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hen Bill Hardy’s Acrosports gym facility outgrew its original home off Bert Kouns Industrial Loop in the early 2010s, he knew it was time to build for the future, but wasn’t quite sure where to build. During a search that lasted more than a year, Hardy kept returning to a plot of land at the end of a street called American Way. This small pocket of potential was bounded by three of the area’s most vital traffic arteries: Line Avenue, I-49, and 3132. Hardy observed that thousands of potential customers were already circling this property every day as their busy routines took them to and from home, work, school, shopping, and other activities. Today, many of those busy commuters are regularly turning down American Way, and there are more and more incentives for them to stay.
COME TOGETHER “Our vision was to provide parents with a destination for children playing multiple sports,” says Hardy, explaining the impetus for constructing the 38,000-square foot facility that now houses both the state of the art Acrosports gymnasium and The Fieldhouse, the largest indoor baseball and softball training facility in the Ark-La-Tex. After purchasing the former Shreveport Olympiad gym in 1998 and rebranding it as Acrosports, Hardy and his wife Lainie built a solid reputation for the business that followed it to its new location. The Fieldhouse, with its 14,000 square feet of indoor turf and multi-purpose practice areas, was an entirely new venture for the couple. It’s turned out to be a winning combination. From traditional gymnastics lessons and a competitive team to summer sports camps, after school programs, and birthday parties, the facility is bustling with families throughout the week and year round. Acrosports now hosts the Louisiana Cup, an annual invitational gymnastics meet that attracts over 300 athletes, many of them from outside the state. The Fieldhouse’s adaptable practice space has proved attractive to both individual players and teams looking
to hone their hitting, pitching, and fielding skills. Hardy’s facility also neutralizes the effects of Louisiana’s oppressive heat, sweltering humidity, and unpredictable precipitation, to the great appreciation of not only the athletes but also the grateful parents who inhabit the spacious upstairs viewing mezzanine. BRANCH OUT Bill Hardy’s instinct to combine space for multiple sports under one convenient roof was an important catalyst for the ongoing transformation of the land off American Way. Hardy says that it didn’t take long for other investors to approach him with ideas about how to further develop the property as a “one stop shop” sports destination for the Shreveport-Bossier community. He quickly sold off portions to some of these groups who shared his vision of what the area could become. What Hardy had done in one building was about to be replicated for the area as a whole. In early November 2015, Shreveport Indoor Soccer opened as the second major sports-themed facility on the land, adding “the beautiful game” to the athletic options
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easily accessible from some of Shreveport’s most-traveled thoroughfares. The impressive facility includes two indoor turf fields that will pass muster with the most serious and seasoned players but will also benefit those just starting out. “Shreveport Indoor Soccer provides an opportunity for kids and adults of all ages and skill levels to play the game they love,” says partner Radi Baltov. “All events will be independent of the weather: no rain, no weather delays or reschedules, no bugs, no lightning — just fun. Also, there will be days when the facility will be used for flag football, volleyball, Bubble Soccer, tournaments, and other sports.” Shreveport Indoor Soccer also houses a Pro Shop, meeting rooms, concessions area, and even a fitness center — Jason Grantham’s PerformanceFit. Similar to the Acrosports/ Fieldhouse model, the philosophy driving Shreveport Indoor Soccer is one of versatility, flexibility, and continual innovation based on the needs and demands of a customer base that is enthusiastic and rich with growth potential. Baltov notes that he and his three partners knew that the market existed for an outstanding indoor soccer facility, especially after the old Sport Port indoor center was sold and reopened as Air U. “There are more than 4,000 registered soccer players in the Shreveport-Bossier area, including more than 3,000 who are involved with CABOSA/SU, the third largest soccer club in Louisiana,” explains Baltov. “Centenary College has both a men’s and a women’s soccer program, and we hope that LSUS and BPCC will revive their soccer programs in the near future.” The long-term plan for Shreveport Indoor Soccer is to attract players and teams not only from the Shreveport-Bossier City area, but also from East Texas, Arkansas, and other communities in North Louisiana. Largescale soccer tournaments could bring in teams from an even wider geographic area, just as the Louisiana Cup Invitational does. And when these out of town and out of