No Vacancy Inn produces and provides immersive experiences for their fans and communities across a host of formats from parties to playlists to products. The fluid brand, made of Tremaine Emory, Acyde, and Brock Korsan, brings its shapeshifting superpowers to fit whatever message theyâre trying to convey for each moment, ensuring that their fans and followers get everything they need without any unnecessary excess.
With the Initial Product Offeringâą (IPO) of the No Vacancy Inn x New Balance 650 just around the corner, we caught up with Tremaine Emory to get the inside scoop on how this collaboration came about, how it delivers the No Vacancy Inn experience, and where he finds inspiration in troubling times.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
StockX:
When did No Vacancy Inn start working with New Balance?
Tremaine Emory, No Vacancy Inn:
January 2019. We had a couple calls, and then we went to Boston and worked on the stuff in January. It’s just a shoe that [Brock and I] always loved, you know … We’re fortunate enough that we got product before we had our deal, and even before getting seeded, we bought it. It’s a sneaker that’s been a part of our styles since we were kids. From the style guys we looked up to, like Ray’Quan and stuff like that, you know?
StockX:
What makes New Balance special for you?
Emory:
New Balance is design and functionality as a great running shoe. Some consider it the best running shoe in the world. It’s not really based on any hype, or a huge athlete or superstar cosign. Obviously, New Balance has Kawhi now, but for us, when I’m thinking about when I was a kid or a teenager or a young man, it was just how it looked and how it felt, you know? Obviously, I think the first style or hype thing was it becoming the whole dad shoe and that whole thing.
StockX:
What about the 650? What made you want to work on that?
Emory:
We wanted to go off-grid. Obviously, everyone loves the 990s. We wanted to do something that hadn’t been out in a while but just a great model, great style, great comfort, but just something that wasn’t expected.
StockX:
How did you arrive at this color scheme?
Emory:
It was really like wabi-sabi, those tones, like George Nakashimaâs house in New Hope, Pennsylvania, that world of those wood natural tones, you know? Then also our love of the gum sole. That’s why they’re in the gum sole material.
StockX:
Why was it important for you guys to attach a USB with music on it?
Emory:
This year is the five-year anniversary of No Vacancy Inn. It’s something we’ve been doing since our inception. First time we did it was at our popup at Tom Sachs. We did a residency there at his studio. We made USBs with mixes for our friends around the world, and they were attached to little tchotchke items that I bought, hand-selected off of Canal Street. Then we sold them. Then we did it again. The next time we did it was at the Brooklyn Museum with Tom Sachs. We came up with the idea five years ago, and this is the first time we’ve done it since we did it with Tom. Weâre doing it with you guys.
StockX:
What do you think it says about you guys as a group and projects like these to include a piece like that?
Emory:
It’s just ephemera. Streaming a lot of stuff’s great, but itâs nice to give kids something tangible. If I’m at home playing music, sometimes when I’m going through my Sonos and my Spotify, whatever, sometimes I could be at a bit of a loss. Like, what do I want to hear? Whereas if I’m going through my vinyl, I can get a lot because I’m actually looking at a record. Like, “Oh, okay I want to play this record, or I want to play that, I want to play this Blackstar record,” or so on and so forth. It’s because you’re just going through your records, and you see it. That’s the one thing about having something physically, you know?
That’s the whole thing about it. Something physical someone can touch and be like, “Oh, yeah, this is that No Vacancy mix. Throw it on,” whereas it might just not come to your mind. If it’s where you have your music stuff or your ephemera, you know? Itâs something someone can pull out in 20 years.
It goes back to people make mixtapes or CD mixtapes, but we didn’t want to do anything nostalgic. We wanted it to be something that contemporary and utilizing track technology but still physical, so USB is the best way to do that. I would see those dudes that sell CDs in SoHo. They try to sell me a CD. I’m like, “Dude, put it on USBs.” They never do listen though.
StockX:
It also speaks to capturing so much of what you guys deliver in those moments is an event or an experience that can’t really be packaged. In a way, this makes an attempt at packaging at least a piece of that or a moment of it.
Emory:
It is not separate from the reality of a No Vacancy party, this mix.
What is it like?
It’s like there’s this restaurant in New York called Raoulâs. From 5:30 to about when they run out, people line up and they make 12 burgers. And they’re really good, but they can only make 12 burgers of quality. It’s like that’s kind of like a No Vacancy Inn DJ set. It can be 200 people there. We’re not doing, we don’t really do festivals or huge warehouse parties like that. It’s going to be 200 to 500 people there.
That’s going to give you the best experience, but if you were able to proliferate that experience, the best way we could probably do it is through the playlist. Through hearing the selection of music because that is the key element, the songs that are played and the sound. I urge people to play it on a good sound system if they have it, the means. That can get you close to it, you know? Then if you have someone you like to dance with or whatever in your crib, then that can get you even closer to it. That’s about the best parts of music that we feel we could play and people dancing and having fun and being around a group of people they normally wouldn’t be around, you know, and stuff coming out of that, too. That’s the nightlife aspect as well. No Vacancy really is all predicated on quality of music.
StockX:
At this moment where we’re all sort of stuck at home sheltering in place, how have you made adjustments around where you’re drawing inspiration from? Where are you getting that inspiration?
Emory:
I’m getting inspiration from trying to figure out ways to help people who don’t have such a privileged life as I do, and get inspiration from friends and strangers that are doing the same in the world.
If one is fortunate enough to quarantine safely and is healthy and be able to afford to pay your rent and afford food and healthcare. There are people out here that work just as hard as me, pay their taxes just like me, do what they’re supposed to do, and they’re having a really rough time – either health and financial fallout from this crisis that’s going on. That’s the main thing I’m getting inspiration from and just seeing people’s humanity come out.
I’m doing my part, trying to do my part to bring out my humanity and find out ways I can help people on the large scale and small scale. Anything else is just, it doesn’t matter, man. I’m still working. I got my health. My family’s got their health, so I don’t worry about how do I deal with quarantine. It’s like, how do I help people who don’t have a choice to quarantine, you know, or people who got sick or people that are helping people that got sick? That’s where I’m getting inspiration is for me is like how to help and watching and seeing others help and being inspired by that.
The No Vacancy Inn x New Balance 650 IPO will available very soon. Click here to learn how StockX IPOs work.
