It’s a classic story: two artists get together, discuss their dreams, open a retail shop, and successfully grow into bigger and bigger spaces, frequently expanding their art offerings, and live happily ever after.
No, wait, that’s not the way it usually works for artists.
But most artists aren’t longtime friends David Sanchez and Noah Merenda, founders of Spaceboy Clothing.
It was around 1991 when two “misfit” 14-year-olds from Delaware (David) and Maryland (Noah) got sent to summer church camp. David, a punk skateboarder, and Noah, with his leopard-bleached hair and saggy raver pants, felt weird and out of place among the other camp teens. They naturally gravitated toward each other, sneaking into the woods for an occasional smoke.
Photographer Noah says, “We were lucky to grow up in families full of artists. David’s family, all of his siblings are in some form of the arts. His mom was a creative person, and taught him how to sew. I grew up in a big family full of artists.”
They kept in touch. But over time, David and Noah took different paths, each living in New York at separate times. Eventually, they became roommates. Twice. They called Browntown, off Maryland Avenue, and the West Side, on Union Street, home at various times.
Now they are on their fourth Wilmington-area location for their ten-year-old retail store and arts hub, Spaceboy Clothing.
It all started in February 2009, when they opened a space in Elsmere. It had previously housed the Alzheimer’s Association, and is now a new and used appliance and repair store. It was small. It was out of the way. Parking was a little awkward. But it was SOMETHING.
Vintage-goods collector Noah says, “I wanted to open a cool store and David did as well. When it came down to it, I was the person with stuff to put in the store to make it look cool, and he was the one who had the product—the t-shirt business.” He adds, “When we got into the business in Delaware, I knew we couldn’t just have a boutique. I knew we needed to have a service. That’s where the screen printing came into play. I knew this area wouldn’t support a boutique.”
About David, Noah says, “He’s usually down to do stuff without thinking about how it’s going to get done. I’ll think it out. He’s more of the dreamer, I’m more of the realistic.”
This seems like a contradiction, when considering that the screen-printing business is the steady and practical side of the business, with the vintage finds limited to space and turnover. These gents’ yin and yang, complementary talents and complimentary statements about each other, may give a clue to their ten years of success.
Noah says, “David and I lived together before we ever had a store together…I liked to decorate our apartments and he liked the way I decorated. When we lived together at one point, there was a little storefront close by, years before we ever opened the business, and we started talking about Wilmington’s lack of cool shops. I grew up seeking out cool shops, like in Fells Point and DC.”
When asked what is his favorite vintage piece they’ve ever had in the store, David notes that Noah once gutted an old TV, keeping the glass intact. It will soon grace the front window of the new store.
Spaceboy’s signature style as a boutique becomes apparent as Noah continues, “I was a rave kid. I was always at parties in DC and Baltimore. Along with those parties came a lot of vintage—sunglasses and wallets and things like that. I also grew up going to auctions and flea markets. I was at an auction every week, and Friday nights my dad went to another.”
His sister had worked at a well-known Fells Point mixed-vintage-and-new shop, Oh Susanna. She had the hookup on a source for sunglasses and other items. And thus began a reputation for style and whimsy and art that has continued from Elsmere to Wilmington.
The store’s art offerings didn’t end with fashion and vintage goods. The rear parking lot of the Elsmere store once served as the setting for a video featuring the Spaceboy mascot: a metallic silver robot known as X-1. As technology is known to do, it failed, and the footage was lost. That didn’t keep X-1 down: he’s been stationed in the front window of every Spaceboy store since…and this also wasn’t the last of the video projects Spaceboy and its founders would launch.
In 2014, they would go on to create a web series called, “Shirt Heads,” which documented their move to the 700 block, and the characters that come and go throughout the work day.
David says, “We always get weirdos coming into the store. That’s what reality TV is all about.”
But long before the Wilmington move, something BIG happened to up their profile. Ryan Phillipe, the Hollywood actor, SAG-award winner and star of both an Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movie, came for a visit with his parents in Delaware. He and his mother stopped in to the Elsmere Spaceboy and bought a bunch of stuff. In April 2010, he made his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live, and introduced Ke$ha (an artist with several Wilmington connections) while wearing one of Spaceboy’s most famous shirt designs. It features a shield-shape, a laurel wreath and a Delaware outline.
Spaceboy was on everyone’s lips because of this shirt, on this star, on this show.
It has remained a popular t-shirt design, although David lists another retired design as his favorite: a map of Wilmington, screened in pink and white on a black shirt. Noah doesn’t really have a favorite, yet he has fond feelings about a shirt emblazoned with the word “LOCAL,” with a Delaware silhouette cut out of the letter O, based on the income it brought in.
Noah says, “That’s kind of like asking me to pick a favorite kid.”
In late 2011, David and Noah’s vision—of having a cool, eclectic, fun clothing boutique in the City of Wilmington, inspired by all the other cities they’d been—began to come true as they packed up the shop and moved downtown. First, it was 617 North Market Street, then 711 North Market Street, and now, splitting the difference, 704 North Market Street.
They weren’t quite ready to move so soon, however. Of the 2014 transition, David says, “Although it was not our choice to move, as the landlords needed to do work on the building, it ended up being a good move. Every time we moved we grew a little bit.”