state visitors arrive to compete at either facility, they will not encounter an isolated gymnasium or a solitary indoor soccer arena. Instead they will discover an entire area that is beginning to look and feel more like a cohesive sports complex, a facility, Bill Hardy has said, that he hopes will eventually be recognized as the “Shreveport Athletic Center.” Momentum is building. Another group of investors has purchased a portion of Hardy’s land and has plans to bring a D1 Sports Training franchise to the area. With locations in 19 states, D1 Sports specializes in athletic training and sports medicine services for athletes ranging from “rookie” through professional levels. D1 Sports also offers a Family Program focused on healthy lifestyles and character development. Though still in the early stages, the D1 Sports facility will bring a new dimension to the American Way development that has the potential to benefit all of the athletes who have already made it their home, as well as attract new clientele interested in the unique and specialized services that the franchise provides. THE NEXT STEP Hardy still has about five acres of land available from his original purchase, and is searching for the right buyer or investor to complement the existing businesses and complete the vision he has for the Shreveport Athletic Center. The area off American Way has plenty of room to
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grow and has attracted the attention of other entrepreneurs, including lifelong Shreveporter Brad Simon. Simon purchased a 10-acre plot of land adjacent to Hardy’s in order to fulfill his dream of bringing a world class indoor shooting facility to his hometown, a dream that he carefully laid out in his head during two deployments to Iraq. By the time Simon left the Army in February 2011, he had thought through all the details: the design and layout of the facility, the instructional courses to be offered and who would teach them, and the general atmosphere and customer experience that his facility would provide. Once constructed, Simon’s indoor Red River Range will provide both pistol and rifle bays in a safe, climate-controlled environment. One of the pistol bays will be a full tactical range that can accommodate training for military and law enforcement personnel as well as civilians. Simon’s deep understanding of his potential customer base and of Louisiana’s “Sportsman’s Paradise” culture is guiding Red River Range’s development. Like Bill Hardy several years before, Simon could immediately see the value in the American Way location, but he also performed some targeted market research that produced a solid statistical foundation for his choice. “I learned that the person drives an average of 34 minutes to participate in shooting sports,” explains Simon. “I centered on that part of town due to
the fact that the I-49/3132 interchange greatly extended the reach of that 34 minute drive time. The American Way tract just checked off everything on my list: close proximity to the interstate system and the center of Shreveport, but still large and isolated enough for my needs with room for expansion. And it was affordable.” Space and relative isolation are actually two of the “products” that Red River Range will market to potential customers, and Simon understands that this will be a powerful incentive. His market research revealed that there are approximately 60,000 men and women over the age of 18 who identify as hunters in the Ark-La-Tex area. Only a small fraction of those men and women are landowners with enough property to safely practice their sport. Simon is passionate about the importance of gun safety, and sees a role for Red River Range to not only fill the void for gun owners without access to large tracts of land, but also to lead the way in education. “Red River Range will be a serious advocate for responsible gun ownership, gun safety, hunter ethics, and the Second Amendment,” says Simon. “Part of that advocacy means passing those same qualities on to our younger generations. Through youth firearm safety classes and hunter education classes, Red River Range will do just that.” Simon’s American Way property has been zoned as a public land unit development, or PUD, and some of the requirements for this designation prompted him to think creatively about other aspects of his enterprise. The plans for the entire Red River Range complex now include outdoor archery and fishing parks as well as the indoor shooting range. Simon envisions both a static archery range and a 3D course that can simulate field conditions and challenge serious bow enthusiasts. The planned fishing park will feature a relaxing atmosphere with picnic gazebos, and both outdoor areas contain the potential to attract even more customers for
