The Sampler - Interviews: Keith & Chris of fredflare.com!

November Interview: Keith & Chris of fredflare.com!

Keith and Chris getting Crafty!

fredflare.com is the online shop and brainchild of Chris Bick and Keith Carollo, two super sweet guys who moved from Chicago to Brooklyn to start their first "boutique" -- selling drink coasters off the back of their bike.

Since then, fredflare.com has hit internet stardom as one of the cutest, hippest and happiest web shops in existence -- a site not just for shopping, but featuring contests celebrating up-and-coming artists, crafters and designers; interviews; trivia; recipes; an amazing video podcast and heaps and piles of good-natured enthusiasm.

Keith and Chris were kind enough to agree to a two-part interview with the Sampler. Part one is an IM chat in standard Sampler style, making for a super fun, somewhat random, interview of awesome power. Believe! Part two, which will be posted in December, will be a reader Q & A. If you'd like to submit your own questions for the pair, please feel free to email them to Marie [at] homeofthesampler [dot] com.

Oh, and be on the lookout for a contribution from fredflare.com in the Dec./Jan. Sampler!

Keith: Hi Marie!

Hello, Keith!

Chris: Hi Marie! This is totes exciting!!!

Keith: TOTES!

How are you fine fellas this morning?

Keith: Don't laugh. This is like our first time IM'ing...

Chris: Evah!

HA! I mean, not ha. On the off chance that someone reading this hasn't heard of fred flare, could you give us a brief synopsis? Who is fred flare and why!?

Chris: Sure, fred began about 8 yrs ago. Keith and I moved to NYC from Chi-town and were blown away by all the shopping here. We wanted a piece of the action! We started with a line of stationery that we sold off the back of our Pee-Wee Herman bike in SoHo. Eventually we had our stationery sold in stores around the country. Sounds easy but it was supes hard. We started the website more as a kinda hobby -- It seemed like the thing to do at the time -- but it really took on a life of its own. It was WAY more fun than wholesale so we decided to focus exclusively on our online store fredflare.com and now we ship cuteness all over the globe!

Can you describe your early stationery line in haiku?

Chris: Okay, haiku:

mint and dots we print
coasters in a flatmate stint
what are these you ask?

Keith: Hahahaha. It's true! When we first started selling our paper items on the street, no one knew what they were. They'd pick up our pads of disposable drink coasters packaged in shiny clear plastic and ask, Oh wow, are these bathroom tiles? I guess some of the stuff was rather high-concept.

Chris: And fashion stationery was sorta revolutionary in the 90's! Hahahaha! You know everyone always misspells stationery with an "a"? Makes me CRAZE! ARY is not moving ERY is paper.

Keith: Of course, stationery is still very dear to us...

Chris: It's our roots.

Keith: I still have a pen pal.

I love you, Keith.

Keith: I love you, too!

Awwww. How did you guys get to know each other?

Chris: I worked at Urban Outfitters in Chicago. Keith was in a dance performance and I took one look at him and was like "HE'S FOR ME!" Then I stalked him for one year until he gave in.

NICE. I think all the best stories begin with a stalking.

Chris: We would actually follow each other around and then run round the block so you could get in front of the other to see if he would follow you. We were such nerds... Can't believe we never thought of talking to each other...

Keith: Those were good times. CJ is amazing!! I've never met anyone as enthusiastic as him ever... Stalking is part of his charm. He's like that with the merch too... He sees something cute and won't stop bugging the Buying department and everyone else in the office until we get it in stock for our customers.

When you finally got together, did you just immediately start making stuff? Was it creative-match-made-in-heaven?

Keith: Yeah, it kinda was. One of the first things we made together was a small puppet theatre. We made sock puppets and performed for our friends. Weird.

Chris: Oh, that puppet theater was so amazing! I wish we still had it. It had removable backdrops.

Does working together affect your personal relationship?

Keith: Definitely. Working together certainly has made our relationship stronger. I'd say we fight less and less with each year that passes, actually. Would you agree, CJ?

Chris: Gosh, we don't really have any time to fight... Hahahaha.

