The BBB Warehouse at 1520 Main Street is closing. We announced this Saturday at the Live Urban Jacksonville Weekly 50th Show extravaganza. Sources close to the matter say Mack Bissette from SRG called to say the the space had to be vacated. The specific reasons or future plans for the space are unknown.

Future Plans

Zombie Bikes is rumored to be moving to a similar location in Springfield. Burro Bags is looking forward to finding a more retail oriented spot in the urban core.

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Thanks to special guests Chris Williams of Burro Bags and Big Dunn.

Burro Bags

• small messenger bag shop on Main St
• typically worn by cyclists
• also make koozies, t-shirts
• Tony – what kind of bags for gifts
• Chris – totes, wallets, hip bags ($20-$40)
• started out doing custom bags
• 1520 N Main St
• about a dozen stores in the US and London
• Mark George line
• 
• Joey – how did you get international?
• Chris – started giving stuff away, recently purchased ad, traffic blew up
  get your marketing for free, distribution comes with it
• Ian Chase produced commercials
• Joey – video gives you more content in the same space
• www.burrobags.com
• twitter.com/burrobags

PARTY! – BBB Art Show

December 12th
3pm-5pm Craft Fair in the parking lot
party/art show at 6pm

• Artist Series bags
• artists took home patterns and adorned them their way
• DJ Furoche
• leftover liquor from Ante Up III
• keg
• raffle for $1000 worth of good stuff
• bike frames & parts
• Sweet & Flour gift certificates
• Sponsors
• still taking items for raffle

Springfield Retail

• moving away from walk-in business towards e-commerce
• BD – biggest problem is being next to the bike shop
• ZOMBIE BIKES NEEDS VOLUNTEERS!
• parking has little to do with business
• median sucks, it’s really stupid
• Tony – Mayor Peyton, tear down that wall!
• Joey – benevolent landlord arrangement key to incubating retail?
• worked out of home first
• proven model that it works
• still vacant properties that could be used
• Tony – they lazy
• the idea is that the property has a “sense of place” = VALUE
• types of people who own property don’t understand these progressive solutions
• Big Dunn loves Springfield

Producer Jack Diablo (left) and Big Dunn

Music

Wednesday, December 9th
Shantytown
Infintesmal Wednesdays

Thursday, December 10th
TSI
Tam Tam The Sandwich Man and the Magical Sugar Cookies

Recommendations

Big Dunn – postsecret.com
Tony – RAM, duh (2 weeks left) then FRAM – December 19th 6:30-10pm Community Party on the River (free wine)
Jonathan – 5 day series on the state of downtown in the TU next week (next week’s guest?)
Chris – go to Jags games so he can watch them on tv
Joey – jagsonville.com Jag ticket giveaway photo contest

Jonathan wore his glasses today, he hurt his eye

Chris Williams from Burro Bags will be on Urban Jacksonville Weekly this Monday to talk about the current state of Springfield’s favorite messenger bag/t-shirt/accessory company. This month they’re hosting the second annual BBB Complex Art Show.

the BBB Complex Art Show features some of Jacksonville’s hottest artists customizing one-of-a-kind messenger bags, roll-tops, and hip bags. Artists have been selected and the date is set for December 12th.

We’ll talk about the art show and what’s next one of Jacksonville’s most innovative retail businesses. With a special guest appearance by Big Dunn in the studio.

Please be sure to watch the show live online at 9:30am. We’re testing new mic’d audio from the soundboard into the live internet stream, so it should sound awesome. Let us know what you think!

Watch Urban Jacksonville Weekly

www.urbanjacksonvilleweekly.com
9:30am Monday, December 7th
Send questions to Twitter and Facebook or txt me at 294-4800.

If you are interested in getting involved as a sponsor or to donate items for the raffle. It’s a great opportunity to get your company/store/restaurant/whatever name out there so let us know if you want to be involved (burrobags@gmail.com).

Burro Bags launched a new website and joined Twitter today. Big media day for the guys at 1521 Main Street. Congrats Matt and Chris!

Matt Bort and Chris Williams enjoy the more shanty things in life: cheap beer, second hand bike parts, old sewing machines and free meals. Chances are that if we aren’t available at our shop, we are supporting our favorite booze hole, Shantytown Pub, around the corner.

Copyright Jensen Hande

Burro Bags on Twitter, Flickr and of course BurroBags.com

This week on Urban Jacksonville Weekly we’ll talk about the following:

• First Wednesday
• Mayors Race
• Springfield local retail boom

Tune in to the Urban Jacksonville Weekly Ustream channel at 5:30 or listen to the episode when we post it later this week.

SPAR (Springfield Preservation and Revitalization) and SAMBA (Springfield Small Business Association) kicked off a series of retail flyers this week to promote area businesses. The first one lists restaurants and a second one is coming soon featuring Medical, Health and Wellness businesses of Springfield.