both recreation and instruction. Simon believes that one eventual source of steady visitors could be tourists who come to gamble in Shreveport and Bossier City’s casinos but who might enjoy an alternative source of recreation for a day or two. AMERICAN WAY Simon’s observation is one that brings things full circle, in a way, validating Bill Hardy’s original vision of some of the area’s primary traffic arteries funneling a steady stream of local sports enthusiasts, tournament participants, or stir-crazy school children down American Way to the Shreveport Athletic Center. Every new development on the property puts its own distinct stamp on that idea, potentially expanding and diversifying the customer base in a way that can only be mutually beneficial. In a few years, all of the American Way investors might be able to tell stories of the families who have come and spent a day (or more!) in the complex - enjoying some playtime in the Acrosports gym, getting in some batting practice at the Fieldhouse and a soccer clinic at Shreveport Indoor Soccer, and rounding it out with archery, fishing, or a gun safety course at Red River Range. And with more land still available, other activities will undoubtedly be part of the mix. For Dr. Marco Ramos, of Shreveport Indoor Soccer, all of this – the choices, the diversity - seems very “American,” and very fitting to be located on a street called American Way. His interpretation is grounded in his personal experience as an immigrant, an experience he shares with his three Shreveport Indoor Soccer partners. “The name ‘American Way’ broadcasts the fact that all four of us are immigrants from all four corners of the world, and that we had a dream that was realized because of the unique opportunities that only America offers.”
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OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AFFECTING CHANGE THROUGH INNOVATION While the issue is thorny and complicated, the energy and innovation of other local groups in town is rising up to meet the challenge in a variety of ways. These groups are rejecting the notion that there is one way to address health and poverty, and are employing a “systems approach” – interrelated, multi-pronged strategies -- to integrate health changes holistically and preventatively into people’s lives. It would be hard to find someone in the 318 who’s thought about these issues more, and has rolled her sleeves up higher, than Grace Peterson of the LSU Ag Center. As the Ag Center’s area nutrition agent, Peterson has devoted her career to addressing what she defines as the four major barriers to acquiring healthful food: lack of physical access, high cost of nutritious food, lack of knowledge of how to make healthy food choices, and lack of skills needed to prepare food healthily. The community gardens in low-income neighborhoods that have sprung up under her guidance through the Red River Coalition of Community Gardeners are designed to address these four barriers through education and community engagement. “We’re not just growing healthy food, we are using a systems approach to building healthy communities,” said Peterson. “In creating a community health hub, we provide education for healthy lifestyles and empower people to share their unique contributions.” Peterson attributes her secret to finding opportunities for people to directly experience diet changes within a supportive environment. By giving people self-efficacy the belief
in one’s ability to succeed – in growing, cooking and eating healthier foods, she’s seen behavior change take root. Her educational program aimed at youth called Food Initiative Taskforce for Kids, or FIT for Kids, involves after-school activities and a summer program. In fact, the teenagers who run the Valencia Urban Youth Garden are seeing the benefits of sustainable farming as a promising business model, selling their organic produce to Wine Country Bistro. The Martin Luther King Health Center and Pharmacy, a nonprofit primary care health center and charitable pharmacy that serves uninsured or under-insured patients, is building a raft of wellness programming aimed at disease prevention and healthier living. Their new Everyday Choices Garden and Learning Center includes greenhouse gardens and an outdoor pavilion for exercise classes, cooking courses and other wellness programming. According to executive director Janet Mentesane, the new program serves as a learning laboratory, shifting the healthcare paradigm for underserved patients from a reactive model to a proactive one. The MLK Health Center is carefully tracking this new wellness program with the expectation that half of their 1500 patients will see positive improvements in lifestyle, fitness and dietary changes. The Northwest Louisiana Interfaith Pharmacy, which serves as a safety net for individuals who have chronic disease and limited financial resources, is following the same proactive, preventative route with their Healthy Living classes and vegetable garden. Of the clients participating in the Healthy Living classes, Interfaith Pharmacy reports that 50% have maintained a healthy lifestyle change for three months or longer. For a very vulnerable population that might be homeless or home insecure – even one step towards better health, such as quitting smoking or eating more fresh fruit, can make a significant difference. At Common Ground Community, a nearly