35. Abigail Lee: Buffalo, Building the By Abigail Lee Brand and the Bills

0:22I'm Victoria. The game's on today. I am so excited to be bringing you a conversation with Abigail Lee, the queen of Buffalo Bills apparel. Abigail is a business owner of the clothing brand BuyAbigailLee, a creator and a social media personality sharing all things Bills and Buffalo. She recently signed a deal with Topps Market and is now available in over 70 stores in New York, plus continues to have limited edition drops of BuyAbigailLee items. Abigail tells us some hints on what's coming next for her company, how it got started, and what it has looked like along the way as she's grown over the last few years.

1:02Without further ado, let's get into the interview with Abigail Lee. Abigail Lee, welcome to the game. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to have you because we met in Buffalo when you gave us tickets to that incredible tailgate, which had every kind of wing ever. The food was, I was like a tailgate food. Like how good can this be? And then we were there and we're like, this is incredible. So good. So thank you. And it was so nice to meet you there. It's so much fun. Yeah. That was the game day Buffalo tailgate. They have them in a bunch of other like NFL cities, but specifically in Buffalo, they do it like the biggest and the best there.

1:43So I'm so glad you were able to come to that one because they go absolutely all out. Well, all of Buffalo is, I would say, like one of the best fan game day experiences out of the entire NFL and like even sports like Buffalo goes like Buffalo and the Bills are synonymous to me now. There's like I asked one woman, I was like, hey, I'm looking for it. What was I looking for? I don't know. I was looking for something that I couldn't find. And I was like, Hey, I'm looking for a bills this. And she's like, I don't know. I don't watch the bills. And I was like, how do you live here and not watch the bill?

2:18Like you can't even go into Wegmans. No, literally you can't go anywhere. It always, it kind of blows my mind. I mean, obviously I'm so like, this is my, the Buffalo bills is like my entire personality. I was on, I was interviewed last night by channel four and they were like talking about memorabilia. And I was like, Oh, I was like, yeah, this is my life. Like I, I define as like the Buffalo Bills, you know what I mean? So when I meet people or if I say like, I'm like, oh my gosh, like nice seeing you go bills or like just a random person. I, I don't say goodbye anymore. I, I say go bills. Like I don't know what goodbye means anymore.

2:56It's so weird. And if they don't say it back, I'm like, are you okay? Is there something cool, but now we're not. Yeah. I like give them a little, and then I just walk away. So it's, yeah, but it's, it is kind of crazy. It is like the, it's just like the heartbeat of our city. You know what I mean? Yeah, it really, it really is. And it makes it so fun as a fan. I mean, I came in and wore Buffalo clothes instead of the opposing team. So I also felt like I got like a front row seat and came with like a Bills fan, which if anybody goes to that stadium, I recommend you do it that way just because it's so much more fun to just like truly be a part of it.

3:36Okay. Have you been in Buffalo forever? Tell us about your like Buffalo story. Yeah. So I've born and raised in Buffalo, a little town up in the North towns called Lewiston. Been here my whole life. I moved away to Charlotte, North Carolina for about three years. And then I was like, you know what? I need to, I need to get home. I was like, this is, I was still, I was starting my business. It was a couple of years in. And I was like, if I want to do this right, I got to be, I got to be where this is all happening. So I moved back home in 2022 and I've been back here ever since. Yeah. There's I it's weird because there's just, there is no place like Buffalo and I've been to so many other cities and it's just different here.

4:23You know what I mean? I mean, you obviously experienced it when you came to the, just to the tailgate. And I know you were going around, going to like small businesses, just experiencing everything that Buffalo has. It is, it's just, it's unlike anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I, it's so fun too, to grow up with the bills being so a part of your life. And then I feel like leaving anytime you move, you like get there and you're like, okay, like I need to make friends and I need to like assimilate. And I've learned these sports team teams and like Buffalo seems like a pretty hard place to leave and like go assimilate in somewhere else.

5:00Yeah. I remember getting to Charlotte and I still always gravitated towards Bills fans and like going to like, I would out and about and I'd have my Bills hat on. And then like all my friends down there were people who were transfers from Syracuse and Rochester and, you know, in Hamburg. So even moving away, I still, I still found my group of people and it was all Buffalo people still. So I was like, we really didn't, I really didn't move for a reason, you know, like maybe better weather, but like, I love the snow. Like it's, I don't know if you can see there's, it is just like a foot of snow outside.

