Rio Holland and her business partner, Bethany Heggarty, founded the women’s sneakers, clothing, and lifestyle store, Pam Pam, in London in 2015. The store was borne out of frustration about the lack of sneaker and streetwear styles in women’s sizes.
We recently talked with Holland about materialism, kindness, and the future of Pam Pam for the latest installment of “That’s 5.”
The following interview has been lightly edited.
What influences you?
I guess in everyday life—I know it sounds crazy—but positivity. It’s not even people or art or that or that kind of stuff, just positivity. Anywhere you can get it from is absolutely inspirational. When you run your own business, that’s definitely one of the things that you need. Wherever I can find that, whether it’s something written, interviews with amazing people, TED talks, or all kinds of stuff, that’s something I look for, and it inspires me to keep doing my own thing positively.
My business partner also inspires me. She works really, really hard to make the business run, and we both work off of each other really well.
What’s the most overrated?
People wanting to have a lot of materialistic things: That idea of those bits and pieces making you happy, and whatnot, to a degree. Perhaps material possessions are something that is a little built overrated.
What’s the most underrated?
Definitely kindness. I think a lot of people probably think about it but don’t actually exercise it as much as they could. It’s difficult, living in a big city. You can see the evidence of it a lot more when it’s not being practised. It can be the smallest thing, like looking at another human being on the street and giving them a smile. That kind of stuff I think we could probably do better.
What are you most excited about, right now?
The world at the moment is in a bit of a tricky place; there are a lot of hectic things happening. It’s a new decade; I’m hopeful to see what this next decade is going to bring after this craziness is behind us.
What’s next for you?
For the business, we’ve just taken on warehouse space and have moved our online store into that. It’s that next huge step of growth, which is absolutely crazy for us. Generally, we’re trying to grow, and bit by bit, get that awareness out there for women’s sneakers and create more content that puts that makes brands aware of women-focused products. We try very hard to educate brands as much as possible, but more focus on women’s stuff is definitely needed.
