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Fashion Otsu-StyleIf you've strolled down 16th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco, chances are you've been drawn into Otsu, a vegan boutique stocked with an array of hard-to-find and unique nonleather goods and oddities. We recently sat down to talk with the owners of Otsu, Jeremy Crown and Yvonne Chen. Here are some excerpts from our conversation:
PETA: How did you get the idea for this great store?
J&Y: It started with the idea of being able to go to a store to try on vegan shoes before buying them. We then incorporated our different interests, like music and comics and handmade goods, and decided to make it a boutique. We also wanted to present our store in a welcoming way, so that nonvegans/-vegetarians would feel comfortable shopping, thus opening their minds to the idea that you really don't have to miss out on anything to live a cruelty-free lifestyle. We hope to be able to accomplish the same thing in our second store that's opening in Portland, Oregon (next to Food Fight!, a vegan convenience store). PETA: What does "Otsu" mean? J&Y: "Otsu" is a Japanese word meaning strange, quaint, stylish, chic, spicy, witty, tasty, romantic. We try to encompass the whole concept in our selections. 
PETA: Where do you find your products?
J&Y: It's a mix of seeking out and being solicited. We definitely like to feature unique items, which means there are a lot of handcrafted, limited-edition goods. We like to get to know the people behind the products as much as we can. Also, we only work with companies that don't use leather because we want to expand the vegan economy instead of having money go back to the leather and meat industries. PETA: What do you look for? J&Y: We look for fun AND functional. We try to find things with an interesting aesthetic. Most everything is something we would love to have ourselves. We like when you can tell the creator put a lot of themselves into the design and making of their product. It's ideal when the vendor is vegan and we make extra sure to try and support that. 
PETA: Why did you decide to open a vegan business?
J&Y: Jeremy was tired of the dot-com revolving door, and Yvonne had some experience running her label/'zine, and it just seemed like there were gaps to be filled in the vegan landscape. We originally thought of doing a vegan café, and then a magazine, but then we hit on doing a retail storefront. So if it weren't the store, it would've been something else in the vegan realm. Veganism is a big part of our lives, and there are still things to be done that haven't been. 
PETA: What are some of the things that your customers say about the nonleather stuff?
J&Y: There are some products that are remarkably similar to leather/suede that people are definitely surprised to find are not leather. There is a lot of "This isn't leather? Really?" from both vegan and nonvegan customers alike. They often ask what it is if it's not leather. Most people still think that if a shoe is not made of leather, it's made of vinyl. We do a lot of educating about the wonders of microfiber, including the fact that it breathes like leather and lasts as long. It serves as a gateway for people to get into the idea that they can have quality leather-look items that didn't harm animals or people in their production. 
PETA: Are most of your customers vegan themselves?
J&Y: About half of our customers are vegan/vegetarian. We get a lot of people from the neighborhood or just walking by who are curious as to what makes a vegan store or are simply visually attracted to our goods. One of our main goals in starting Otsu was to be able to offer stylish goods to everyone, whether vegan or not. In doing that and having them in our store, we can then educate them about veganism without having to preach. Plus, in a pragmatic sense, even if they don't care if it's leather or not, just the simple fact that they bought a vegan alternative means one less animal-derived purchase. PETA: What is your best seller? Do you have a favorite product? J&Y: We don't have a single best seller. In general, bags do really well. We'd also be hard-pressed to name a favorite product. We do have a fondness for our Otsu T-shirts, though, as they are designed by our artist friends as a unique thing just for us. PETA: What is your favorite thing about PETA? J&Y: We like that PETA has brought animal rights issues to a mainstream level. The Compassionate Cook cookbook is also dear to us-it was one of Yvonne's first vegan cookbooks, and we still use it regularly. Click here to shop at Otsu's online boutique. |
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