5:41Like I want to be in the snow. Like that's, that's, it's the best. Yeah. People were like on TikTok, they're like, come to a snow game. And I was like, you guys, I am from San Diego. Yeah. I'm not, I will not make it. And I cannot spend$600 on heated best, heated pants, feet warmer, boots. I didn't even own, like I lost my long coat. So I came to Buffalo and went shopping at like, where did I go? Like TJ Maxx in Buffalo because I didn't have a coat. So I was like, I'm not going to make it to a, I should have just shopped on your site, honestly and gotten like a snowsuit if I was gonna come but I was like no I'm coming early December and I came to like that game it was yeah the the bill's cheaps it was so nice out it actually was it was I forget I'm trying to remember what I was wearing that day all black you looked fabulous oh okay I yeah you were like black leather yes yes because it was like it was like really nice out.

6:48And usually like by that time, like, I'm like, I need my snowsuit or a fur coat, but I'm actually glad that you came for that game because honestly, the last two games, the Eagles game, I have never experienced a game like that. First of all, it sucked because we did lose the rain. I was dripping. I don't know if you saw, I put up a video on Tik TOK and I squeezed my beanie and it was just so much rain. I, and then I'm still sick from that game. It was so, it was miserable. And I was, but you know what? It was kind of funny because obviously we're not going to, that was our last game at that, at that stadium.

7:28I was like, I came home and I remember looking at my boyfriend. I was like, you know, if we ever have to go to a game like that, I'm going to spend the extra money and I'm going to go sit in the club because I'm so sick. I'm so drenched. And then I was like, oh my gosh, I'm never going to have, I'm never going to be able to like experience something like that again, because in the new stadium, I went a little lux and now I have the club seats there. So then I got really emotional after that game. And I was like, wait, I'll do it one more time. I'll do it one more time. Cause I'm never going to be able to, you know, if it starts downpouring, I'm not half of the stadiums covered.

8:04I'm row 14. So I'm not covered, but I'm in like the fancy charge bar and I, it's going to, it's going to just be so different. I know I obviously want to talk about the new stadium, but the Eagles game was definitely, it was miserable, but I almost want to do it again because I want to go through the misery one more time. And then with this last jets game with the snow and it was super cold, it was just, I don't know. It just, it was nostalgic. I'm so glad that the weather was how it was this last week. And especially my snowsuit, I was, I was like, or I had my fur coat on, but my girlfriend had her snowsuit on and a fur coat.

8:42We were toasty. We were happy. We were crying. Tears were freezing, but it was fine. We were good. You were good. You were good. You were prepared. Okay. Let's talk. Obviously the old stadium, new stadium is one of the hottest topics in Buffalo. So the old stadium has been around since 1973. Yeah. And okay. Oh my gosh. It was such, it was the craziest weekend ever. And I was so emotional the couple days before I kept crying and I was like, it's like you're PMSing, but it's like about the stadium. No, literally. And then I did PMS. It happened yesterday. I was like, wait, this is why I was so emotional.

9:29On top of everything, I was like, no. I was like, this was all, it was all in the cards at the same time. Crazy, crazy last game. I have never, I only cried seven times. It was, it was unbelievable. The feeling and the emotion that was in that stadium on Sunday night. Yeah. Yeah, I can only imagine because Bill's Mafia goes so hard already. And I mean, when I was there, my friend Jojo, we were with her family friends who I was sitting next to a woman and her husband has worked in the stadium. I'm pretty sure since day one of that stadium, day one, and so does her son. And they had had season tickets in the entire time.

10:20And she was talking about like the amount of women that now come to the games that when she starts, she's been a fan her entire life since she was young. And now she's like, there was no women. Like I couldn't get any of my women friends to come to the NFL games. And now there are more women here. And we were having that conversation, which was really beautiful and impactful. And especially like we were talking about what I do and so emotional. Like, how can you not cry over it? Yeah. And it was cool. You know what? I think it's kind of, it was not funny, but I kind of like chuckled a little bit as we were, I've been watching like videos back of, you know, obviously we're girls, we can be emotional, but the men that were tearing up and crying, I literally was like, oh, you guys won't cry when you get a divorce, but you're going to cry when our state leaves.

11:07I was like, okay, all right. But it was, I mean, I, I, I was still there bawling my eyes out. Obviously there's, I've only been a season ticket holder for the last two years, but I've grown up in that stadium. My father is the one who instilled just the love of the Buffalo bills in me. He went to 80 straight games in the nineties all throughout the super bowl. So he is, he's kind of where I get my love like love for it. And it's just kind of, I love being able to tell other, like, you know, tell other women about football. And especially when I started really started going to the games in like 2017, honestly, my dad wouldn't let me go to the games before I was like 23 because he knew how crazy it got, you know, like when we were going through the drought, it was just, I mean, it was just these men getting crazy, just drunk.

