Taylor Phillips Relaunches Goodpark NYC, Touching on the Power of Positive Messaging and Community
LONDON — Goodpark NYC, a men’s apparel brand based in New York City, is restarting again after a quick stint in the summer of 2022.
“When I decided to do it, I couldn’t really find a manufacturing partner to take me on, I didn’t have a ton of money to bootstrap it per se. At the time I was looking for a partner that was full service as far as manufacturing and customer service goes, so I ended up partnering with an influencer merch manufacturer, which is not what I wanted to do,” said Taylor Phillips, the brand’s founder, in an interview.
More from WWD
He used that first launch collection as a barometer of success and to get feedback that could steer him in the right direction. Phillips had to reorder the collection three times due to it selling out instantly.
“I shot a YouTube vlog of the day because I was watching people buy it on Shopify; I could see their live location and it was just such an overwhelming experience to buy products that I came up with,” he said, adding that soon after, his manufacturer went bankrupt and took all of his data.
Luckily for Phillips, he uses his 384,000 Instagram followers as a sounding board rather than gambling on chance.
For the relaunch of Goodpark NYC, he went back to the drawing board and asked his followers, who are also his immediate demographic: “What do you want? Do you like this color or that color? Do you like this logo or that logo? Do you like something heavyweight or light?”
“The goal for Goodpark NYC is to make it further than I have,” said Phillips half jokingly, admitting that he’s serious about this new phase of the brand and wants to build a business on the back of it that’s separate from his own social following.
This time around the runs are smaller, as is the unisex collection which consists of three T-shirts; two sweat sets and four hats in shades of maroon red, cobalt blue and white.
Throughout the collection, there’s a common thread of positive messaging. The T-shirts have taglines that say “kindness knows no strangers,” “there’s a good world out there, enjoy it” or “I hope something good happens to you today.”
“I’ve been doing the influencer, content creator, social media thing full time for seven-and-a-half years, sharing my life actively for a very long time. One of the main takeaways from that experience was just how valuable communities are and how much you can build when you share with other people, but as I’ve gotten older, and as things have gotten more busy, sharing my life isn’t scalable, it can only go so far,” said Phillips candidly.
He’s currently using his New York apartment for inventory and is shipping everything out by himself, from labeling the packages to writing little thank-you cards.
Goodpark NYC is anticipating three to four drops a year at most, but right now Phillips favors a slower approach as the brand focuses on creating something meaningful with quality.
“This time I’ve been working with a fashion designer, specifically for the next few collections to develop really strong pieces. I’m not saying I’m making the most differentiated hoodie of all time, but I’m creating things that are smart,” said Phillips.
For example, he’s using a soft fabric for the T-shirts’ necklines to stop irritation of the skin and other little quirks that he picked up on when comparing the clothes he has in his own wardrobe.
“I was using my construction tape measure to figure things out, like how thick I wanted the collars to be and the hems,” said Phillips, who used all of 2023 to source new manufacturers and branding agencies to really test how far he can take Goodpark NYC beyond just loyal Instagram followers.
The campaign collection nods to the founder’s own formative years watching films on VHS tapes and the grainy quality of photos which has become sensationalized online among Millennials and Gen-Z. He filmed and shot some of the images and videos for the campaign on his old JVC handycam from 2006.
“I wanted people to remember what life used to be like when they were younger and the idea of Goodpark is that it’s this club that everyone’s invited to,” said Phillips.
He wanted to incorporate as much of a human touch as possible — the flat lays of the products are on white canvases rather than white background to “create some level of attachment” to the items, he said. That element of affability reaches the brand’s name, its namesake being Phillips’ dog Parker and Central Park.
Best of WWD
