Blackstock & Weber Shutters NYC Flagship as Realities of Being a Retailer Set In

Blackstock & Weber founder Chris Echevarria took to social media on Tuesday to announce the closure of the brand’s New York flagship after two years, but noted the brand is solid and there’s “more soon.”

“A few weeks ago, we turned the lights off at the Blackstock & Weber flagship,” Echevarria wrote on LinkedIn. “Eight years ago, I started Blackstock & Weber from a studio apartment wand a clear point of view: a tight assortment of shoes and other products I could be proud to sell for and to the discerning guy. At that time, I decided that I wanted to have a store by the time I was 35… A week before my 35th birthday I signed a lease on a 600-square-foot bombed out taco spot. One of the proudest moments of my life.”

When the store opened two years ago, Echevarria said it was a “dream realized,” but that the realities of retail quickly set in.

“Once the initial glamour runs off it’s back to business… and I quickly realized the difference between being a brand/storyteller and a retailer,” he admitted. “As a brand, we thrived… weekly drops sold through immediately on Fridays, focused marketing campaigns week over week that kept people engaged and coming back. Stores demanded breadth. Breadth demands inventory. And somewhere in that math, the brand I built started chasing the store instead of leading it. The store wasn’t the problem. The merchandising strategy I built to fill it was.”

Echevarria added that closing his store is a “return to the passion” that built the brand and a “commitment” to building something better. “Not just for me and my business, but for an industry that desperately needs a healthier conversation about what brand-building and infrastructure actually looks like,” he wrote. “Blackstock & Weber the brand is alive and well… and honestly, this feels like a return to what got me fired up about this in the first place. More soon.”

Located at 242 Mulberry Street in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, Echevarria opened the store in 2024 and carried his footwear line as well as his ready-to-wear line Academy by Chris Echevarria.

Designed as a “General Store” concept, the shop also sold adjacent branded merchandise and special store exclusive products from ’47 brand, Max Pittion (John Mayer’s eyewear brand) and reworked Adidas Sambas and Birkenstocks courtesy of Goods + Services out of Los Angeles.