all-volunteer driven organization with support from area churches to help relieve poverty in Cedar Grove, bang for buck -programmatically speaking -- is key. In efforts to make the biggest impact in health and poverty, the group has innovated a Thursday night community market. The focus is on empowerment and engagement, whereby each of 80+ families is given a personal shopper to consult on recipes and meal planning and help “shop” the free food and household item pantry. The results are both subtle and profound. “We’ve seen more dignity and less waste in offering people a market to shop, instead of handing them a bag of pre-selected food,” said Lisa Conly Cronin, Common Ground’s Chief Financial Officer. “Interestingly, we’ve also seen deepening relationships with volunteer staff and clients through the personal shopper relationship, which makes us all the more effective.” Shreveport Green has also gotten involved in a more holistic approach to food justice, leveraging the yield from its many community produce gardens around town and at the Food Bank into a Mobile Market, that brings the fresh food into food desert neighborhoods and offers cooking demos. Acting as area- and citywide umbrellas are the farmers’ markets and the membership organization Slow Food North Louisiana. The Shreveport Farmer’s market, the
largest and oldest of the bunch, accepts SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) as part of its mission to encourage a strong, local food system and encourage stewardship of land and community through public markets. Slow Food North Louisiana is a chapter of Slow Food USA and was founded on the notion that food should be good, clean and fair for all. In promoting an understanding of where food comes from -- in connecting the planet to the plate -- Slow Food supports a mission of food sustainability and equity. The nonprofit’s advocacy, education and access through local events bring together “foodies,” growers and farmers, local chefs and individuals seeking greater social justice through food. ALLENDALE AS TEST KITCHEN It is both heartening and exciting to see so many organizations spending their considerable energy and talents dynamically addressing the poverty and health in Shreveport. It seems certain that positive change will take place. And for that change to be sustainable, to gain enough traction to make a citywide difference and take root in the low-income neighborhoods most deeply affected, it must be one that also addresses the many inequities surrounding the lack of access to food. We’ve got a “test kitchen” for that in Allendale. Unlike the provider-client model or organizations whose members, clients or staff are predominantly middle-to-upper income, the Fuller Grocery in Allendale will be managed and run by Allendale residents, its shelves stocked by the demands of its resident customers, and nutritional classes and health
screenings tailored to the requests of residents. The Fuller Grocery and Deli is putting its social mission of improving neighborhood health out into the playing field of the market. And in this way, its sum is greater than its parts. More than a neighborhood grocery, more than a nonprofit devoted to social change, it’s a test case for holistically addressing the iceberg of issues surrounding poverty and health in one small neighborhood. It’s a signal for how the well being of one of our most vulnerable populations might improve. And for a city as interconnected as ours, this represents an important prediction for us all.
ON THE RECORD A DUCATI-RIDING DAD AND A MUSIC INDUSTRY INSIDER, CHRIS BELL FINDS HIS GROOVE IN SHREVEPORT BY CHRIS JAY
S
eated at a massive mixing console inside of Echophone Recording Studios — the Shreveport recording studio founded by Brady Blade and known, until recently, as Blade Studios — 46-year-old mix engineer Chris Bell looks, honestly, kind of intimidating. A tall, slender guy with shoulder-length hair and a serious countenance, Bell has worked with the likes of Destiny’s Child, U2, The Eagles, Erykah Badu, and Earth, Wind and Fire, just to name a few of the bigger names on his resume. In 1998, he was nominated for a Grammy for his work with contemporary soul artist Kirk Franklin, and the fantastic 2014 album Landmarks by Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, which Bell engineered, was a Grammy nominee for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. His youthful looks belie the fact that Bell is a recognized veteran with 25 years of experience in the recording industry. He currently serves as a governor and co-chair of the producers and engineers wing of the Memphis chapter of The Recording Academy, the national association of music industry professionals that oversees the Grammy Awards. He also currently serves as dad to an 11 year-old daughter, who has recently — for the first time - expressed an interest in accompanying him to the Grammy Awards ceremony. “We’re discussing the Grammys this year,” Bell said with a wry smile. “She asked ‘Are you gonna take me this time?’ She’s never asked that before so, yeah, I’m gonna take her.”
