Brooklyn Projects Fire: Impact of COVID-19 On Sneaker Stores
Written by SOURCE on April 28, 2020
It started with the coronavirus. The sweeping pandemic, which has put millions of Americans out of work and threatened the lifelines of many of our favorite independent retailers, was already a lot for a business owner to be faced with. The government-sanctioned virus lockdowns spelled a drop-off in revenue for countless stores, a problem which is still playing out and will have long-standing effects for years to come. For Dominick DeLuca, founder and owner of pioneering Los Angeles streetwear, sneaker, and skate shop Brooklyn Projects, COVID-19 presented a different, unforeseen hurdle.
On the morning of Monday, April 13, DeLuca spotted a trespasser on Brooklyn Projects’ security camera who had managed to break the store’s fence and spend the night joyriding on its outdoor skate ramp. DeLuca says the same person was also seen on camera attempting to break in the store’s back door, a detail that was particularly concerning given a recent rash of break-ins in the area.
“So I’m just like, ‘What the fuck?'” DeLuca tells Complex. “So then I started getting a little worried. I don’t want to get the phone call in the middle of the night, ‘Okay there was a break in,’ you know what I mean? Like, ‘What do you want us to do? Like, you want us to send the cops or whatever?’ Because every time you send the cops and there’s nothing going on, they charge you a seven, $800 fee for a false alarm.”
Rather than test his luck, DeLuca made a decision to call on a co-worker, who helped him move their merchandise from inside the store to a storage container out back as a precaution. “We put a lot of the merchandise into the storage container because, it’s like, you can’t break into it. It’s virtually impossible because it’s gated up, you need like a jaws of life, it’s really hard,” DeLuca says.
Thinking things were under control, DeLuca left Brooklyn Projects that Tuesday evening before being bombarded with calls from employees. “They were like ‘Oh my God, some crackhead, they set a fire in the backyard.’ The cops are coming, the firemen department’s coming, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘OK, there’s been fires there before in the back because there’s a huge transient problem in Los Angeles, and especially in the alleyways behind Melrose and other parts of the city.’ It’s getting out of hand and now because all the businesses are closed, it’s becoming like the Wild Wild West back there—it’s becoming really fucked up,” he says. The shop owner anticipated arriving at his store to find a manageable fire, something he’d experienced there before.
Unfortunately for DeLuca and his team, the cause for concern was legitimate this time around. He describes arriving on the scene Tuesday night to find the storage unit engulfed in flames, apparently having been sandwiched between debris and garbage that would’ve otherwise been cleared from the streets.
“There was a bunch of cardboard in between the containers and around the containers as well, because the garbage isn’t picked up regularly anymore because of COVID,” he says. “So it was a perfect storm, they lit it on fire and what happened was, you would think, ‘Oh this container is safe from wind and rain and all the elements.’ Well, everything was packed up against the walls. The fire was so bad that it heated up the walls of the container so much that boxes started to catch on fire inside and stuff started to melt and then it became like an oven essentially.”
The secure nature of the unit also presented a problem for first responders, who struggled to open the container and feared that it might “explode like a pressure cooker.” Instead, they cut a hole in the top and doused everything with water, causing what wasn’t already melted to be damaged due to moisture. DeLuca says the store is out of roughly $40,000 in sneakers and apparel, which isn’t covered by insurance due to a technicality of the store’s location.
While it’s not unheard of for a business or individual who’s been hit with these sorts of hardships to start a GoFundMe or other fundraiser, DeLuca is adamant about not taking handouts. “Right now, there’s people that need it way more than me. I need it, don’t get me wrong…I lost a lot of merchandise, but I’ll figure it out—I’ll get back on my feet. And a lot of companies hit me up and they were like, ‘Yo, we’re going to send you box of skateboards, a box of clothing, like, we got you,’ and even still, I didn’t take advantage of it,” the Brooklyn Projects founder says.
Founded in 2002, Brooklyn Projects has been one of L.A.’s sneaker and streetwear destinations for nearly two decades. The phrase “if you know, you know” may have reached meme territory at this point, but it rings true for the west coast mainstay which has notably collaborated with Nike SB on sneakers like the “Reign in Blood” and “Paparazzi” Dunk Highs, as well as the “Walk of Fame” and 2009’s multicolored Dunk Low.
Although DeLuca has been reluctant to accept monetary support, he did mention several companies and people who have been especially helpful through it all. “The brand that immediately called me right after, like literally hours after it happened, it was Numbers, the Eric Koston skateboard company. Numbers called me. Primitive company [owned by skater Paul Rodriguez] called me. Deluxe … The Hundreds and then Brixton hit me up. Diamond and Grizzly hit me up … And the one thing that really blew my mind was companies like éS and Emerica, they hit me up. They were like ‘Yo, can we send you cases? Not a box, can we send you some cases and shoes?’ I don’t even sell éS and Emerica in my store and they hit me up,” he says.
Brands aside, DeLuca shouted out actress Kate Hudson and her brother Oliver for stopping by to shop at the store after the fire, along with streetwear pioneer Bobby Hundreds. Support like this has helped to keep the store owner’s spirit high, and he says he’s optimistic about rebuilding going forward.
“It’s like the ship is sinking and the people that’s throwing you the life vest, that’s who you’re going to want to fuck with when you get back on dry land,” DeLuca says. “The other people, you’ll be like, ‘Oh really? OK.’ You’ll remember that.”
