- [Bea] It's the kind of turnout any business owner would be proud to see in their store, as people look at and buy merchandise, the average onlooker would think that the owner of this clothing store has it made, but he will tell you, making the jump from the field of finance to the ownership of a brick and mortar store was one of survival.

- A big part of the switch for me in trying something with Glory Days was, just trying to be happy and fulfilled in what I was doing.

- [Bea] JD Harris moved to Charlotte from Ohio in 2005 when a college friend told him to head south.

After a decade in finance, he made the change in 2016 to an online store with something he believed in, a line of clothing that touched on nostalgia wear.

- I have shirts in the back of my closet, maybe it's like a concert or a sporting event that even I don't wear 'em now, I still hang onto 'em.

You know, there's a memory attached to it and that's really what I wanna create for our brand and for our fans so that they kind of have a memory and a piece of clothing that they get to have for Charlotte.

- [Bea] And thus began Glory Days.

Designed to give people in the area a sense of not only nostalgia, but belonging.

Yet it wasn't easy getting to this point, - We really started probably the first three years, mostly doing popups around town.

That's, I would, any opportunity I got, if someone's like, yeah, you can come out to our brewery, I took it so, and you know, every opportunity that someone would would give me, I'd do it, just to get out there, try to get exposure for our brand.

- [Bea] With opportunities for his brand to be seen, it meant coming up with a variety of looks that would appeal, which raises the question, how to come up with designs that customers want.

- There's plenty where I think it's gonna work and then it falls flat, so I don't always have the the recipe, but sometimes you just get a feeling, you know, just talking to fans or you know, I'll talk to my staff, I'm like, "what do you guys think about this one?"

So sometimes it's just like kind of a reaction.

- [Bea] Such was the case for a very specific design.

They called it the Misfit Queen, yet it was created to pay homage to the history of Queen Charlotte.

- Anytime we go into design, you know, we really wanna make sure, you know, we're putting all the right attention to the details.

So especially you know, Queen Charlotte looking back at, you know, actual, you know, historical photos and be like, hey, how can we accurately, you know, represent her in her light?

And that was part of making sure that we did the braids with the hair and everything, giving that look.

(chilled music) - [Bea] In other designs, he points out the nostalgia trend is throwbacks that to many was not so long ago.

- You'll see through a lot of our designs, were very kind of nostalgic based.

Like the nineties is kind of back now as far as the looks and a lot of times someone likes very minimalist or simple and someone wants kind of loud and crazy.

So we just try to have kind of a little bit of everything for people.

(chilled music) (upbeat music) - [Bea] And for businesses in a new millennium, getting the word out is a whole new type of advertising at low cost.

- It's very different, you know, having to use Instagram and TikTok and all these social media tools, which is great in a sense where, you know, we can reach more people that way and you know, a lot of times we'll hear our customers, they'll come in and say, yeah, I saw your TikTok video, or I saw this or that and that's how they really find out about it or how word gets around.

- [Bea] One of the most successful parts of Glory Days is what they call their icon series.

- I'd say kind of next big goal is to just expand our partnerships, our collaborations, our Glory Days icons line's been really successful and that's a lot of fun to get to work with, you know, local athletes and you know, people like that and give back to their charities as well.

- [Bea] Among those icons, with their partnership paraphernalia on the wall, Jonathan Stewart, Greg Olson, Mike Tolbert.

Muggsy Bogues and now Luke Kuechly.

So what words from an entrepreneur who went from finance to pop-up shops, to a brick and mortar business?

- It's gonna be tough.

You know, early on you're gonna have a lot of nos.

You're gonna have a lot of, you know, unanswered emails and doors closed on you and to me that, it's taking nos and looking at those opportunities as, you know, not just getting down on yourself, you being like, okay, here's an opportunity to do better or work harder on something.

- [Bea] And because he followed his own advice, he can now look at his own glory days and see that success did not pass him by.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Bea Thompson.