“Two brands, one goal” was the philosophy that Kerry Neal and Deleonte Willis had in mind when they founded their new clothing store on Roosevelt Row.
The clothing shop Twenty One celebrated its grand opening on July 2 at 610 E. Roosevelt St. and had customers lining up down the street to grab their new gear.
The shop focuses on Streetwear and sells a multitude of products including T-shirts, crop tops, hoop shorts, slides and more from both Neal’s Juice God brand and Willis’ brand CrewLyfe. Although Neal and Willis have separate brands, the mission stays the same.
“We are showing everybody that you can both have a brand and still have one goal to accomplish. We both want to make it to the top,” Willis said.
Willis and Neal may have just opened their first physical location, but they are still far from new to the business – Juice God and CrewLyfe have been around for four and seven years respectively. Both owners took big risks to open the store including Willis moving from out of state and Neal dropping out of college on a full ride to pursue the clothing industry.
“I started the business while I was in high school and when it came time for me to graduate, I was like ‘Do I really want to go to college?’” Neal explained.
After realizing they wanted to run with their clothing brands, the area of downtown Phoenix felt like the perfect location.
“Honestly, this area selected me,” Willis said.
The launch was also very gratifying for the owners, who dealt with many complications with COVID-19. Both brands were strictly selling online and had to promote their work through social media and word of mouth. Even once they were able to establish a physical location, merchandising issues prevented the store from opening for another three months.
“There were a bunch of obstacles we could have just stopped at and we could’ve said forget it, we’re not going to do it,” Willis said.
The launch came on the same day as First Friday in July, an event that showcases dozens of Phoenix businesses and artists on Roosevelt Row monthly. This event brought a lot of foot traffic to the store and is often one of the best days each month for the store.
“We’re here, we got the music going, we’re outside with the people,” Willis said.”First Fridays is a major day for us.”
Twenty One is looking to expand across Phoenix including possible locations in Tempe and Scottsdale. Even if they open more stores, Neal and Willis are looking to grow their brands together and work towards creating the best brands possible.
Contact the reporter svolante@asu.edu.