Keith: True. I think cuz you are just forced all the time to work stuff out -- make a decision and MOVE ON.

Chris: It's like, I have about 5 minutes for this argument, so let's fast-track this make-up!

Keith: And you also learn who's good at what, and also learn to just shut up and trust the other.

You know what would, if I may borrow from the fred flare lexicon, *totes* rock hardcore? If you could do the entire fred flare story in haiku.

Keith: Hmmm. Okay, I'll try this one:

cute. make you smile.
make you super happy too.
all we want to do.

Keith: Also, Yes. Please use TOTES. We actually put in the dictionary. Have you ever done that at webster.com?

NO. You can DO THAT?

Keith: Yeah, here's a link, if you're interested: http://www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/ ADD THE SAMPLER TO THE DICTIONARY!

"Totes" in the dictionary!

What was the hardest part of going from bike-based-biz to super-globo-attack-machine-of-cute?

Chris: Hmmmm. Lack of cash! Being scrappy! But we chugged along. In the dot bomb, we were like the little rats that scurried around as the dino's died... Hopefully we'll evolve to humans someday.

And when you started the FF website, was it always your intention to include items from other peeps?

Chris: No, not at all! We decided in 2003, after doing all these trade shows and meeting all these awesome peeps that make stuff. We wanted to just try it, feature select items designed by our besties, and it did really well. That's when we decided to really focus on the retail. It was just... fun.

Keith: Really fun. It's always changing. I like being a retailer almost more than being a designer sometimes cuz it just seems so much more open. You're not stuck in your own world all the time, know what I mean? You can embrace all these different voices.

I know that people are grateful for that opportunity!

Chris: No, WE'RE grateful that there's so much cute stuff out there and we especially love that we get to help younger designers grow their businesses.

Keith: That part is a delight for us. I used to run a small performance space in SF and I'd put on all these lil' variety shows and my FAVE peeps were ALWAYS the peeps that had never really performed before. That energy and excitement is the MOST! It's really inspiring.

How do you guys maintain your enthusiasm and energy?

Keith: It's hard sometimes.

You're wicked energetic in your podcasts.

Chris: 100% 24/7/365! I try my best, but it's hard when the whole world isn't a mirror to that energy. It's my personal mission to show everyone a good time. I'll be your good time gurl!

Whose idea was it to have a podcast?

Chris: We have a friend out in LA who works in TV. We really wanted to do a fred flare variety show... like Pee Wee meets Jenny McCarthy.

Keith: For realzz.

Chris: We pitched the idea and it kinda fizzled. It's hard to get a huge idea like that off the ground.

Keith: Someday...

Chris: It wasn't until this past Feb when they piped up with "Wanna do a podcast?" And I was like, I have no idea what that is... but I want one! Then the filming began.

I have no idea what a moral conscience is, but I want one.

Keith: Ha ha! And it's been a rollercoaster ever since.

Speaking of rollercoasters, my fiancé and I watched a bunch of your podcasts last night. We especially loved your video from the rollercoaster -- we've ridden that rollercoaster, too! I believe Ben's words were: Best home movie ever...

Chris & Keith on the rollercoaster at the New York, New York casino in Las Vegas -- a segment from the fred flare podcast!

Keith: That was our very very first bit of filming ever for the podcast. What a way to start, right? But we're like that. We just jump right in to stuff. It's actually quite a metaphor for us, that rollercoaster, cuz I defs think running your own biz is a totes roller coaster of highs and lows...

Chris: Omg, I hate that roller coaster. : )

I will tell you one more thing Ben said: That Keith has complete mastery of his hula hoop. He is totally in control...

Hoop Starz! -- a segment from the fred flare podcast!!

Keith: Um and hula hoops are RAD!

Chris: Keith has practiced hooping in a dance studio... He's totes profesh!

Keith: Yeah, I have a Flashdance fantasy and sometimes go practice in front of mirrors in a dance studio. I even wear legwarmers sometimes...

Chris: Sometimes?!?

Are you a maniac? Maniac on the floor?

