By Ada Capecchi, Special to The Medium
EtceTera is a Tacoma fashion brand built from the ground up: puffer bags modeled after the Tacoma dome, motifs that echo Seattle sports teams, shirts representing the city’s beloved neighborhoods.
With their clothing brand, owners Umi Wagoner and Perris Wright offer an elevated vision of what it means to rep where you’re from. The two have been creating pieces that are effortlessly cool and distinct since they were in high school, opening the ETC Tacoma storefront in 2014.
“The gallery of ambition helped us confirm that there was a community,” said Wagoner. “And more importantly that business could be done in downtown Tacoma”
The gallery of ambition was a space created by artist Dion Thomas through Spaceworks, a program that works with local creatives and entrepreneurs to see out their visions.
Wagoner and Wright were in high school when they started selling their etceTera t-shirts. With help on sales from friend Daz Johnson, they generated interest across the city. After graduation and college Wagoner, Wright and Johnson all were ready to build the brand, and with the help of Spaceworks they enacted their business plan, said Wagoner.
ETC Tacoma specializes in “rarewear,” which is the creation of a limited number of designs only dropped at scheduled times. Although the store originally sold items from other businesses, for a majority of its years it has only carried items from its own brand, etceTera.
“Rarewear is a term that we created because streetwear, as an industry, started to evolve,” said Wagoner. The model creates hype around the clothes, evoking a sense of rarity and exclusivity for specific items. It also allows more creative iterations and designs to see the light of day, Wagoner said .
“Rarewear does affect how we design because we don’t want to oversaturate a design,” Wagoner continued. “How long can you talk about a thing before you need to reinvent it or step away from it for a bit?”
ETC is built on the culture of Tacoma. Garments are wearable in day-to-day life and incorporate textiles, silhouettes, graphics and accessories that represent the coolness of the city. Johnson has been with ETC Tacoma and etceTera from the very beginning, before the brick and mortar store. He has been an intern, store manager, worked in marketing and sales and now does consulting for the company.
“Any T-shirt you see, those are done all locally,” said Johnson. “We try to do for Tacoma by Tacoma.”Without a cut and sew production house in Washington, more complicated garments, such as puffers and bomber jackets, are produced in Los Angeles, said Johnson.
Describing himself as an encyclopedia of the shop, Johnson talked about how getting people to care about etceTera also meant getting them to care about Tacoma.
“You can get someone to buy something from New York 10 times quicker than something from Tacoma,” said Johnson. “It’s being able to sell off the illusion of where you live”
Tacoma may not have the reputation of other major cities but Johnson believes this challenge pushes them and helps them grow through the process–a process that reflects Tacoma’s reputation as the grit city.
“Theres an extra hard work ethic that comes with being in a niche, in a smaller business,” said Johnson.
Justin Le, a Tacoma native and photographer, grew up around the etceTera hype and was a frequent customer during his high school years.
“I used to line up for their back to school sales hours ahead of time,” said Le. “ I even lined up for their five-year anniversary at 7 a.m. and the store didn’t even open until 12 p.m. or 1 p.m., just so I could get a free shirt.”
Le recounted the excitement at new drops and how affordable the back-to-school sales were for the store’s fan base. “It’s a staple that I couldn’t see Tacoma without now,” said Le. “It provided an entryway to learning about streetwear fashion for many.”
“They paved the way for me to start my own brand. Seeing their collab with The Hundreds was truly inspiring,” Le said.
Le has released his own clothing line, Double Up Tac. He said he respects the ETC owners for sticking with their community and early supporters and building their brand from that energy.
Support of creative minds has been a common thread for ETC. Their initial guidance from Dion Thomas has translated into their own work in support of young people who are pursuing their own creative interests.
ETC has dressed the city and created a sense of community through their collaborations with skate/coffee shop The Method, Tacoma’s Curran Coffee and by highlighting numerous Tacoma small businesses on their Instagram, which has over 78,700 followers. In addition, Wagoner has worked on creating spaces for artistic showcases and small business growth in downtown Tacoma.
“We were a waiting room, an affirmation room,” Wagoner said. He talked about high school students coming into the store to hangout and share ideas pre-Covid. Musicians, artists, skaters–young people were interested in the ETC space and the store embraced them.
“We leaned into them hanging out,” Wagoner said. The store held open mics and art galleries, all youth-led. Wagoner explained how important these spaces were for exploration and development.
In recent years the storefront has been less of a hangout, but Wagoner continues to create arts opportunities as a part-owner of the Broadway Gallery.
The gallery is located in downtown Tacoma and will be showing artwork from Tiffany Hammonds, a Tacoma artist who has a residency in the Hilltop neighborhood and has done murals for the city.
Johnson also hopes to see the shop come back as a hangout. He added that most of the young people have flocked to etceTera’s social media as a place to congregate, but he hopes that more youth come out to the store front and initiate art projects as they have in the past.
“People wanted to be in the cool space, and we were that space” said Johnson.
Like any business ETC has had their share of challenges. The original storefront on Pacific Avenue was forced to relocate after the building was sold, and a couple years after settling into a space down the block the storefront was robbed.
“The moments that are supposed to be the scariest have ended up balancing out,” said Wagoner. “That’s when the support has appeared.”
Those who rallied around the store during its forced move were primarily already connected with the brand, but after the robbery a wider community was ready to help.
“The first time we saw general Tacoma show up for us, not someone who knows about streetwear or skate or hiphop, was the robbery,” Wagoner said. “Then it was like ‘Let’s help this business.’”
For over a decade etceTera has built an impressive brand awareness in the city. Tacoma natives know that if someone is wearing Etcetera, regardless of the location, they’re connected to the Tacoma area. The immense sense of home and understanding that accompanies something simple like a graphic T-shirt is what makes the brand special.
“ETC provides a way for you to rep where you’re from,” said Le. “They put on for the community and allow us to feel so much pride being anywhere in Tacoma.”
ETC designs for the city that raised them and for the people that are proud of their home. This is what Tacoma street fashion is all about.
