Inside James Whitner's Purpose-First Retail Playbook

**Imran Amed** (0:04)
Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion. Welcome to the BoF Podcast. It's Friday, August 28th. Earlier this month, A Ma Maniére, one part of James Whitner's The Whitaker Group, was named one of BoF's Best Fashion Stores in the World, our definitive global list of retailers with the most distinctive edits and experiences.
James has spent 20 years building an independent retail business that now operates more than 20 stores across 16 US cities, many of them in black neighborhoods that mainstream retail had overlooked, based on the feeling he got hanging out in barber shops and sneaker spots growing up in Pittsburgh.

**James Whitner** (0:49)
The best things happen in a barber shop. Most interesting conversations on the block or in a barber shop, right? Or when I would go shopping once I got some money, you sit in spots and how you were serviced and the relationship you had with those people and how good you felt entering the space and exiting because your confidence and everything in the social currency that's tied to looking good was about feeling good. So I was like, y'all want to provide this.

**Imran Amed** (1:16)
Back in February 2025, James spoke to me about the discipline behind the business, how he's built brand partnerships that actually last, and why he believes community development, not just retail, is where he needs to head next. Here's James Whitner on the BoF Podcast.
James, it's such a pleasure to have you on the BoF Podcast. We've been trying to schedule this one for a while. You and I have not met in person, but I have been following from afar the business that you've been building, and really, really curious to learn about the backstory. I always want to start with the individual and their personal story. And with you in particular, I really want to get to the drive that you have, and where that came from. What were you like growing up? Can you share a little bit about what it was like to grow up in Pittsburgh, and what that taught you about community, and how it shaped your entrepreneurial spirit?

**James Whitner** (2:24)
That's actually a really good question. And I guess great interviewers ask the things that you've never been asked before in these places. So that's a really good place to start, because I don't think, I've actually talked a lot about my childhood. I was a always inquisitive kid. I think my mom has always considered me her. I'm too smart for his own good child.
And that school was pretty easy in elementary school. And I really enjoyed learning.
And I still enjoy learning. Remaining curious and not getting bored is something that I struggle with. And I have the perfect ADD mind. My brain jumps all over the place.

**Imran Amed** (3:08)
Did that make it hard for you when you were in school? Like, did you find that kind of constrained environment of a classroom challenging because you had all of these ideas? You know, sometimes people feel restricted in this scholarly environment.

**James Whitner** (3:24)
Not early on. Early on, I didn't. Elementary school, Pittsburgh is a middle class, East Coast, mid-western city. And I say East Coast because people always consider Pennsylvania East Coast. But Western Pennsylvania leans right into Ohio.
And it's perfectly in the start of the mid-west, but still very East Coast. And I just say that to talk about the Rust Belt and everything that happened in crack epidemic. And I think how Pittsburgh in the downturn of the Rust Belt shaped the perspective and personality of so many people. And I think, I think what would help me understand life is difficult, it's just seeing a difficult life, right? Like watching people struggle.
And seeing that there is privilege and pain. Like I think sometimes when you're going through a struggle as a child, the struggle is only absolute if it harms you, right? If it harms you physically. And at time you don't know how it's developing you mentally, right? I think how something develops you mentally is how you're able to perceive it. And as a young person, you're still forming like who you're going to become and how it's going to push you. I think as life continued to develop for me, middle school, high school, I began to struggle in school because I was struggling in life some. And I think it was just the nature of what was happening with my family at the time.
And I found sport as an outlet and it helped ground me. And it also helped me understand how to grab all the pain and drive and put it into something and see what results I can get. And I learned pretty quickly, like, how to take your work ethic and turn it into tangible results. The moment I learned that, the light switch went off. Like you put in, you get out. You put in, you get out. And then at that moment is when I was able to tap in to all of the pain that I experienced throughout my childhood. And then as I got to college, I realized what I wanted to do with it. And here we are now.