Keep ULAH Alive: A Homegrown KC Story Worth Saving
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Hi, we’re Joey and Buck — co-founders of ULAH, a locally owned men’s lifestyle store in Kansas City that’s grown into something much more than retail. For the past nine years, ULAH has been a space for style, connection, and community — a place where people come not just to shop, but to feel seen, supported, and inspired.
We’ve worked hard to create a business that gives back and lifts others up. Some of the ways we’ve connected with and celebrated our community include:
- ULAH Live Sessions: Intimate, “Tiny Desk”-style concerts where 100% of ticket sales go directly to the artists
- Annual Pride Block Party: A vibrant celebration supporting and showcasing LGBTQ+ charitable organizations, artists, and makers (paused this year due to limited resources)
- In-Store Local Brand Pop-Ups: Giving local artists, makers, and brands a platform to reach new audiences
- Charity Sip & Shop Events: Hosting fundraising events in partnership with our top customers and the causes they care about
- Community Spotlight Blog: Collaborating with and highlighting other small businesses through co-marketing features
These efforts have always been about more than promotion — they’re about building real relationships and making Kansas City feel even more connected.
This isn’t easy to share, but we’re at a crossroads. After nearly a decade of overcoming challenge after challenge, we’re now facing the very real possibility of closing our doors — unless we get help. Here’s what got us here:
- Building Reconstruction (2017–2019): Just one year in, major water damage forced repairs to the apartments above us. We spent two years operating under scaffolding—yet our community showed up for us.
- Pandemic & SBA Loans (2020): We closed for two months, then secured loans to reopen, buy inventory, and rehire our staff.
- Post-COVID Expansion (2021–2023): Like many small businesses, we benefited from the initial rush of customers' post-COVID spending, expanding to meet the demands. But that surge wasn’t sustainable, and by 2023 we experienced a decline in sales. Looking back, we waited too long to reduce staffing costs. When your team feels like family, those decisions become even harder. Now we’re facing the real challenge: how to evolve in a much slower, more cautious economy.
- Candle Campaign Results (Fall 2024): We launched a candle pre-sale to rally support, and while it helped us make it this far, we didn’t reach the goal needed to fully restock the store and spark a full recovery. (Our original goal was to sell 5,000 candles in 4 weeks. We sold 1,538 in those first 4 weeks.)
- Lending Barriers: Like many small businesses that relied on COVID relief loans, we’re now overleveraged, and lenders aren’t willing to take the risk. We’ve spent the past year trying to consolidate debt and secure inventory funding, but without success. It’s a frustrating cycle: we have the drive and ideas, but not the financial runway to act on them.
We’ve dramatically cut expenses, reduced our team, and scaled back to essentials. Now, we need to raise a minimum of $280,000 to:
- Pay down vendor invoices so we can restock the store with the curated lines you know and love
- Cover basic operating expenses while inventory is replenished
- Fund targeted marketing campaigns to re-engage our community and bring customers back to a fully restocked store
If we reach our goal, we’ll emerge stronger, applying the lessons we’ve learned with a leaner, more resilient business approach, evolving our marketing, hosting meaningful community events, and expanding our personal styling services.
If ULAH has ever made you feel at home, helped you express yourself, or even just made you laugh with our social media antics, we hope you’ll help us write the next chapter!
With love and gratitude,
Joey and Buck
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Let’s keep ULAH alive!
Co-organizers (2)
Buck Wimberly
Organizer
Mission, KS
Joey Mendez
Co-organizer