On June 17th Nipsey Hussle opened up the doors to his Marathon Clothing store (co-owned by Adam Andebrhan and Stephen Donelson) at the corner of Slauson and Crenshaw in Los Angeles. Not just another retail brick and mortar, the shop, is what Hussle calls, a smartstore where customers can purchase merchandise and use an app to preview exclusive content from the West Coast rapper.
Fans and friends were lined up around the new shop, which saw appearances from some big names such as Jim Jones, Nav, 21 Savage, Russell Westbrook, Vegas Jones and Demarcus Cousins, as well as his longtime girlfriend, Lauren London.
No stranger to innovative concepts in distributing products, Nipsey previously started a grassroots marketing effort with his Proud 2 Pay campaign in 2013, where he charged $100 for fans to purchase a physical copy for his mixtape Crenshaw. JAY-Z was so intrigued by the idea that he bought 100 copies, and in less than 24 hours, Nipsey Hussle sold out his 1,000-album inventory, profiting $100,000. A second campaign offered 100 physical copies of 2015’s Mailbox Money for $1,000, selling out copies of those as well.
The new smart store displays the Mailbox Money rapper’s Marathon clothing brand, and is located at 3420 W. Slauson Ave in the California city. The flagship store has all kinds of futuristic features, including programmable technology built into the store’s design along with products for exclusive Nipsey releases.
In collaboration with his business partners, including his brother Samiel Asghedom, Karen Civil and Steve "Steve-O" Carless, Hussle introduced the Marathon Clothing smartstore as a way to continue giving his most loyal fans new ways to consume exclusive content and cop products. Besides clothing and small novelty items that are available in the store now, the brand hopes to offer products like "All Money In" sheepskin floor mats for cars, money counters, baseball bats, basketballs and lifestyle products in the future.
Big Boy of Big Boy’s Neighborhood on REAL 92.3 hosted the event alongside the independent MC, where they thanked friends and fans for coming out. Nipsey even explained his plans for the launch during a recent interview with Power 106.
For the store's app, Hussle met Iddris Sandu, a 20 year-old engineer, at Starbucks. “My daughter tells me to pull into Starbucks on the way to the movie," he relates. “I'm thinking they got snacks at the movie theater, but she's telling me she wants a Unicorn Frap, so I'm like, 'OK, fine.' [There] we met Iddris.”
Hussle and Sandu randomly struck up conversation about the store and the idea to fuse technology into the fabric of the shop, and three weeks later, he built the app. "It was crazy and by chance, but I don't think it was on accident," notes Hussle, who later named Sandu chief technology officer.
Take a look at the big launch from The Marathon Store in Los Angeles featuring Nipsey and friends in the videos below. Plus, watch a 40-minute documentary WorldStar made about Nip’s journey to opening the store.
Big Boy of Big Boy’s Neighborhood on REAL 92.3 hosted the event alongside the independent MC, where they thanked friends and fans for coming out. Nipsey even explained his plans for the launch during a recent interview with Power 106.
For the store's app, Hussle met Iddris Sandu, a 20 year-old engineer, at Starbucks. “My daughter tells me to pull into Starbucks on the way to the movie," he relates. “I'm thinking they got snacks at the movie theater, but she's telling me she wants a Unicorn Frap, so I'm like, 'OK, fine.' [There] we met Iddris.”
Hussle and Sandu randomly struck up conversation about the store and the idea to fuse technology into the fabric of the shop, and three weeks later, he built the app. "It was crazy and by chance, but I don't think it was on accident," notes Hussle, who later named Sandu chief technology officer.
Take a look at the big launch from The Marathon Store in Los Angeles featuring Nipsey and friends in the videos below. Plus, watch a 40-minute documentary WorldStar made about Nip’s journey to opening the store.