12:02And like, like my dad was going to the games he knew and he didn't want his pretty 20 year old daughter going to the game with her little girlfriend. Oh, hoity toity. So I think in the last couple of years, it really has changed that like, I could go to a game now and feel totally fine because there is so many more women now, which is so, it's so cool. Like that's how it should be. You know, It is how I was in the bathroom. I went to the Rams Cardinals game by myself because I was like, this is probably going to be the last game that I'm at this season. And so I was like, I'm just going to go.

12:42And I didn't have anybody to go with. So I went and I was in the bathroom and this girl was like, does the beanie look OK? Does it not look OK? And she's like asking her friend. She's like, why aren't you being honest with me? And so then I walked up. I was like, actually, the beanie looks really cute. Just so you know. I love it. Isn't that so fun? How like it can be, even in the, I feel like in the last two years, the, the being able to go to a football game now can be like a fashion statement and you can still look just, you can be dressed to the nines, but still be cheering on your football team, fashion and football together, fashion, femininity and football altogether is like, that is my MO.

13:22So it's just so fun, right? Yeah. It's kind of crazy how high profile the NFL is and how it's taken this long for it to be media centric in the way that it is. Like the lifestyle, the social side, like I can't believe how popular, but I guess it's because it's all men. So now that, you know, it's like women can like sports and know sports and talk about sports. Speaking of fashion, let's talk about your company. Your whole way. Yeah. Literally my whole definition of my being. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly who you are and nothing else. Tell us how you got started. Yeah. So I, back in 2017, I started bleaching and tie-dyeing super old Buffalo Bills pieces.

14:15like my, it was actually so funny. I was thinking about this the other day because I saw a really old photo of my grandmother and my grandfather with my mom and dad at a bills game in like the eighties. And my grandmother, bless her soul. She used to go out. And when I started this would go to like Goodwill and Salvation Army and go and try to buy Buffalo bills pieces for me. So I did a, I did an art show in my like hometown, bleached and tie-dyed bunch of bills clothes. And we had just, we had just gotten Josh. We were just about to get Josh. And I went and I was like, we'll see how this stuff goes.

14:52Like, let's see all my pieces, all my Buffalo bills, like reworked pieces sold out on the first day. And I was like, okay, there might be something here. So stayed up all night, went out to all the, all the thrift stores, got all the stuff bleached and tie-dyed these pieces, took them back the next day and they all sold again. And I was like, okay, let's see how this goes for. So for a couple of years, I was just bleaching and tie-dying them, started my own Instagrams, jumped on, did my story sales and all that kind of stuff. And then in 2020, I was down in Charlotte, lost my social media marketing job due to COVID.

15:26And I was bleaching and tie-dying, just matching sets in my apartment. And I'd post like five or 10 of them immediately. They would sell. And I was like, okay, no one else is doing this. Let me, let me do this full time. Let me see if I can make enough money to support myself and just try it. Starts going really good. COVID starts starting to blow up, posting on social media all the time. It's just my day to day, working the, working the clothes, you know, like just jumping on being my like true authentic self, just wanting to connect because I was down in Charlotte. It's during COVID. I just wanted to still connect with people in Buffalo because I was missing home.

16:08We're all stuck inside. So just jumping on my social media starts growing. I moved back home in 2022. I get a warehouse. And ever since then, it's just been unlike anything I could have ever imagined. Socials have blown up. I just got recently this last year, I have a deal with our tops friendly markets. It's our local supermarket, but they're also in Pennsylvania. They're all over New York. So we are now in over 70 tops locations, wholesaling, which has been something I could have never imagined. Like I was bleaching pieces one by one in my backyard nine years ago. And now I get to walk into the grocery store that I've shopped at since I've been a little girl and my face is there and I'm like, I'm like, okay, this is, this is really, really cool.

16:59So it's just been, it's just It's been like the wildest ride. Obviously, it's been nine years. So this year has kind of been like the blow up year. And it's been amazing. Yeah. I mean, congratulations with everything that you've done and built. It's wild just to hear founder stories that are like, I was just tie dyeing stuff because I thought it would be fun. And I wanted to do something creative and go to a market to now you are like the it girl in fashion in Buffalo and you are like the personality of the city and the girls love you and love what you do. When I posted on TikTok saying, Hey, I'm coming to Buffalo.