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Bell was born in Seattle and moved to Dallas at age 11, where he grew up surrounded by music. His mother was a vinyl record collector who would reward him for good behavior with a trip to the local record store, where he would pick up records by KISS, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. His grandfather, who Bell describes as “a jazz guy and an audiophile,” unknowingly set Bell on his career path by handing down a reel-to-reel recorder to his grandson, who used the machine to record guitar licks with his friends. “I was playing with tape machines when I was really young, like 12 years old,” Bell said. Despite his grandfather’s best attempts to interest him in an architecture-related career, Bell found himself without a clear path after high school. He’d begun teaching himself multitrack recording, and an ex-girlfriend encouraged him to pursue recording and mixing music for a living. “I remember saying ‘Is that a job? Can you actually do that for a living?’” He enrolled in a local community college that had recently introduced a recording arts program “to get a handle on the basics of studio engineering.” His instructor saw potential in Bell and invited him to accept an internship at a local recording studio. As it turned out, that internship — which Bell left college early in order to accept — was with Sound Logic, the first 24-track recording studio in Texas.
As more and more music is produced digitally, with drum machines and synthesizers replacing live drums and instruments in many studios, Bell has moved in the opposite direction, specializing in microphone placement, tracking live instruments and making use of the warm, full tone provided by analog recording equipment. Jazz artist and Shreveport native Brian Blade recorded his Grammy-nominated 2014 album, Landmarks, at Echophone Recording Studios with Bell as engineer. “I have worked with many engineers, and what makes Chris so good is not just his understanding of the science of recording sound, but also his ability to create a productive environment in the studio,” Blade said. “He brings focus and energy to the studio, as well as good humor and flexibility. His love of the recording process, as well as his attentiveness to the folks in the room through very long and intense days of recording, is of immeasurable value.” Recently, legendary songwriter and Eagles front-man Don Henley invited Bell to engineer sessions for Henley’s new solo album, Cass County, which debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums list. Bell had previously worked with Henley to engineer The Eagles’ hit comeback record, Long Road Out of Eden. Cass County has a lush, vibrant and timeless sound that has won over critics and fans alike. It is a beautifully crafted record. “With someone like Don Henley, he knows what he’s doing,” Bell said. “I respect him immensely, he’s one of the best songwriters in the world. When I’m on his team, I stay in my lane. It’s not my place, really, to tell him anything.” While that may seem like a simple statement, it embodies the work ethos and personal philosophy that has made Bell a successful engineer: Use the right gear, capture the best possible recording and stay out of the way of the creative process. That creative process can mean long nights at the studio, stressful exchanges between artists and all of the standard trappings that come with creative collaborations between a group of individuals. When Bell is working on a big record and he begins to feel burnout setting in, he’s got a tried-and-true method of clearing his head. “That’s why I’ve got a motorcycle,” Bell said. “You get on the motorcycle and there’s no music, no one can call you. You’re by yourself and you can think clearly. You’re focused on one thing, and that’s just driving the motorcycle. It’s almost like meditation.” Bell’s passion for motorcycles is more than a hobby. When he lived in Texas, he raced Grand Prix bikes and even placed second in a state championship race. His grandparents retired to Monterey, California, where Bell and his mom would attend races at the Laguna Seca Raceway during visits. Watching the Grand Prix bikes roar past at speeds of up to 170 miles per hour, Bell thought: “I could do that.” “You can learn a lot when you’re racing a bike,” Bell said. “It teaches you responsibility — you could die out there. There’s also a real camaraderie between you and the other guys who are out there doing 100 miles per hour right next to one another.” When his daughter was born, he sold off his racing gear. Recently, he took an inventory of his life and asked: “What’s missing?” The answer was a motorcycle. These days, Bell is
