Q&A with Kendall Glazer (SLA ’13)
Sisters Kendall (SLA ’13) and Libby Glazer (SLA ’15) are the co-founders of Stoney Clover Lane, a successful line of customizable travel accessories that has been featured in numerous fashion magazines, worn by top celebrities, and is sold in Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales. A business grown in Tulane dorm rooms, Stoney Clover now has six storefronts across the United States, including one opened earlier this year on Magazine Street in New Orleans. Kendall shared her secrets of success with the Tulane Alumni Association newsletter.
Could you tell me the background of how you started Stoney Clover Lane?
Libby and I started our business as teenagers from our childhood bedrooms in 2009 and grew it from our dorm rooms at Tulane. From the beginning, we’ve had a love for accessories and were passionate about self-expression through our sense of style. It was really important to us that we designed only what we loved and would wear ourselves…and that’s when Stoney Clover Lane was born! Originally, we made beaded bracelets and then expanded to patches and then nylon pouches. We started to build our community via Instagram and launched our e-commerce site as our fan base grew bigger. In 2018 we opened our first brick-and-mortar in Palm Beach, Florida. We now have six stores across the country and have had the unbelievable opportunity to partner with amazing brands like Disney, Roller Rabbit and more!
Stoney Clover’s success has skyrocketed. You sold online before opening your first storefront in Palm Beach in 2018, and earlier this year you opened your fifth and sixth stores in New Orleans and Nashville. What is a typical day like for you?
I find that no two days are the same! Some days are spent focusing on collaborations — whether it’s fine-tuning a marketing strategy for an existing partner or brainstorming new future ones. Some days are focused solely on designing products and making sure we get each item exactly how we want it. Some days we’re at our stores or events and interacting with our community. No matter what, at any point in the day you can find me answering our DMs and talking directly to our customers. I can be anywhere, and that’s always my top priority.
How did your time at Tulane inspire the way you run Stoney Clover?
One of the best things about building our business while at Tulane was that we always had focus groups, helping hands and product testers readily at our fingertips. We spent so many nights making bracelets in our dorm rooms or in our house off campus with friends, and they were always quick to help and also great at providing inspiration. We love working with a team of individuals with different skill sets, and our time at Tulane was where that love first began.
New Orleans is such a unique environment for a college student. Being a student in New Orleans taught me to really get to know a city and find the people and places that make it special. That’s something we’ve brought to our six store locations — the importance of getting to know the location and loving each and every part of it.
Tell me about your decision to open the store on Magazine Street? How often do you get to New Orleans?
New Orleans has been on the map for us ever since we expanded into brick and mortar! We love the city so much that we knew we’d eventually want to open in NOLA — particularly on Magazine Street. The physical store was really inspired by the colorful houses and design elements we see all around New Orleans. We were so excited to bring our vision of the New Orleans store to life — and we really think we were able to execute it, down to the porch and shutters!
We had a vision for events at the store as soon as we found the space. We knew we wanted to incorporate the city’s drinks, food and live music into the store, which we were able to do at our store opening. We were so proud that we were able to bring people to New Orleans specifically for the opening and introduce them to the city that we love so much. It makes us so happy that we are a small part of what makes New Orleans a destination to visit. This was honestly probably the most exciting store for us to open other than our first!
So much of Stoney Clover Lane was built in New Orleans during our time at Tulane. It’s incredible to look back at where we were then, where we are now, and then bring all of that magic to this store. There are so many amazing things unique to New Orleans that we love, and it’s a privilege to be able to return to this city time and time again — which we do every few months.
Your immense growth has happened even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. When you were named to Forbes’ “30-under-30” list last year, that profile said that sales were up 200 percent in 2020. What challenges did you have to overcome when the pandemic first hit?
We were very fortunate from a business perspective throughout the pandemic given how quickly we adapted and pivoted our strategy. When our stores and fulfillment center couldn’t be open, Libby and I returned to our roots and hand-crafted product at home from beaded bracelets to hand tie-dyed pajamas. We also re-focused even more efforts on e-commerce and our Instagram. Since we’ve always had a large focus on social media and already used these platforms to interact with followers, even prior to the pandemic, it just felt like we were spending even more time with the community rather than pivoting to a totally new social strategy.
We began Stoney Clover Lane on social media years ago, and while we have grown online and with our brick-and-mortar stores, we believe our success is a direct result of our loyal customers and the connections we’ve made and continue to make with our followers. We run our Instagram account ourselves and respond directly to feedback and ask followers for suggestions or opinions that we often incorporate in our launches. Our Instagram following grew by over 100K during the pandemic, and that included a period of time where we couldn’t fulfill orders for two months as our fulfillment center was shut down.
The pandemic taught us valuable lessons as business owners, especially in the ability to pivot quickly and in a way that’s relevant to our customer.
How did you get the idea to start the Stoney Clover Lane Book Club? How do you choose your books?
SCL Book Club started as an office initiative for our employees but quickly grew from interest on Instagram. Our employees would share the books and meetings on their personal Instagram accounts, and we were always re-posting. This led to inquiries from our followers asking what books we were reading and how they could join so we turned it into a bigger company initiative. The timing was perfect given everyone was more interested in reading and at-home activities.
We’ve taken some time to focus on being really intentional with our book club picks and want to do even more with this platform. For 2022, we’re looking to build this programming out further with content from the authors, digital meet ups, and in-person events.
Could you tell me about Stoney Clover Lane University, and why it’s important to you to share what you have learned about starting a business with up-and-coming entrepreneurs?
Stoney Clover Lane University came to fruition from all of the Instagram Lives happening at the beginning of the pandemic. We were doing them frequently, but they didn’t feel super personal, so we launched a one-time Zoom Q&A to connect with our customers. The result was a lot of business-focused questions, and we enjoyed it so much we decided to make it a weekly meeting, thus SCLU was born! Each session tackled a specific topic like Influencer Marketing, Building a Brand, Brick & Mortar Strategy, Partnerships & Collaborations, etc. Attendees submitted their questions in advance, and I built a lesson plan from there.
I was a sociology major at Tulane and the only business class I took was TIDES. I was able to take what I learned and channel it into fostering my own entrepreneurial spirit. Everything else I know, I learned by building Stoney Clover so the knowledge shared during SCLU are the things I think that potential business owners would like to know before they get started.
The sessions were incredible, and we’ve even started carrying some of the businesses we learned about and featured in our retail stores. We are all about sharing anything and everything we have learned from founding Stoney Clover Lane with others, especially with young entrepreneurs and women starting their own brands.
What is it like running a business with your sister – has it brought you closer?
Libby and I have always been so close. In fact, we both lived in Sharp and Mayer when we each lived on campus, and Libby moved into my same off-campus house. Having such a good understanding of each other has meant that we’ve always been able to work together and balance each other. I tend to be more focused on the big picture and growth, and Libby is super detail oriented and creative. She executes all of our retail strategy, launches and events.
What does the future hold for Stoney Clover Lane?
We have so many exciting, brand-new collaborations — as well as new products and silhouettes — coming for the rest of 2021 and even more for 2022. Follow us on Instagram @StoneyClover to catch them!
What advice do you have for someone in college trying to start a business?
Make sure you really love what you’re doing because it may seem glamorous on social media but it’s a full-time job. If you’re truly passionate, it makes all of the hard work worth it.
Being in college while starting a business gives you incredible access to resources you may not have anywhere else. Be proactive about your passions, speak up, and get out there — whether it’s asking to host a trunk show in a local boutique or asking a professor for their advice and feedback or partnering with a friend on a business plan — there’s so much around you. Use it to your advantage.