Two notable coming soon additions to the flyer are City Kidz Ice Cream and Uptown Market. Both of these will be located at the new Third and Main development. An interesting note about City Kidz is they not only have ice cream but soup and sandwiches.

One notable omission is Waffa and Mike’s Mediterranean, probably due to timing. I assume these flyers will be distributed to these restaurants and other retailers in the area.

Update! I’m giving away a free Arturo shirt to the person who comes up with the best reason why it matters that Arturo is moving to Springfield.

Arturo Clothing, a local clothing maker and friend of Urban Jacksonville, announced on their blog they are moving operations to the BBB Complex at 1520 Main Street:

We are moving our screen printing supplies into the Burro Bags shop. This will be a great opportunity for both us and Burro to feed ideas off of each other and expand our companies!!

View Larger Map

This is significant because it not only increases the retail footprint of the BBB Warehouse, but of Springfield. Main Street can now boast four lifestyle retail businesses in one location. All thanks to the benevolent landlord SRG.

1. Burro Bags – custom messenger bags
2. Zombie Bikes – bike co-op
3. Royal Treatment Records – record shop
4. Arturo Clothing – hand screened shirts, bags and knitted hats

5 Reasons Why The Arturo Move Matters

Sure, you can chalk one in the win column for my 2009 Predictions (yes, I’m keeping score), but it’s bigger than that. Here are five reasons why the move matters:

1. More bodies on Main Street means more money will be pumped into local businesses like Chan’s and the BBB itself. It will also give the appearance of activity and set the tone that something is happening on Main Street.
2. It’s a vote for Springfield retail illustrating the environment in the neighborhood is favorable enough to pick up and move current operations.
3. Power in numbers demonstrates to the benevolent landlord that there may be something to this little retail experiment, encouraging them to keep it going indefinitely.
4. Concentration of creative energy keeps everyone inspired and makes it more fun. Working in a vacuum sucks.
5. Fill in the blank and tell me why you think it matters. Yes, I know it’s a cop out, but I gotta go get ready for work suckas. The person with the best answer gets a free Arturo shirt!

Here is a background of the BBB Complex and a link to the
Arturo Clothing feature on the Paper n Stitch blog.

CORRECTION: This is not a franchise from Charlottesville, VA. UNF graduate Alejandro Juarez is opening this Hightide Burrito. The article UNF grad brings burritos to San Marco community has many more details. The information below is irrelevant. Read the updated post here.

Hightide Burrito put up a sign this sometime this week announcing their arrival in San Marco. It’s owned by Alex Juarez and appears to be a franchise out of Charlottesville, VA. From an article at charlottesville-dining.com

High Tide has that beachy-Mexican fusion vibe to it, but with less of a California surfer dude and more of a Southern, Kenny Chesney feel to it.

Whoa! That’s an interesting mix. I honestly don’t care what the atmosphere is like, if the burritos are better than Moe’s, I’m down. Charlottesville reviews are mixed, but I’ll wait to reserve judgement until I try it myself. It will be a great new alternative to La Napolera and Panera, nGen Works lunchtime mainstays.

Current Burrito Rankings

1. Burrito Gallery (local favorites!)
2. Chipotle
3. Mossfire
4. Tiajuana Flats
5. Moe’s

On a somewhat related note, the local coffee shop Uncommon Grounds, closed. I’m not sure how ling it’s been closed. I honestly hadn’t been there in months. I am a pretty discriminating consumer and i’ll always give somewhere a second chance. In the case of Uncommon Grounds I made it up to 5 or 6 chances before I gave up. I’m sad to see it go, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

Matt from Burro Bags says:

Chris and I have been collaborating with artists here and in South Florida on making a truly limited edition run of bags. Zombie’s been collaborating on turning old frames into new wall art, the money raised will go back towards another good year of our community bike shop. I think it’ll be a very good opportunity to take care of holiday shopping and an awesome way to end the year helping out our beloved space exist in the next year.

Raffle: Tickets are $10 each or 3 for $20

Tons of bags. Many product from vendors, the Burrito Gallery, and an fresh Aerospoke! Messenger bags designed by local artists will be for sale. They are definitely one-offs. Paint, cutting, sewing and a few secrets have been thrown into these bags.

• Custom Messenger Roll Top Backpack
• Custom Messenger Bag
• 3 Hip Bags
• 1 AEROSPOKE!
• Lots of T-Shirts!
• Grocery Bags
• 3 Recycled Backpacks
• 4 Frame Pads
• Burrito Gallery Gift Cards
• Arturo Clothing – Beanies and Tees

Polo Tournament from 3pm – 6pm

3 on 3. $10 entry per team. Cash pay out and prizes to top 2 teams!