the proud owner of a Ducati Panigale, which he describes as “the perfect motorcycle.” He occasionally participates in long-distance rides with the Ducati Club of Houston or, when he just needs to feel the open road, takes the bike out for a ride along largely empty stretches of I-49 North. “I forgot that I missed that so much,” Bell said. “I’ve just come to the realization that I’ve gotta have a bike.” Shreveport may not seem like the most natural base of operations for a music industry insider with a taste for Italian motorcycles, but Bell has found his groove here. He doesn’t go out as much as he once did, but his favorite hangouts include places like Stray Cat and Brass Monkey. He’ll drop in to catch live sets from local bands like Hydrogen Child and Seratones. The size of Shreveport, which is large enough to feel like a proper city, but small enough to feel less oppressive than a metropolis like New York City or Los Angeles, suits him. It also suits the artists who visit Shreveport to record at Echophone. “They love it here. They love the people, and they love the fact that it’s not over-developed yet. Shreveport has character,” Bell said. He recalls a visit from Dave Matthews and Jakob Dylan, when both musicians fell in love with the downtown Shreveport bar Stray Cat and Dylan (lead singer of popular rock group The Wallflowers and son of Bob Dylan) surprised Bell by developing a fascination with walking along local train tracks. “Jakob was like ‘I just went walking down those railroad tracks again, that’s so cool.’ I said ‘Man, be careful where you’re walkin’, but yeah, it is pretty cool,’” Bell said with a laugh. “The character and the vibe here in Shreveport go a long way. Especially if you’re a creative person. There’s just a feel in this city. You feel the beginning stages of something cool.” Bell is quick to point out that Echophone doesn’t solely cater to huge, established acts. He’s always had a passion for nurturing new talent, and wants the aspiring musicians of Shreveport to know that he’s interested in working with them. In a way, he feels that his track record of working with household names has led unestablished artists to wrongly assume that they’d never be able to work with him. He points to the debut album by local act The Randians as one of his favorite records that he’s engineered during his time in Shreveport. “I’ll work with anybody. If you don’t have a lot of money, but I’m into what you’re doing, we’ll find a way to make it happen.”
Congratulations Dr. Russ Van Norman. Newly elected President of the Shreveport Medical Society 2016
Dr. Russ Van Norman has been serving Shreveport/ Bossier and the surrounding area since 2004. He specializes in cataract surgery including the Lensx Laser Surgical platform and premium intraocular lenses. As the area’s only two year fellowship trained cornea specialist, he is also experienced in LASIK, Advanced Surface Ablation, and the newest forms of cornea transplantation. Dr. Van Norman is currently accepting new patients and welcomes the opportunity to enhance your vision, as well as, your doctor/patient experience.
RUSS VAN NORMAN, M.D. 471 Ashley Ridge, Shreveport, LA 318-861-4009 shreveporteyeclinic.com
December
DOZEN Shreveport’s 12 Most Exclusive Gift Ideas
by Michael Walker
$1,200.00
Waiting for Dinner by Juli Crews
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Sometimes it’s the ordinary moments in life that get overlooked in our fast paced world, but artist Julie Crews has a knack for capturing those moments and making them extraordinary. Julie is an oil painter searching for the beauty in the mundane and concentrates primarily on everyday surroundings like landscapes, interiors and people. For a commissioned piece, Julie will come into the subject’s home, looking for a glimpse of personality to inform the work and create a one of a kind piece. Commissioned pieces vary in price based on size and subject. Learn more about Julie and her work at www.juliecrews.com.
SHOP TALK: BY ELLES ROCK
W
ith decades of experience, whether in men’s clothing, women’s clothing, sportswear, gifts and linens, or jewelry, this group of retailers serves a passionate and dedicated collection of return customers. Shreveport Magazine sat down for a morning cup of coffee with five of the city’s local retail business owners – Knox Goodman, owner of Knox Goodman’s Boutique; Matthew Brown, owner of Sportspectrum; John Pickens, owner of John Pickens Clothiers; Trisha Hogan, owner of The Village Washstand; and Sid Potts, owner of Sid Potts, Inc. – to talk local business, setting trends, Internet competition, and the evolution of this industry in Shreveport, as well as their own businesses.
