OKGO Store is a curated thrift store based in Subang Jaya operated by a husband and wife duo (Zamir and Shakira). It has been in operation since 2017. They are an aesthetic-conscious brand who believes in having fun in what they do. OKGO Store practices a community based approach in which they collaborate closely with students, freelancers or creative individuals and they also use their platform to educate their customers on the proper art of thrifting.
Why did you name your brand ‘OKGO Store’?
The name OKGO is short for ‘okay, let’s go.’ We wanted to use a name that sounded catchy and had a nice ring to it. The word OKGO is also commonly associated with the act of going somewhere. For example, if you are waiting on a red light and it turns green, most of us will say ‘Ok, go.’. Hence, we wanted the name OKGO to resonate with our customers.
How has your brand changed since you first started?
From selling clothes online on our Instagram to being based at a small shop in a shopping mall at USJ 19, we have evolved into a proper store at one of the more popular streets in Subang Jaya. Our customer base has also grown ever since we first started. We were also able to grow and expand our selection of clothes.
What was an unexpected lesson you learned from running your brand?
The COVID-19 pandemic is definitely one of the more unexpected challenges we had to overcome. Given the unpredictable nature of the virus, we also had to comply with multiple Movement Control Orders (MCO) which changes from time to time. Recently, we have started to sell our product via Instagram Live Sessions on our Instagram to compensate for the lack of walk-in customers during this Conditional MCO period.
What is your favourite part about managing the brand?
Being able to exercise our creative juices aside from curating clothes for the store. From making lookbooks, creating content for our social media, fashion styling to collaborating with talented individuals on projects, we are very lucky to use the store as our platform and playground to express our creativity.
Like most businesses, we are constantly thinking of ways on how to grow bigger.
Where do you normally source your materials for your product?
We mainly source our clothes from Japan and America. Occasionally, we do get our clothes from Canada. We also have a small team that source out clothes from other thrift or bundle stores in Klang Valley as well. Sometimes, we would buy clothes from Instagram thrift stores for items that are rare to fulfil our customer’s needs.
What is the direction you would like to see for the brand in the future?
We managed to use those free time we had during the MCO to shed new ideas for us to take our store to a whole new level. Like most businesses, we are constantly thinking of ways on how to grow bigger. Ultimately, we want OKGO Store to be more than just a thrift store and we have plans to open another branch in a different area once the pandemic is over.