NORTHAMPTON — Jamai Lowell was running a store where he sold his line of apparel, Animal Instincts, and other gifts in the financial district of San Francisco when the pandemic struck.
“With the pandemic, it just completely cleared out,” he said of traffic. “There was just kind of no end in sight there.”
He closed up the store, Instincts and Friends, and knew he wanted to reopen elsewhere. When his wife, who grew up in Amherst, got a teaching job in western Massachusetts, his family moved to her hometown in August.
“That was kind of my catalyst, he said. “It made sense to move (the store) to Northampton.” The store opened in downtown Northampton in early December in the space that used to be home to A Child’s Garden.
“My brand was started in a big city. I’m used to being in a city, and I feel like my stuff lends itself to being in a city. I also have visited Northampton a lot. I really like how it seems to be a shopping destination almost for the area,” he said.
Instincts and Friends sells clothing for kids and adults, fine art, puzzles and gifts. All Lowell’s designs on the Animal Instincts clothing are original artwork. The store also sells products from local artists, like candles, and he hopes to work with more local business in the future.
Lowell has always been interested in art. In high school, he made silk-screen printed T-shirts for his friends, he said.
“I wanted to create something more fun and hip for kids T-shirts — not something that’s super cutesy. I kind of saw a market for that.”
He started selling his clothing wholesale and at fairs and festivals, and then opened a brick-and-mortar store several years ago.
Many of his clothing designs feature animals and some of them feature California-inspired images, like a dinosaur on the Golden Gate Bridge. Some western-Massachusetts inspired designs are on their way, he said.
“My plan is really to start developing designs that are local and focused to this area,” he said. “I’m gathering inspiration and figuring out what’s going to be good designs for this area.”
During the pandemic, small businesses around the country and in Northampton have closed their doors.
“A lot of people are like, ‘you’re so brave to be opening a store right now,’” he said. “And I think for me, I look at the store as kind of the engine of my business — I sell my stuff online and I offer my line wholesale as well. So I use the store not just as my store,” he said, adding that he does work like filling online orders in the space. “My goal with the store wasn’t to come out the gates and have really busy retail. It’s just to keep my business alive in a sense.”
So far, foot traffic has been quiet, but feedback from customers has been good, he said.
“I feel really good about the future here in Northampton,” he said.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.