Give us a brief history of how you started your business. KG
I opened on my dining room table in 1974 representing a designer in New York. She invited me to New York and I went in September of 1974, and came back with a little, green suitcase full of jewelry. I opened up out of my home two afternoons a week. At the time you couldn’t advertise a business in the neighborhood, so I would write cards to people and then the news eventually traveled by word of mouth. We went public in 1981 and then moved twelve years later to my current shop, Knox Goodman’s Boutique, on Azalea.
TH
In 1976 a man who owned a shop called Gatehouse in Pierremont Common called me and asked if I would be a linens and place setting buyer for his shop. The more my mother and I looked into it, we decided that we could do our own shop in that location within that niche, so we talked to the man and he agreed. Mother and I opened The Village Washstand in Pierremont Common that year and have been open ever since. Today the shop is a third generation business with the help of my three daughters: Elizabeth, Molly, and Annie.
MB
It all started for me in 1972 in my basement. I grew up in a tennis family, so I started stringing racquets and selling tennis equipment out of my basement. In the summer of 1980 my brother took a tennis pro position at Pierremont Oaks tennis club and threw me in as a package deal to run the shop, and that was really the start. We opened up Sportspectrum two years later in Portico Shopping Center. We made our big move to Fern Avenue seven years ago, in 2008. It was my dream store that I had wanted all my life and it’s the best thing we’ve ever done.
SP
I’ve been in the jewelry business for 36 years. For the first 18 years I was a buyer and a regional manager for a major jewelry chain and then for the last 18 years I’ve been running my own jewelry store, Sid Potts, Inc. We go all over the world to sell and buy jewelry, and people from all over the world come to see us.
JP
I started working at Rosenblath’s in 1989 and went on my first buying trip with them within the first year. In 1993 I took over the store and then worked with them until it closed in 2003, and that’s when I opened up myself as John Pickens Clothiers. Rosenblath’s always had a niche, and I inherited that niche.
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What is “going to market” really like in the retail world? JP
Going to market is a lot of hard work. It consists of non-stop, ten-hour days. In Dallas and Vegas I have appointments every hour on the hour. In New York, the appointments are all over town so there are about four or five per day. It’s more exhausting than you would think.
KG
It’s not all glamorous. One of my old friends once described going to market with a saying. “You can’t sell out of an empty wagon, but you can have so much it breaks the axle.”
A Letter From
TH
My mother used to say, “Quality is not always a price tag, just like class is not always the amount of money you have. It’s what you bring to the table and it’s how you treat people. It’s worth what you pay for.”
KG
I’m trying to fit the person who needs a meeting-greeting-drinking-and-praying dress, and also have them feel like we can get it altered at their convenience. Being of personal service is how I built my business. Now, if someone buys a $20 pair of earrings or a $150 dress, or even if they just come into the store to look around, I write thank you notes to thank them for their business.
MB
Our customers of today come in the store with already so much more information. They’ll come in to try a shoe on, but they have already done all the research. However, they are still coming into the store. At that point, it’s just important that we have the shoe in stock and in their size, because if we don’t they’ll order it right then online.
SP
I deal with this everyday. The Internet is great in this business as an information system and really allows us to learn things more quickly, but there is still something about touching and feeling something before you buy it. When you actually put a piece of jewelry on someone it lights up and you can see the color, the size, everything!
How do you use your local business to support the community? JP
When someone comes and shops with any of us and supports our businesses, we get income from that and, in turn, go out into the community and spend the money. One hundred percent of the money stays here with our employees, our product, and our type of sales base. If you were to go out and shop at a chain, a lot of money does not stay here in this community.
MB
We started doing races just as an avenue to bring customers through our door, and from that point it expanded almost into a company in itself. Where we were putting on a handful of races per year at first, now we’re doing about 125 races per year, most of which are partnered with charities and generating a lot of charitable money in the community. It’s been a win/win situation.