Get some Christmas shopping done

Bold City Brewery – Beer tasting
Arturo – (Jacksonville) Clothing
Heart of Gold – (Boca Raton) Clothing
Hot Life – (Orlando) Clothing
Robyn Crews – Pillowcases made of recycled materials

Current artist line-up

• Mark George
• Big Dunn
• John O’Brian
• Clay Doran
• Crystal Floyd
• Bert No Shirt
• Adam Pondozzi
• Jared Scheurer
• John Arvin
• Chad Landenberger
• Lauren Chester
• Tom Pennington
• Joe Gaskins
• Richard Reichstadter
• Danilo Quilaton
• Tony Rodrigues

There are lots of benefits to buying local: less packaging and package waste, no shipping costs, which uses less fuel and it promotes/supports the local community. Here are my gift picks for this buy local holidazzle!

The Royal Treatment Record Store

www.myspace.com/theroyaltreatmentdjs
1520 Main Street, Springfield

$30 – 3 CDs and T-Shirt make the Royal Treatment holiday gift pack! (pictured above) CDs: The N Word, Tough Junkie and Willie Evans Jr.

Deals on vinyl records too!

• Alligator (local St. Augustine band)
• The Smile Rays – Party Place EP
• Beastie Boys – License to Ill (still wrapped)
• Beck – Mellow Gold

Anomaly

www.anomalyfivepoints.com
1021 Park Street, Five Points
Recommendations from Emily, the owner

Mention you saw this on Urban Jacksonville 10% off of an entire purchase.

For the ladies
I love Molly M. jewelry. Everything is priced at $38 for the small pendants and earrings and $48 for the large. It’s laser cut wood and acrylic. All handmade in San Francisco. We’re also all stocked up on party dresses and other great sparkly jewelry!

For the guys
We’ve got great new tees from Upper Playground and Obey, as well as $20 artist series wallets by Poketo. These wallets are produced by Poketo but the images are designed by different artists from around the country and makes great pocket art!

For the kids
Allover print hoodies from Loyal Army are too cute! sized to 4T, $32.

For your friends
I really tried to get alot of $10 and under gifts this year. Our “saving up for good weed” bank ($9) is back and always funny! And there’s always the book of seriously bad baby names ($6) for the person that has everything.

Burro Bags

burrobags.blogspot.com
1520 Main Street, Springfield
Recommendations from Matt, co-owner

$65 to $130: Medium Burro Bag constructed of retired highway billboards
$12 Beard Bandana – Get your lady some facial hair for the holidays!

Arturo Clothing

http://arturoclothingco.blogspot.com
Find Arturo at Anomaly in Five Points, Kona Skatepark’s Pro Shop, and at Art Walk every first Wednesday of the Month

Arturo Clothing Co. is a DIY company that produces original, hand screened shirts and bags on the highest quality materials available. Shirts run at $15 and bags at $10. You can find our products at Anomaly in Five Points, Kona Skatepark’s Pro Shop, and at Art Walk every first Wednesday of the Month.

December 20th is the perfect day to buy local at the BBB Complex Art Show at 1520 Main Street where you can get Arturo, Burro Bags and The Royal Treatment Records pack. Along with local art and these other vendors:

• Heart of Gold – (Boca Raton) Clothing
• Hot Life – (Orlando) Clothing
• Robyn Crews – Pillowcases made of recycled materials

I first met Arturo in the streets of Jacksonville where I noticed their distinctive designs over and over. Shortly after that I received and email from them, followed by a package in the mail with tshirts and stickers. I finally met them in person at the Partisan the Sea poster show. They’re an awesome group who make quality clothes so I wanted to spread the word.

Who is Arturo Clothing and what’s up with the name?
Arturo Clothing is a underground movement based around the Jacksonville street scene. The name was inspired from a small bundle of joy who we befriended at a local summer art camp.

What types of clothing are you making. What are you planning to make?
We basically make clothes for everyday use. Things like tshirts, bags, and beanies….because everyone wears clothes.

Where can I buy Arturo?
Well you can’t really buy Arturo himself, but you can buy our clothes at Anomaly in Five Points, Artwalk the first Wednesday of every month, and we will be launching an online store early next year.

You guys are currently using a lot of insect symbolism in your clothes. Is there any meaning behind that?
Well, our product isn’t necessarily based around bugs, but around the pests of society.

What would you say distinguishes Arturo from other local clothing brands
We make everything at our house, all of our images are original, and we only print on the highest quality of shirts. For instance our screens are hand crafted instead of the popular photo emulsion process that most local clothing companies use.

You say on your myspace all your shirts are hand screened. Why did you choose to screen shirts yourself instead of outsource it to a digital printer?
We are a diy company. We do EVERYTHING ourself.

Why do you choose to use American Apparel instead of another brand of shirt to screen on?
American Apparel makes the highest quality fitted tshirt that we can get our hands on.

What is your next big project or promotion coming us?
Well coming up quick we have our booth at the Art Walk. Big event wise we are hoping to put together something along the lines of a fashion show, and have urban jacksonville be part of it!

myspace.com/arturoclothing
arturoclothingco.blogspot.com