Check Out Stephanie Miller and Patrick Froman’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Miller / Patrick Froman.

Hi Stephanie and Patrick, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Patrick and I have been best friends since 2008 when we both worked retail. He worked on the corporate side for a large fast fashion company and I was the store manager at a stationery and gift store. We both were really ready for a change, and one night in 2016 we were like, “what if we put our backgrounds together and created a store unlike any other in KC?!” We wanted to combine all the things we love: Political and Pop culture products, well made gifts and scents, paper goods, vintage, and well curated, spaces.

We wanted to create a whole store and lifestyle experience: a safe space where everyone feels heard and welcome. And since this planning was right after the 2016 election we knew we couldn’t be quiet about our beliefs and our stance. We set out to look for makers all over the country who came from all backgrounds – focusing especially on small brands and makers who gave back to organizations we believed in. And then we quit our jobs and decided to “make Fetch happen!”

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing is smooth sailing when you own your own business, but we really work so well together as a team. We have both also gone through some really hard personal obstacles in the last 4 years and I am so grateful to have the partnership that we do. Like so many small businesses, nothing has tested us harder than the last year with the pandemic. When one of us is anxious or overwhelmed, the other is calm and supportive and we have always made a promise to look at ourselves as a business and what we can improve on.

We are constantly asking ourselves how we can be better, shake things up, and continue evolving. The pandemic forced us to slow down, really look at our lives and our schedules, and we were able to look at things like our website and shift towards online sales and local delivery during the shut down. We are both very introspective – and sometimes to a fault, very hard on ourselves! We definitely have become such a great team over the years and we balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses for sure.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We both have very creative minds, and both love the merchandising and display aspects of the business. I graduated from KCAI as a fiber major, and I love installation art. We try to create in store installations that are over the top or something you don’t see in every store you walk into. Recently we added a projector on one of our walls so that we can project music videos, movies, and sometimes RuPaul’s Drag Race on the wall and create a fun and different shopping experience.

I, of course, have to mention our “Fetch Board” outside, because we have definitely become known for our political and funny signs out front. Last year our “PRO Black/Brown/Choice/Trans/Weed/Hoe” sign made it as a meme and then onto a Drag Race Queen’s Twitter and was retweeted and shared over 100k times! We have since been able to make that phrase into TShirts, posters and totebags, which has been pretty amazing to see that kind of support from all over the country, and a few orders outside of the US. We also donated over $7000 to the ACLU from the sales of those shirts, which felt pretty amazing as such a small business.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
We have both been involved in the arts community in the past and would love to get more involved in community relations in general. We love hosting local artists for pop ups and using our platform to give people a space to network.

Contact Info:

• Email: fetchkcmo@gmail.com
• Website: www.fetchkcmo.com
• Instagram: @fetchkcmo
• Facebook: facebook.com/fetchkcmo
• Twitter: @fetchkcmo
• Other: tik tok @fetchkcmo

Image Credits:
Her Perspective Photography
@fetchkcmo