SP
I really believe in Shreveport and try to pour alot into the community. You don’t see us buying alot of billboards or things such as that because we like to be able to give back to our community instead. It’s our responsability to support the culture here in Shreveport whether it is through the local school systems, the symphony, the opera, the regional arts council, or even local businesses such as The Robinson Film Center. I really believe that helping make Shreveport become better through those aspects comes ful circle as a local business owner. How do you compete with Internet companies who sell similar items online and ship straight to customers’ doorsteps?
TH
There will always be a customer who wants to shop online, there’s no way around that, but they won’t have the same experience as our customers have when they actually walk through the door. Luckily our shop sells a product that you really need to touch and see to know what you want, but I also have my three daughters who have helped tremendously when it comes to our shop’s online presence. I definitely couldn’t do it without them.
How did you find your niche in business that you are truly passionate about? JP
My grandmother used to spoil me rotten with clothes. When I was fourteen I would ride by bike to Pope’s to buy polo shirts. That’s where my passion for men’s clothing started but I never thought I would go into the business until I started working for Rosenblath’s in college, and it snowballed from there pretty quickly.
KG
I’m passionate about being honest with my customers. It’s a great feeling to go to an event where a woman who came into the shop attends and looks beautiful in the dress you helped her select. I’ve found my niche in helping women look their best, and I love it.
HOME FURNISHINGS | FINE LINENS | SOUTHERN APPAREL
The Village Washstand Est. 1976
Be Merry (318) 865-8553 6505 LINE AVENUE | 38 PIERREMONT COMMON | SHREVEPORT, LA 71106
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME Thanks in part to Index Drums, Good Granoly, and Pelican Parish, Shreveport’s maker scene is expanding its geographic footprint, introducing other parts of the state, the country, and even the world to the unique flavors, images, and sounds that animate our current cultural moment. But these businesses also remain firmly rooted in the local culture from which they originally emerged, and their creators are committed to keeping it that way. “The Shreveport creative community is very supportive and collaborative, and I often have the opportunity to discuss challenges and brainstorm with other like-minded individuals,” says Jeremy Johnson. “My peers have been a great source of encouragement and motivation — and have been honest with me when I have a dumb idea.” Katy Larsen’s Agora Borealis art market in downtown Shreveport, opened in July 2014, is intentionally harnessing this energy in an effort to stimulate the local economy and encourage the kind of supportive, collaborative creative community that Johnson describes. Larsen includes products created by Cole, Johnson, and King in the Agora’s eclectic inventory that showcases local products, many of them made by hand and a majority from re-used or recycled materials (not the Good Granoly — don’t worry!). Small businesses like the Agora Borealis and Shreveport’s ever-increasing schedule of outdoor arts and farmer’s markets will make it possible for creative ventures like Index Drums, Good Granoly, and Pelican Parish to thrive and continue to expand. “We still ship drums all over the world,” explains Paul King, “but Shreveport Music and the Texas Avenue Makers Fair account for a significant chunk of our business.” “I love Shreveport,” adds Kelli Cole. “I’m thankful I can contribute to a community that I have received so much from.” Learn more about how Kelli, Jeremy, and Paul are enriching and enlivening Shreveport, and letting the world in on the “secret,” too. Visit them locally at the Agora Borealis and online.
customers. “The ‘You Are My Sunshine’ shirt tends to trigger a lot of nostalgia – most folks have a story about how they sang that song to their children, or their parents sang it to them, or they heard it at a special time in their lives. I like to help them make a connection to those cherished memories.” For Johnson and other local makers, the drive to continue innovating and expanding their brands is probably partly fueled by the “little thrill” that he experiences when he sees someone wearing a Pelican Parish shirt in public — especially someone he doesn’t already know, which is happening more and more. “The brand already has a life beyond my circle of friends, and beyond North Louisiana,” says Johnson. “I feel that I’ve tapped into something larger than myself.”