When I’m in a conversation with Lori, I get the
feeling that her mind is on a high speed chase with a gazillion other things. Lori
is a serial entrepreneur with a degree
from the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science. Her first company was
Promgirl. Later she started an organic cleaning products company and a
wholesale pet products business. Now she owns Neighborhoodies. While
Neighborhoodies isn’t her baby, it’s become her shoes. “Taking over someone’s
business is like walking in someone else’s shoes. Eventually, they become your
own shoes,” says Lori.
When she took over Neighborhoodies, the place was a
mess. Literally. She emptied it of three dumpsters of trash, replaced the
single phone line with a complete system and revamped the website. When customers
drop in off the street, instead of stopping everything there’s a streamlined process
to handle requests. Start-ups operate very differently from established
businesses. Still, Neighborhoodies is a dynamic company and with Lori at the
helm I can’t imagine it getting stale.
Lori’s challenge is to transform her brick and
mortar business into an e-commerce enterprise while remaining true to its
roots. Neighborhoodies offers a highly specialized service; customizing apparel
with appliqué, embroidery and printing. The hoodies themselves are made of
organic, recycled material and the inks are non-toxic. Customers include Rachael
Ray, Questlove, and Eli Manning as well as the BBC, MTV and Yelp!.
In addition to the DUMBO storefront, now you can design
your own hoodie on the Neighborhoodies website with the new Hoodie-O-Matic application.
While widening service offerings with options like custom monograms, Lori is
progressing on her mission to e-commercialize her business by offering live chat
for custom collaborations online. Today Neighborhoodies is Lori’s own pair of
highly customized shoes and she wears them well.
