Snap decisions - Images magazine

IS DECORATOR PROFILE
Snap decisions
Mr Snappy’s has come up with a profitable twist on the print-while-you-wait shops with the company offering
customers bang on-trend snapbacks personalised with 3D embroidery in the time it takes to catch a Pokémon
L
ondon’s Camden Market is known
around the world and is the capital’s
fourth most popular tourist attraction,
drawing up to 100,000 people each weekend. The market is, in fact, a series of street
and indoor markets, comprising a warren of
shops and outdoor stalls packed with clothes,
food, tourist tat and covetable accessories.
It’s a good place to get lost in, and it took
Images 20 minutes and the advice of five
different stall holders to track down the Mr
Snappy’s shop tucked away on the basement
floor of the impressive Stables Market.
At first glance Mr Snappy’s looks like any
other shop selling snapbacks. And then
you notice the two single-head embroidery
machines humming away. Unlike the other
shops and stalls selling headwear in Camden Market, Mr Snappy’s is set up to allow
customers to come in, choose a hat from
the extensive collection on display, select
a font from the shop’s font book and then
have it embroidered while they wait. Normal
embroidery takes around 15 minutes; 3D
takes nearer 25 minutes. It’s a clever concept
and, given the number of people coming in
and out of the shop (some to buy, some just
to gawp at the machines working away) and
phoning up throughout our interview, it’s
clearly a popular one.
There isn’t a store like
us in the UK
”
The business’s owner, Simon Parchment,
who has been customising garments and
caps for more than 15 years, started off doing vinyl work on garments, landing a big job
for JP Morgan in the year 2000. The profit
from this allowed him to set up an office
One of the Barudan single-heads in action
54 IMAGES AUGUST 2016
Owner Simon Parchment
in Deptford, London, next door to urban
magazine RWD. He customised a cap for the
boyfriend of one of the journalists there, who
was so impressed she introduced him to New
Era, the international headwear company.
Simon subsequently did two big events for
New Era as well as creating five caps for actor
Will Smith.
By now he was also customising garments
for up and coming rap artists, collaborating in a fashion show in London as well as
going to Jamaica to work on Caribbean
Fashion Week. The owner of a boutique in
the upmarket shopping area of Kings Road,
London, then approached Simon about
selling his customised products in his shop.
Simon, however, had
a better plan: “I said it
would be good to have
a set-up in his shop
where people can come
and get items done on
the spot or come back
later to pick them up.”
The owner agreed, and
Simon worked there for
a couple of years before
moving on to a boutique in the even more
upmarket shopping area
of New Bond Street,
customising everything
from trainers to jeans,
and meeting many A-list
celebs.
As he continued in his quest to expand
his knowledge of design, Simon spent time
at the record label EMI creating T-shirts for
the likes of Queen and Pasha Nightclub and
building up his graphic design skills. These
skills allowed him to start working with a
Turkish wholesaler, designing decorated Tshirts and other garments to sell in London.
They already had a couple of clients in Camden when they decided to open their own
T-shirt shop in the Stables Market.
A change of tack
The shop, which is in Simon’s name, was
opened nearly four years ago, but after a few
months it was clear there was an issue. “We
could just about pay the rent and the staff
but that was it, so I said I’d come in,” says
Simon. “It would save a bit of money and
I’d be able to see if I could get it working.”
After two months he decided a change of
tack was needed. “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to change my strategy. I need to do what
I’m good at, which is customising, but just
pick one product.’ Before, I used to do jeans,
trainers, jackets, hats, everything, but I didn’t
want to be a jack of all trades and master of
none, so I thought I’d pick one product and
put all my creative energy into it.”
He decided on hats: “Hats are very versatile,
you can wear them any time, and the area
of decoration is very small, which means less
materials, which means speed, which means
I can bang out more products. It was a no
brainer. Snapbacks were coming out as well,
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