17:41What do I do? I mean, I think you got tagged like 600 times and Buffalo is not that big. I love my girls. I love my girls. And that's like, I always say too, if I did what I did in any other city, I just, I think, yeah, it might be successful. It would not be what it is if it wasn't for being in Buffalo and having the community that I have and what my by Abigail Lee community is unlike any other thing I could have ever hoped and imagined that I could have because it's my people who stand behind me. That's why I'm able to do what I do. Yeah. Yeah. I love my, I love girls and my guys too. But like, it's honestly, it's like the girls are, the girls are my girls.

18:28You know what I mean? Yeah. I, I actually really understand like, yeah, the girls. Okay. Tell me about the deal with tops. Did they come to you? Did you reach out to them? Like walk me through from the initial conversation to signing the contracts and how that experience was. Yeah. So I had a couple of friends, so there was a buyer at tops who had posted on social media. We're looking for some fun, new pieces to put in the seasonal section and tops. And I had two or three of my friends say like, Oh, I sent, I sent my, your, you know, your page over to this girl. Her name's Jamie. And I was like, Oh cool.

19:08I think like she's her and I've worked together in some way before, or she's bought pieces from me. So she contacts me And she's like, Hey, a couple of people mentioned you, would you want to kind of talk about this? And I was like, yeah, sure. Like, let's see, maybe we can get like a piece or two in there. So we sit down, we have a whole meeting with like the head of heads of tops. We're in this meeting and I'm doing this pitch with it's me and my manager, Gary, he's, he's awesome. And I'm like, I think this could be more than just a piece or two. Let's, let's, let's do like a whole collection and they, they loved it.

19:48She was like, let's do it. And we released in August. We started out with only like, I think maybe like 30 stores and within a couple of days, is huge. Which was amazing. I was like, Oh my gosh, how am I going to do 30 stores? I had to go and get another warehouse. Cause I was like, where am I going to put all this stuff? Like it's thousands of pieces. And I was like, okay, let me figure this out. And like, I've never done wholesale. So this was all so new to me. And I'm like, okay, let's do this. And in the first couple of days, I mean, thousands of pieces were selling. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's working.

20:25People are loving this. And let's keep going. Let's keep going. I'm like, yeah, let's do this. So it's been, I've never done, like I said, I've never done wholesaling a beast of its own. You know, me with my whole new business. Oh my gosh. It is a completely separate entity than just having my online store running it through my Shopify. You know, I'm in control of everything. Just every single store you have to ship to every single place and the different purchase order number with just like packing slips and invoices and making, checking every single piece and tagging, hand tagging every single piece.

21:03And I mean, it's not just a couple hundred pieces. It's a couple thousand pieces. And it was such a great learning experience. And I'm so happy. I'm so thankful for tops because I can't wait to see what's coming to be in store now because we've learned so much. And I, people are like, how did you do this? And I was like, listen, I was running like a chicken with my head cut off all different ways. We did it. I don't know how we did it, but we did it. And that's what I always tell people like, well, how did you get started? Or how did you get into wholesaling? Listen, I had the opportunity and we just, we just, we just learned, you know, like there was nothing.

21:42I didn't have a playbook. I had nobody that I could even refer to. I didn't even, and this is something too. I always have people say, you need to find like a, but I do have some other women owned businesses, which are amazing in the Buffalo area that I was able to get some help from. So that was super important to me. But like, I didn't have a template. I didn't have a spreadsheet, you know, it's not like your best friend is wholesaling and you're like, Hey, this warehouse problem, what do I do? Yeah. Yeah. Just send it. See what, see what happened. Sent it, but it worked out. It was great. So now we're in, yeah, we're in almost over 70 tops locations and we're just rolling with it.

22:26And we're going to kind of keep growing and adapting, seeing what people want, trying to, and like, I love tops too, because my online store, I've always kind of had a niche of, you know, a younger generation. And now with tops, it's the working mom, you know, it's a working mom who loves football and wants to go in. She wants to get a piece for herself. She can get a piece for her husband. She can get a piece for her friends. But if she wants to get that, you know, she can do that now while going and getting her groceries done and still feel fabulous on a Sunday with her, you know, a blink sweatshirt or a fun tee and know that it was created by, you know, a local Buffalo girl.

