EAST LONDON HEROES: PAMPAM
What was the inspiration behind starting Pam Pam?
We felt there was a huge opportunity to open a women's sneaker store here in the UK, for a start there wasn't one - Pam Pam was the first, which is crazy. It was so important to us for women to have a dedicated space and selection. We love sneakers and wear them every day, with everything. So, we wanted to create a positive space where women could shop amazing sneakers, apparel and lifestyle.
How did you decide where the perfect place to park yourselves was?
We found our store very quickly, in fact, it was the only space we looked at - it felt like it was meant to be. We love east London, it’s where we exist and it made sense for us to open Pam Pam here.
We LOVE that Pam Pam is divided into sections for sorting out each area of yourself (sneakers, lifestyle, clothes) - how do you go about finding the amazing brands you stock?
Some of the brands we stock we had known, worn and loved for years. Others we've come across over the past four years since opening. Brands and people seem to come our way very organically and we are always open to grow and change.
We love a huge variety of brands for all different reasons. I guess it’s important for us to feel an honest connection to a brand and the people behind it in order to collaborate (in whatever capacity), whether it's stocking a brand or working together with them.
What’s your fave thing about owning your own business?
Having super wild ideas and being able to carry them out.
Least fave?
Bills
Fave things to do in London?
Eating all the different kinds of food it has to offer and hanging out in the parks. It's also so lovely to walk around London in the day time and in the middle of the week.
Three words to describe you as a duo?
Dorky. Connected. Fun-time.
Three words to describe your business?
Honest. Positive. Inclusive.
What does the future hold for Pam Pam?
Awesome things like world domination.
Fave pair of sneakers you own? We know this is like picking your favourite child but just one that’s floating your boat at the moment.
THIS IS A TOUGH QUESTION. Vans seriously float our boats all of the time. Also at the moment for Beth, '70s and '80s basketball vibes are a fixture (loves a high top). For Rio, modern runners and classic staples.
Pam Pam has a great amount of plants in store, why do you think it’s so important to have plants around you? Fave plant?
Plants are such a positive force and so calming. We wanted our store space to feel like home - and home for us is filled with plants. Love a fern, (as featured in every good 90s rom-com).
FINAL QUESTION, and we HAD to ask.. what the chuff is the name about?
There’s sadly no special story with this. We had a name, we couldn’t use it, and a friend of ours just essentially emailed us this huge list of different names and the very, very top one was Pam Pam. People ask us this all the time, we are not Pam and Pam, it just means a fun time. It just sounds good! And it looks good, and it’s fun.
Continuing the love in, Pam Pam recently featured Nik on their blog. Celebrating the release of the new Adidas Home of Classics collection, Pam Pam featured 4 London based female entrepreneurs working in 4 different disciplines and our Nik was one of them!
Check out the full interview here and catch the vid below.
Check out Pam Pam here