Keith: Yes!!! Maniac!!!

Chris: And he's dancing like he's never danced b4.

Keith: Ha ha ha! I actually had this friend in 6th grade... A cute chubby boy named Scott and we would listen to FLASHDANCE on vinyl in his basement and boogie down. We were total loser nerds - sometimes my glasses would fling off -- but we had HOT moves.

Chris: I still do the sweaty running in place move at the gym when no one's looking.

Keith: I OWN FLASHDANCE, BTW.

Chris: I am Flashdance btw.

owned!

Keith: OMG, it's getting hot in here. I'm taking off my torn sweatshirt right now.

Chris: Hot. Dial 1-800-HOT-HOTT.

Keith: Um, did you ever call that 1-900-2020202 or something like that. Connections, I think it was called? I loved their jingle: Pick up the phone and CALL CONNECTIONS... It was supposed to be for teens.

NO... DID YOU?

Keith: Yes! We'd crank call it and impersonate PEE-WEE HERMAN.

Ha! Anywho, is your commitment to cute 24/7? Do you ever have a goth day? Ever put on sigur ros and just emo out?

Chris: Cute GOTH days...

Keith: Yeah, I am defs a 24/7 goodie two shoes but Chris has more of a naughty side...

Chris: Keith's good girl, I'm bad.

Ooooooh.... Now I like chris' chat line better.

Chris: Winz!!

pwnz! I think I kinda strayed from all my serious and hard-hitting questions. Part Two of our interview will be all questions from Sampler peeps and FF fans. I thought I'd give you a little taste of the Q & A with my own quick little questions. Here they come: So, fred flare is the happiest website on the web, what is your favorite snackfood?

Chris: BEER

Keith: That and snickers, diet coke.

Keith: Donuts

Chris: Cheezburgers, cupcakes, cheese and beer: that's my jam.

Keith: That's the joint.

Recently you sent out an email saying that unicorns are the new owls. What will be the new unicorns? Predictions?

Keith: Kittens are definitely the new unicorns. There's a pic of Paris on the cover of the new Seventeen holding the cutest kitten I've ever seen so now I'm obsessed.

Chris: I think nice is the new mean.

I think I am the new me. Chris: favorite color?

Chris: green = money : )

Keith: best dance move?

Keith: All of 'em.

If fred flare were a movie, what movie would it be?

Keith: FUNNY FACE! I LOVE how it even has FF and fred flare is derived from fred astaire...

Best fred Astaire partner?

Chris: Audrey... Hepburn, not the dog.

Keith: They're all wonderful. I LOVE musicals. Someday I really would love to do a fred flare musical all talent show style...

To give the readers a better idea of the ff vibe, what song sums up the ff experience?

Keith: Sparkle Pop for sure.

Chris: The podcast has breathed life back into sparkle pop (our single), too. Just yesterday, a former intern of mine wrote that she was in the fitting rooms at H&M and heard sparkle pop in the next room as a cell phone ring tone. That just BLOWS MY F'IN MIND!

Keith: Me too. I have a tear in my eye right now.

Chris: I have a tear in my beer.

Do you find that people expect a lot of you based on your online personas? Like, if you have a bad day and someone sees you in the street are they like: HEY, HULA HOOP FOR ME! And then you're all: screw you, chump. Or do you bring it?

Keith: Hmmm. Well, no one has EVER said anything to us in the street. I probs would hula hoop for whoever asked...I'd be so excited.

Chris: OMG, I always run into peeps on the street when I'm in the worst possible sitch... never fails.

Keith: I mean, we're not like ever recognized or anything like that if that's what you mean.

I find that hard to believe!

Keith: Actually, would you believe that I've never even ever really seen an FF item on someone I don't know. I think I would faint.

Unh! No ways!

Keith: Sometimes people send us pix or post something on myspace wearing something and, truly, it makes me cry.

Well, I think you are superstars and I'm completely and totally thrilled to have had the opportunity to chat with you because you are wicked fun. Thanks so much for chatting with the Sampler, Keith & Chris!

Visit fredflare.com for more good times and awesome shopping!