When Jason Shelby moved to Phoenix to open a new boutique, he knew the timing was now or never. After all, he was no stranger to risks, and he had been creating a vision in his head for already over a year.
Shelby is the Creative Director of lifestyle boutique Now or Never, a new shop located on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix, wanted to create a store that not only sold exclusive brands, but offered a rare, truly modern shopping experience here in Phoenix.
Now or Never carries about 50 brands, all specially curated by Shelby, who had experience working as a buyer for major companies and doing trend forecasting. Every item sold in the shop is handpicked and guaranteed to have great design quality.
Now or Never also sells a mix of mostly exclusive brands that range from obscure brands to well-known brands like Comme des Garcons, Carhartt, and MM6 by Maison Margiela.
Shelby wants customers to see their favorite brands while also discovering new brands.
From the outside, Now or Never lies on the base floor of the large Ten-O-One building in Roosevelt Row’s Arts District. During the day, the large paneled windows let in natural sunlight that illuminates the whole store and shines through yellow tinted translucent tabletops, projecting bright neon shadows onto the floor.
At night, the exposed ceiling-to-floor windows leave the shop completely visible from the outside with large crescent-like shaped light fixtures that hang over white marbled tables. Beautiful accessories are scattered onto tabletops and shelves, perfectly spaced-out clothing hangs from racks, and unique bright furniture is carefully placed around the large store. On the wall behind a black marbled counter, lie the bright LED letters spelling out the word “NOW.”
Shelby and his husband moved to Arizona after living and working in Los Angeles’s fashion industry for around 20 years. They first opened Now or Never in Tucson, when Shelby realized there was a lack of boutiques that he enjoyed shopping at. It seemed to him that all the boutiques had taken a page from the same book, all selling mostly vintage, southwest-desert inspired items.
Shelby wanted to create a modern, present time experience. After opening, he noticed the number of people who would drive from Phoenix to Tucson to shop at his store, and then he realized: there are no modern shops like Now or Never in Phoenix.
“We thought, OK, this is very interesting because it’s a huge city,” Shelby said. “I’m like, ‘why are you driving two hours to shop at this tiny little store?’ and it’s because we had brands like Comme des Garcons.”
Although Shelby felt like it was “now or never” to make the move, it could not have come at a trickier time. Two days after Shelby and his husband moved to Phoenix, the whole city went into a COVID-19 lockdown. While the rest of the world panicked and went into isolation, Shelby went to work building his store from scratch, with an entirely different set of fears.
He was concerned about opening during the pandemic. Shelby was new to Phoenix and barely knew anyone. As he watched his product stockpile during the process of construction, he wondered if people would or even could show up. After all, the world was in the middle of a devastating pandemic that was preventing people from leaving their homes.
In October, Now or Never opened to the public, and to Shelby’s relief, they did very well immediately. Selling products at all price points, there is something for everyone. Candles, incense, and photography books are all among the lower priced items that sell well.
“Definitely more affordable, but still really cool, but also still really hard to find,” Shelby described it. “I don’t want anyone to walk into our store and be like, this isn’t for me, I don’t have a lot of money, that’s my worst fear.”
When customers walk into Now or Never, Shelby wants them to ask themselves “where am I?” Shelby wanted to create an experience that was spaceless, something that could be located anywhere in the world and still stand on its own.
In the future, Now or Never is expanding its range of products and will begin selling clothing from the mainline Maison Margiela label. Shelby also excitedly hints at an upcoming collaboration with Dover Street Market, the London based retailer founded by the founder of Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo.
“I think that Phoenix really opened their arms to us, they were very excited to have us there,” Shelby said. Customers were waiting for a shop like this to open in Phoenix, something that keeps people thinking about the present moment: NOW.
“We’re not looking at the past, we’re not looking at vintage, it’s now,” he said.
Contact the reporter at ribanuel@asu.edu.