Once settled into the 700 block of Market Street, the creative ideas kept flowing. The popular, but short lived, Comedy Cellar launched in 2016. There were occupancy issues, and the comedy shows ended abruptly.
In 2017, Spaceboy set their sights on another project intended to make Wilmington cooler: Humble Park. At the corner of 4th and Shipley Streets is a park with a large sculpture, also known as Del Tech Plaza. Spaceboy partnered with Downtown Visions on a cleanup effort, leading to a number of events to bring attention to an interesting, seldom-used public space. The first two events also helped to raise money for David’s ex-girlfriend, who is since in remission from breast cancer.
Cut to 2018, and Jerry’s Artarama moves out of Wilmington, making a 3,500 square foot space available for retail. With landlords that wanted new, permanent tenants, as soon as possible. With even less planning than the previous move, Spaceboy took the opportunity.
When asked what this move means for the future of Spaceboy, David says, “It means that we have definitely been doing something right over the past ten years. It also means it’s a good opportunity for the city, for a number of reasons: one being it’s an actual location where people can come and hang out, watch events, look at cool stuff. We’re one of the only places in Wilmington that sells Delaware-themed items.”
He adds, “I really hope it’s our last move; unless we open more stores.”
Noah says, “I’m excited to have the space to do the things we’ve always done. Lots of different things: vintage stuff, shows, t-shirts, printing. The new space has dedicated areas for all the different things. Everything has room to breathe.”
The new store naturally lends itself to departments. The front left will serve as Noah’s vintage store, with clothing, furniture and art. The front right will offer graphic tees, crafts and handmade goods. The back right will allow customers to order custom, single shirts, using blank tees and existing art.
The back right has been fitted with a 14-foot stage, performance lighting and a sound system.
David says, “We want to do more events, and not just 21 and older. We want to try to get an all-ages crowd, too.”
A musician since the nineties, David would regularly go to shows to hang out with friends and see bands in his spare time.
“I want to help other people create the same kind of memories and experiences I had. This is a place where that can happen. That doesn’t really exist for young people here.”
In the meantime, they’ve been scrambling to get the store ready for their upcoming event, which is marketed as a grand reopening, but may be more of a preview, depending on how the lead-in week goes.
Of the planning involved in the move, David says, “Really, we sat down and emptied our bank accounts. This move wasn’t a plan; we had to work with what money we had.”
What’s different from Spaceboy’s short stint as a successful entertainment venue in 2016? Sprinklers and multiple exits. And there’s DCAD student housing just upstairs.
The new storefront’s opening event is March 2nd, starting at 7pm. The live music—provided by Gozer, with Moonflower and Kae Hock, will end around 10pm. Todd Brewer from Rainbow Records will also be spinning vinyl. A taco truck will be on hand for those who are hungry.
As for planning their music calendar, David says, “Over my years of not doing live shows, I’ve seen a lot of bands online I want to reach out to. Our friend Tim Day runs Tri-State Underground. A lot of the money he makes from shows he donates to the homeless, and he gets people to bring canned food.”
He expects they’ll get emails from touring bands, and they’ll book comedy.
“We want to mix it up. Cool movie nights, dance parties, punk rock flea markets and live music. We want to be a hub where touring bands can stop through and then go home and tell friends and talk good shit about Wilmington.”
About this latest move, David says, “We might owe a lot of favors.”
They are a small team, and when a big job gets to be too much, they reach beyond current colleagues Ruben and Brad, asking friends for help.
David says, “People have come in to paint, help set up lights, paint a mural on the wall. David Hallberg [former staff member] came back to help us build a stage and design an ad.”
At almost 16 years old, David’s son Fox frequently texts and asks if he can come and help more in the store. Son Jett, age 9, still hangs around, but David has him honing his drawing skills and learning Photoshop.
Noah says, “We practically raised Jett in the store. Before he went to daycare – he was a part of our store.”
What’s next for the Spaceboys?
David has some ideas: “People always talk to me about t-shirts and I want to be known as an artist. I want to branch out and get into more of my art stuff.”
He participated in Fun-A-Day for three years, but the 2019 commitment didn’t align well with the move schedule. For one Fun-A-Day, he screen-printed halftone images of 80s themes, using condiments instead of ink. He found that he had to bake Cheez Whiz to get it dark enough to be able to see, and ketchup didn’t work as well as expected.
In the year before the latest move, David launched the @hey_chez design business, focusing on illustrations of cartoons and funny characters. (His “Burger Monster” was the featured art for the 2018 Delaware Burger Battle.)
Noah is excited to break into furniture more in the new location.
He says, “I’ve always been a collector of furniture; I’m excited to be able to shop again. I stopped myself from shopping and going to auctions for a long time because we didn’t have the space.”
Wistfully, he adds, “Some pieces in the new store are pretty special to me, but I am finally putting them up for sale. They’re from my own collection of twenty years or more.”
He recalls one of his favorite sales from Spaceboy’s history: a velvet unicorn painting. A regular customer had a good eye and bought it, which made him really happy at the time, and even happier now. That customer is now his girlfriend.
If you’d like to support Spaceboy in its new iteration, you may not want to plan your outfit around the ability to rush in and buy shirts on this first day.
But do attend.