23:05Yeah. Yeah. What has been the biggest challenge switching to warehousing from just your online shop? just the quantity of it. I've never been, I've always tried to keep by Abigail Lee, which I think the draw has been so great with is just super exclusive. Like I want to have, you know, 50 to a hundred pieces of something because every person that wears it, I want them to want to keep it and wear it with pride because this is only a one of 100 piece. Like I want it to, I want everyone to feel special when they're wearing these pieces and then going into wholesaling. I'm not ordering a hundred, I'm ordering 5 ,000 and just the quantity of, I'm so OCD with just my names on every piece.

23:56I want every piece to be. The brand is literally you. Yes. And I want every piece to be perfect for every person that's going, I'm going to be grateful enough that they're going to buy from me. So just, just quantity and just being able to keep my organization. I've always been so organized. And this year I was just like, like everything was all over the place. I just, my head was just like you said, in the beginning of the interview, just running, just, it's always running. Like I don't, my brain's just never shutting off now, which is, which is good. I like to operate like that. Yeah. I didn't, I've always wanted to like have my own business.

24:35And I think what people don't tell you about having your own business and having even just your name on everything that you're doing is like, you actually don't shut off. Like we were in Hawaii and I was like, do you guys think about work when you're not like when you leave? Cause when I had a corporate job, like I didn't think about work when I left. And now I think about this podcast and the show and where I want to go and what women I'm working with every second of, of every day, but I'm having the best time and it's so fun, but you really don't switch off. I know you don't switch off Cause it's, it's, it's you, it's your, it's, you know, it's your, it's everything that, everything that you're working so hard to accomplish and what you, what the goals that you have set for yourself, it's, it's you and you're, you're in charge of what's going to happen, you know?

25:24Yeah. Yeah. So is your, and this might be like a niche fashion question, but is your wholesale manufacturer, the same manufacturer as who you were using for your one-to-one drops? So it's a little, I have a couple of different ones. I get things from overseas. I get a lot of stuff made in, in the U S I have like probably 30 different manufacturers that I work all, all different through. And in the beginning I was like, for the first six years, I was making every single piece by hand. So I would just order a blank sweatshirt and then I would be doing every single thing to it. So I think that's really helped with my growth in the last two years, because I had no idea about manufacturing and where to go and get special pieces made.

26:14If I wanted a snowsuit made or a bomber or a specific just gloves, and I wanted to create them from the ground up. So that's been also a huge learning experience for me, figuring out like the trial and error of manufacturing. Oh my gosh. If I would tell you the stories that I have about ordering from this one person being like, all right, send me 50 of this. Okay. A couple thousand dollars. And I get them and they're kid sizes. And I'm like, wait, I just spent$5 ,000 and I can't even get the size small up on my leg. And I'm like, what did I just do? And I did that Last year, I did that so many times, but it was great because I think that at that time it was bleached by Abigail Lee.

27:04My customers and my followers were so supportive of me being like, well, just, you know, we'll still buy it. We'll still buy it. We'll just do another round of it. Fix the sizes. We love that. So it's been really cool, but it's been, I've had to learn and it's been so much trial and error. Yeah. I want to thank our sponsor at Cuso Cuts. It feels very relevant to the Abigail Lee episode to do this ad today because Cuso's was actually founded in Buffalo. So many of you have probably seen Chef Cuso at tailgates in Bill's Mafia. He represents all that Buffalo represents, and they make a dang good product.

27:47So if you're looking for some clean ingredients, bold flavors, and something that you can probably try at a Buffalo tailgate next year, Cusos is your go-to. I am so grateful to be back from all of my travels and have my full lineup of seasonings and sauces in my cabinet. One thing that you need, especially in Buffalo on tailgate day, is hot food because it is cold enough there. So being able to have Cusos to add, to rub onto your meat before you grill it is honestly a blessing. Can't say enough good stuff about it. So why not add some spice, add some healthy, high-quality ingredients to your grilling for Bill's wildcard game day, head to kusocuts.com slash the game or use code the game, no spaces at checkout at kusocuts.com for 10 % off.

28:38Thank you so much to Kusos for sponsoring this episode, and we hope the Bills get a W for you this weekend. The kids clothes. It's like, so bad. It's like, you have to kind of laugh about it because if you don't, you'll literally have a panic attack. I, I actually, so last year I ordered in bibs and these Sherpa jackets and like probably like a$20 ,000 order. And I bring all the samples to my Christmas Eve family party. And I'm like, all right, guys, I got these in. Will you guys just, and I, you know, I got my girls, my guys, my shorter people, my brother who's six, four. I was like, can everybody try these on and just like, see how they are.