Independent retail is dead. Erick DeLeon didn't get the memo.Everyone said brick-and-mortar was finished. Algorithms won. Curation was over. Community was dead.Eric DeLeon said watch this.He walked away from retail royalty at MartinPatrick 3 and wholesale leadership to open Of the Lion—a store that breaks every rule. Brands you can't find anywhere else. Running clubs that start in his shop. Vendors who text him directly.Eric's not chasing scale. He's building community on one corner in Minneapolis.This is what creative resistance looks like when a merchant decides to celebrate people, culture, fashion, and function.Fight or Fl1ght: People doing impossible things when everything's on the line.Tune in → This widens the lens. Changes how you think about building anything real.
