EIGHTY SEVEN: BY DESIGN (II)
Note: What follows is part two of a two-part interview with Sam and Jake Martin, twins and co-owners of Eighty Seven (‘87), a candle and furniture company in Austin, Tx. We figure it’s simpler to digest in two smaller bites. If you haven’t read the first part, check it out first for context and kicks. We also figure Eighty Seven is a group worth checking out, and hope that after reading this so will you. Now please, enjoy the interview.
CC: Ok, so you (Jake) just started making candles at Yellow Barn in June 2017. Were you good at making candles?
Jake: Terrible! (laughs) They were actually not good.
Sam: They weren’t the worst though.
Jake: Our first day, our soft grand opening, we sold all of ‘em.
CC: At what point did y’all decide to make a dive down South?
Jake: The shop started as a hub for us as the only dyed-haired, tattooed weirdo’s in this conservative mountain community. Running a storefront though, we had to communicate with those people who are all super right-wing every day, and that in a big way drove us down to the mecca that is Austin. (laughs) The island of misfit toys.
Sam: My hair was purple, Jake’s was pink. Someone once walked in our store, looked at us and our work, told us, “Have a nice life,” and walked out. It was time for something new.
Jake: We came down here with the initial intention to not do furniture, but open another candle shop. We had never sold furniture! We built it for the shop and that’s where the idea spawned. People kept walking up to me saying, “Is this for sale? How do I buy this?” We never fathomed that people would want to buy those.
Sam (left) and Jake (right)
Sam: While we were in Colorado running Yellow Barn, we just wanted to move that exact company down here. Make candles, sell candles.
Jake: But by the end, we wanted to rebrand. We had so much time to create what we believed our reality would be down here. When we finally got out and came down..
Sam: It was different. But the one thing we knew we wanted to do was make candles and so we just started making candles. In February I decided I wanted to make furniture.
Coming from a music background, it’s been really great to put my hands on something and see a physical product. It’s a good way to slow down.
Creatively speaking I was only working in the digital world, where it’s very fast paced and it’s going to be editable for the rest of time. With woodworking I had to slow down and make permanent decisions, and that was new for me.
That execution isn’t something you need in a digital world because you can always change and remove, but if you’re creating something in a physical space, there's a linear approach; a linear thinking to it. That, to me, is fascinating. I started making furniture and we launched in April.
CC: Based on your recent growth, what’s going to keep you the same or make you different moving forward?
Sam: I think what’s been fascinating for Jake and I is that we’re finally in a position where we’re able to look at a business model that kind of speaks to what we’re going to want for the rest of our lives; how we wanna live. We’re able to do what we love and also grow as people and grow our business. It’s great to have an opportunity to grow.
