A Runaway Success

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Photo by Zoe Pictures.
Photo by Zoe Pictures.

You have the DURM T-shirt; soon you’ll be able to visit the store.

Runaway, the fashion brand run by Durham natives Gabriel Eng-Goetz and Justin Laidlaw, is doubling down on their steady success over the past four years with plans to open a brick-and-mortar retail outlet and gallery downtown.

They’re more than 93% of the way to a $20,000 goal in their Kickstarter campaign to help fund their flagship store. The campaign ends October 25.

“Over the last few years, we’ve become a staple in the Durham arts community, with the DURM campaign being the face for some of the growth happening here,” Justin says. “The brick-and-mortar space cements us in the future of Durham and validates the progress we’ve made.”

Runaway’s store will be located on Market Street on historic CCB Plaza in the heart of downtown. The street-level space will be adjacent to a new location for the renowned Beat Making Lab, which promises real creative resonance.

Justin is particularly excited about what the gallery will add to the store. “We want to be sure that we’re giving back to the same community that’s given so much to us over the last four years,” he says. “We’re looking forward to showing the work of artists who we feel fit the aesthetic we’re building through the brand.”

Justin and Gabe see the creative feedback from the gallery as a powerful way to expand the Runaway brand. Artists they’ve recently presented in small shows around Durham have found their way onto the apparel. After a Cade Carlson pop-up show on Parrish Street, Gabe and Cade collaborated on a Runaway shirt. Supergraphic artist Raj Bunnag did screenprinting at the Runaway summer release show at the American Tobacco Campus, which has led to an apparel project together.

For the Bull City-born entrepreneurs, the store represents not only a big step forward for their business, but a meaningful moment for the community they’ve grown up in.

“Hopefully the store’s success will give us the chance to look at how creative we can be not just in the imagery on the clothing but in lots of other ways as well,” Justin says.

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Durham Magazine

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