Interview with John Lipartito of Too Fast Clothing

I am excited to present another written interview here on the Skull Clothing blog. This one is with the Marketing Director of Too Fast Clothing. If you check out just about any of the widely known shops that carry similar lines of clothing they all seem to carry the Too Fast line and for good reason! I personally just signed up with Too Fast as a wholesale buyer and hope to carry some of their products here in the shop soon.

too fast clothing

Checkout the interview with John:

  1. How did Too Fast get started? What was the plan behind starting a clothing company? Share your story.

Too Fast started in 2005 as a total DIY operation in a Philly basement. It then upgraded to an unheated garage and finally an actual building. It’s always been the brain child of Maureen Keough, who imagined it as a creative way to combine her passions for punk and fashion. With the help of her brother Jim—an experienced marketer and tech-head—she was able to grow it into the international brand it is today. We’re still a small business, but we like to think big and that’s what’s kept us moving forward all these years.

  1. How have you gone about marketing your brand and what’s working for you today to drive more sales and find new customers?

Like anything, a lot of it is networking and word-of-mouth. We attend tradeshows in Vegas and London twice a year, which are always good for keeping up with long-held customers and finding new ones. And we make sure to reach out to new and old customers by way of sales reps, emails, and site updates. These efforts have provided us with a loyal fan base and a consistent source for new leads.

There’s also more traditional marketing at work, but we’ve actually done a lot less of that in recent years.

  1. Beyond selling through your store online and wholesale to other stores do you sell on multiple channels such as eBay and Amazon? If so how has this worked out for you as a brand?

We don’t use those channels for our own brand, though we have worked with them in various degrees as a retailer over the years. Our branching-out has been more focused on drop-shipping for various alternative clothing companies and doing exclusives with larger chains such as Hot Topic. This diversification has helped us stay afloat when lulls are had in other areas.

  1. What are your future plans for 2014 and beyond?

It’s honestly really tough to say. We’ve been curating an amazing team over the years and have honed our skills—both business and design wise—in so many ways that we have a lot of options moving forward. I think the first step will be expanding the collections to include larger sizes (which we’ve been wanting to do for years), distributing directly to our international customers, and expanding our sister brands, Rat Baby and Banjo & Cake. Whatever we decide, we’re pretty stoked about it.

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