to Bristol to open a new store.
Why is now the time to open a store?
James T: We’ve opened a few pop-up shops over the past months, and the things like the gigs and the club nights we’ve done have shown that selling face to face is better for our brand because people can feel the quality of the t-shirts. We don’t really like going to other retailers with it because there’s not much money in it, so we opened a shop to see how it would go. Natural progression.
James K: We didn’t want to work for someone else, so now is the time to go full time.
Why Nottingham?
James T: I’m still studying here, but also I think about 40% of our online sales are from Nottingham, so we’ve got a little bit of a reputation. Not much, but a little one. We’ve got a bit of a customer base down here, and Nottingham’s the greatest city in the world.
James K: We’ve got a lot of contacts with venues and bands, so it’s easier and we feel more comfortable setting up here.
Who is the brand aimed at?
James T: Anyone who likes looking good, and is afraid to get old. So students.
James K: We did a Facebook advert the other day, and you can select your target audience. We chose Nottingham, 16-24, music.
James T: We typed in other stuff like Urban Outfitters and other street wear brands. But yeah, people who don’t want to wear a boring t-shirt.
James K: If you buy a top from Topman, you’re guaranteed to see other guys wearing it in the club. We want to stand out a little bit, but not outrageously. Anyone can stand out by wearing a t-shirt made of feathers, but it’s about standing out in the right way - in a subtle way.
How was the brand developed?
James T: Me and my ex-business partner – he doesn’t like it when I talk about my ex [looks at James K] – but me and him were college buddies studying business and economics, and we just wanted to set up something. A clothing brand was cheap to set up, everyone was doing it. There was another brand around at the time, they were mates of ours and we really liked their stuff but we thought we could have done loads more with the brand. We approached them to see if we could get involved and they said no, so we just set up our own thing. Not to put them out of business, just to do things better. We liked the word ‘prism’ and my ex-business partner was half Italian.
What are your favourite items that you’re selling at the moment?
James K: There are a few things, like the new Dylan t-shirt.
James T: The new beanies as well.
Do you plan on expanding with the website too?
James T: We only had about twelve products, now we’ve got about forty. We’re getting new brands in every month, so we’re just going to keep updating the website.
James K: We’re always on the look-out for new brands.
What are the other brands that you’re selling?
James T: We’ve got AOYAGI, Thursday Clothing, and those two are both from Nottingham. There’s Positive Outlook, they’ve done really well with the women’s wear.
You’re getting some more women’s clothing in now then?
James T: When we started this, most other brands lacked women’s wear. Girls are into a lot of street wear items, so they’d just buy the men’s stuff. That’s cool, but we wanted to have more of a choice, so we’ve finally done that.
It’s cool that you’re next to the caves…
James T: It’s cool for the caves to say that they’re next to us.
James K: Eventually we’ll just start doing novelty cave t-shirts.
Anything else you’d like to say?
James T: We have air hockey, and anyone who is bored in town is welcome to come and play. This one’s exclusive to LeftLion readers - beat one of us at air hockey, and you get 10% off anything in store.
James K: We want to be seen as the poster boys for the Broadmarsh revolution. There’s handful of new businesses down this strip that are opening and we’re the latest to do so. Hopefully when some more interesting businesses move in, it’ll change people’s perception of Broadmarsh.
Prisma Clothing is open from 9.30am to 5.30pm from Tuesday to Saturday and is located on the upper level of Broadmarsh next to the caves.
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