Knowing how hard it is to get booth space at Comic-Con, we were surprised to see a new 20x20 from Bait, a company we'd never seen before, and we were even more surprised to see how the company used the space--with a spare display that had a gallery feel.  We sought out Bait Chief Brand Officer Paul Baclawski to find out more.

Tell us about Bait.
Bait's a store about bringing the lifestyle of sneakerhead culture in with the vinyl culture and bringing it all together in one spot both online and in a brick and mortar store.

Where is your store located?
Diamond Bar, California.

Who are your customers?
We're looking for varied customers.  We're looking for that traditional sneakerhead who's out looking for valued, limited edition sneakers they can't get anywhere else, along with that true vinyl collector as well.  And we're looking to introduce vinyl to a whole new culture of kids.

You started with sneakers and moved to the vinyl?
Yes, from a business standpoint, it started with sneakers and drifted into the vinyl.  The vinyl has always been behind the scenes.  The initiative to put them together all in one spot hasn't really come up until just recently.

It's a beautiful display and is a nice addition to the ambiance.
We want it to be inviting and we want it to be a bit intriguing when you walk in, hence the way the displays are set up.  We wanted to keep it clean and we wanted people to come in and say "What is this?  Who are you?  What do you do?"

Do you think this is just a southern California thing or not?
No, this is global.

We saw something about an exhibit in China.
Correct.  We're also a sponsor of a tour in China called "Pop Life" which is where the Spongebob collaboration will be launched in August.  A lot of the vinyl vendors you see here will be involved in that--Hello Kitty, Domo, Spongebob--sort of a mini Comic-Con.

How big is the store?
The store's about 2,400 square feet and then we're going to have a mezzanine upstairs which is mainly focused on art exhibits and launching new vinyl toys and things like that.  You can come in downstairs, shop, get your vinyl toys, get your shoes, get some high-end headphones, go upstairs and see some cool artists that actually designed the shoes or vinyl toys and see what they do in the regular world.