SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Remix and Rare Cut

SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN AT REMIX

BY KERRY MURTHA

Tamara Cohen left her job at a tech company four years ago to head up a second-hand furniture store that’s dedicated to finding eco-friendly solutions to traditional junk removal.

“I’ve always been interested in owning a sustainable business that would allow me to implement change and make a difference,” said Cohen.

In 2019, the impassioned environmentalist opened a Remix Market franchise after partnering with The Junkluggers of New York City, a regional arm of a national network of companies that set out to eliminate 100 percent of waste from the country’s landfills by recycling and donating the trash it collects from residential homes and commercial businesses.

With that goal in mind, Cohen donates 90 percent of the wares she receives at her Long Island City storefront to more than 50 nonprofit organizations around the city while pledging 10 percent of her overall sales to Habitat for Humanity.

The franchisee also offers secondhand items to TV and film crews to help the industry transition to sustainable set designs.

She resells the remainder of her inventory - which ranges from sofas to contemporary artwork - to the general public. “We’re diverting items that would otherwise be thrown away, and getting them into the hands of people who really need them,” Cohen said.

The shop stockpiles hundreds of furnishings a day from the nearly 20 trucks that collect unwanted home goods from Junklugger customers. Items are then catalogued and priced at 50 percent of their original market value or less, depending upon their condition and how long they remain on the showroom floor.

“We do extensive online research to identify each item’s brand, custom-made designs like West Elm and Ethan Allen among them,” explained Cohen, “and price accordingly.”

Cohen said she caters to young professionals looking to furnish their first apartments, as well as to sustainably minded homeowners in search of high-quality items.

“We don’t do a lot of advertising, but we are super active on social media,” she added. “Our customers peruse what we have online but our same-day turnover requires us to be a brick-and-mortar store.”

Revenue, which Cohen expects to exceed $800,000 for 2021, have doubled year over year since the doors opened three years ago. In March she expanded her floor space when she relocated to her current 5,000-square-foot storefront from an outlet less than half the size in Astoria.

“We’ve been busting at the seams,” Cohen noted, an uptick that stemmed in part from the city’s mass exodus of residents at the onset of the pandemic. “We had a continuous influx of furniture throughout the lockdown. We were closed for a month, but then began selling our pieces curbside until

Members of the Remix Market NYC Team: Mary Townsend, Bob Faggella, Executive Director Tamara Cohen, Ashely Mcdonald, Jessica Sanchez and Craig Miller.

we could reopen our doors to the public.”

In the past two years, Remix has grown from a staff of three to eight employees to keep up with the demand. Cohen said she’s plan-

Remix Market NYC collects a catalogue of sofas, chairs, lamps, rugs, artwork and more that the Long Island City storefront resells to the public and donates to nonprofit organizations.

SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT RARE CUT: A BRAND WITH PURPOSE

BY KERRY MURTHA

Five years ago, Anthony Orisses didn’t know much about pocket squares. Today, the 36-year-old entrepreneur is a key player in the men’s fashion industry, churning out more than 30 different designs of the popular accessory from the makeshift manufacturing business he runs out of his Astoria garage.

“It all started when I was at an awards dinner with my boss,” Orisses said. “He was about to go up to the podium and asked me at the last minute to fold his $100 pocket square. I tried my best, handed it to him and he went up and gave an incredible speech.”

The pocket square didn’t fare as well. “When we looked at pictures after the event, we saw that it sunk down into his pocket. I thought it was crazy to spend that kind of money on something so worthless.”

The mishap started a conversation that prompted Orisses to research alternatives to the flaccid fabric. He came up with a concept that would infuse a copper wire mesh inside the material to make for easy folding and help it keep its shape. His patent on the process is pending.

Orisses later contracted with a New Jersey-based company to assemble the squares and invested in a heat press machine and rolls of printing paper to design and package the accessories in his backyard garage, a space that still houses his

REMIX MARKET

ning to expand to larger digs within the next two years and hopes to grow her nonprofit partnerships to include New York City’s schools, theaters and other organizations while continuing to build out a team that is devoted to reducing the environmental footprint.

“I have a dedicated, passionate staff committed to our cause,” she said, “and I look forward to extending the reach of our reuse center.” sports equipment, a Foosball Table and a dartboard. “It’s still a typical young guy’s space, not very big, but I make it work.”

Last September, after several delays, he launched Rare Cut. “I was originally scheduled to start in March of 2020, but the whole world was suddenly dealing with the onset of a pandemic,” he noted. “Even when we did launch six months later, it seemed crazy that a guy in sweats was selling pocket squares out of his garage, but it happened.”

In the first 30 days, the company - which carries the registered tongue-in-cheek tagline “It Stays Up” - had more than $50,000 in sales. Orisses credits the start-up’s initial success to the ongoing dialogue he created with potential customers before his launch.

“I elicited feedback all along the way, asking people’s opinions about colors, prints and things like that,” he said. “I think people wanted to be part of something brand new, being built from the ground up.”

Orisses said he personally contacted those who shared in his journey once the company was up and running. The reception far exceeded his funding goal of $10,000 and his sales continue to rise.

Since the turn of the millennium, the pocket square has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts. Once an accessory reserved for formal wear, its role in men’s attire has changed in the last few years.

“Fewer guys are wearing ties today, opting for open collared shirts,” Orisses said, “but they’re gravitating to pocket squares to add a little extra something that makes their wardrobe less casual.”

Rare Cut works with local artists to design their colorful prints, which include creative motifs like “Rockaway Beach,” “Queens Baseball,” and “Mykonos Blue,” a nod to the founder’s Greek heritage.

The company relies heavily on social media and its e-commerce website to sell its wares, an extensive online reach that Orisses has taken advantage of to prop up fellow businesses and raise awareness for special causes.

To that end, the owner began a campaign in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak to help restaurants, bars and others struggling to keep their doors open. He created a “shop local” pocket square and an accompanying T-shirt that featured an iconic New York City coffee cup with Lady Liberty’s torch rising from the steam.

He invited local business owners to share their stories on his social media site and donated 10 percent of the items’ sales to The Barstool Fund.

The company recently invested in a similar effort to raise breast cancer awareness. Orisses designed

Anthony Orisses, founder of Rare Cut, sports his popular “Rockaway Beach” inspired pocket square.

a pink ribboned pocket square and tee and asked survivors to talk to his online audience about their battle with the disease. A portion of the proceeds were pledged to the Avon Foundation.

The Queens businessman is now increasing the company’s exposure by doing pop-up vendor events and connecting with wholesalers to get his pocket squares in brick-andmortar stores.

The next phase of design will focus on custom orders. “We’ve already done monogrammed squares for a wedding party and I’m looking into how to include pictures of pets on our fabric and other forms of customization,” he said. “I don’t want to be just a company with a product, but more of a brand with a purpose.”