Maker | Greenwich Vintage

He's just a small-town man from the Midwest, Minnesota that is. He was raised in farm country and his dad worked hard to make a way for his family. Like his dad, he provides for family and is a husband to his wife and a father to his children. He's a cobbler by trade, working with his hands every day to mend the timeworn boots and shoes of his customers. He tries to teach his children the importance of shopping smarter, buying American-made products that support local and national jobs. He dresses each day like a man should, oxfords laced, collared shirt tucked into his chinos, and he makes sure his hair is coiffed neatly in place before leaving the house. This man isn't living in the 1950s, he's very much a modern man. His name isn't Ward Cleaver, it's Tomas "Zen" Pomazi and he is helping America redefine what it means to be a postmodern man.

Zen is the owner of Greenwich Vintage Co., a company devoted to rehabilitating old worn out shoes to create a shoe that is as comfortable and colorful as it is classy. Zen grew up an artistic kid, after high school he went to an art institute and worked as a professional graffiti artist for many years while working in retail. "I've always loved art," says Zen, "I have always been someone who has to create art. I worked in professional graffiti for years, painting murals for companies and stores. It was the creative outlet to my job in retail for skate shops and sneaker companies."

It was when he started to feel unfulfilled in that career that he started a pursuing a new passion. Bringing his knowledge of footwear through retail to the table he started to make customized shoes for himself and then other clients. "I grew up in the skate community where it was natural to graffiti your clothes, boards, and shoes. I thought it would be a lot of fun to see my own art on shoes. I'm a shoe freak - you can ask my wife, it kills her - and I couldn't think of a better piece of wearable art than a pair of customized sneakers," Zen laughs. 

Zen says he reached the pinnacle of his customized sneaker venture in 2008 when he and a few friends attended the release of the Nike Bordeaux 7 Jordan in shoes the he had designed for himself and his friends. "I had studied the shoes before their release and I thought it would be neat to take the color scheme they used on the unreleased Jordans and adapt it to several pairs of Nike Air Max sneakers." People went crazy over the concept and Zen made a name for himself in the customized sneaker industry, getting several requests from professional athletes after that for their own customized sneakers.

After that, Zen says he felt like doing someone different, "Until then, I was still goofing around. I was very much a late bloomer and I realized at about 42 or 43 that it was time I traded in the sneakers for a pair of grown-up shoes." With that in mind, Zen started a men's shop with a couple of his friends, including his Greenwich Vintage partner Max, to create a men's brand that still allowed grown men to add a little excitement to their closets.

However, he didn't discover his calling until one very uncomfortable pair of Florsheim lace-up oxfords led him to the shop of a cobblesmith nearby. "I went to work one day in a new pair of Florsheim oxfords and by lunch time I was miserable. They were the most painful shoes I had ever owned, but I didn't know how to fix them." Zen had worked with shoes for years, customizing the upper, but he had never experimented with the soles until that day. Shoes in tow, Zen asked the cobbler if he had any secrets for fixing shoes with uncomfortably hard soles. The cobbler took him to the back room and showed him a black Vibram crepe sole and asked if he wanted to replace the stiff wooden sole with it. Zen studied under the cobbler, learning the proper way to replace and repair soles. With his newfound knowledge, Zen started making shoes for himself and his coworker Max, honing his new skills as a cobbler. Both he and Max saw the potential of the shoes on the market, catering to a man who wanted a mix of unique street style and classic menswear. Putting together a small investment of his own savings and Max's, Zen contacted Vibram about the option of buying their crepe soles in colors other than the standard white or black, but after learning that he couldn't buy the colors he desired, he bought the right to mold the existing soles and make his own.

Now Greenwich Vintage Co. is known for those self-poured and designed soles, ranging in color from blaze orange, turquoise, and camouflage. Taking custom orders from customers, Zen is able to transform any old, tired shoe into a one-of-a-kind piece of art for his clients. Zen has also worked with General Knot & Co. To start redesigning the uppers of his clients shoe. Using vintage and vintage inspired fabrics from Andrew Payne, Zen can cover the leather to give his customers footwear that they can personalize with vintage floral, plaid, and other textiles.

His latest ventures have allowed him to add a few new accessories to the postmodern American man's wardrobe. Partnering with Kent and Lee Begnaud and Nathan O' Malley of Leatherworks Minnesota, Zen created a signature pair of reversible leather braces for the Fall/Winter season featuring a camouflage design on one side. This is just the beginning of several collaborative efforts that Zen is working on to outfit his customers from head to toe. Zen says that, "Being able to partner with talented designers and artisans is allowing Greenwich Vintage Co. to let men dress like men." When men were men, that is the ideal that Zen pursues through Greenwich Vintage Co. each and every day. Like Ward Cleaver, Zen is teaching us the principles and life lessons concerning menswear that the American public has forgotten in the last 30 years. This isn't to say that he envisions a world without tshirts and jeans, in fact he wears them also, instead he sees a world where men can recapture that age old style of our forefathers of the early 20th century with a little added flair.

For more information about Zen and Greenwich Vintage Co. and to see their resole options, check out their website at www.greenwichvintage.us or follow them on Instagram—@grnwchvntgco.

Tastemaker | "Sweet" Paul Lowe

Sitting in a teahouse in New York City, Paul Lowe shares the story of his childhood while mulling over his cup of rooibos. Paul tells each story of his youth with a mix of candor and humor, recalling experiences he had with his animated and loving family. Paul was raised Paul Lowe Einlyng in Oslo, Norway by two little old ladies, his great aunt, Auntie Gunnvor and his grandmother, who he lovingly referred to as Mormor — Norwegian for grandmother. Paul is the Editor-in-Chief of Sweet Paul magazine—we'll get to that name later—a magazine devoted to the beauty of cooking, crafting, and entertaining. Today, though, we are getting to know the man behind that magazine, and the little boy from Oslo.

Paul remembers being in a kitchen or crafting constantly as a child. "Ever since I was small, I’ve been obsessed with cooking, crafting and decorating. It’s in my blood. Both my grandmother and great aunt were excellent cooks and crafters with impeccable taste," he recalls. Hearing the loving way Paul describes his family and his time spent with them, it's no surprise that he would carry that creativity and tenacity for design and cooking into his adulthood. When asked about the kind of things that made with Auntie Gunnvor and his grandmother, Paul jokes, "They were not perfectionists. Their cakes tended to be a little lopsided and their craft projects definitely weren’t up to Martha's standards."

The one thing that Paul does recall about the projects was that they were always fun. "I’ve adopted my grandmother’s motto, 'fullkommenhet er kjedelig' which means 'perfection is boring,'" says Paul, "I have incorporated it and her sheer joy of creating into everything I do." In October of 2007, Paul was living in New York City as “Paul,” a successful craft and food stylist. "I unwittingly transformed myself into Sweet Paul when I chose the name for a little blog that I started to highlight some work I was producing for my clients," says Paul. "My godmother named me 'Sweet Paul', she had lived in the US for years and when she moved back to Norway she kind of looked like Peg Bundy. She had a large chest and wore tight clothes, she always called me Sweet Paul, maybe becuase of my Shirley Temple blond curls," he laughs. In order to carve out his own niche online, Paul expanded his blog posts to include new content featuring what he loved, food and crafts filtered through the lens of his seasoned stylist’s eye. Paul used his inspiration from his grandmother to form the magazine and blog, using the ideas of simple recipes and presentation. "I did not intend the blog to garner 200,000 hits a month or give rise to an online magazine," says Paul, "it has become something of a phenomenon."

By 2009, Paul's friends and colleagues in the magazine industry were lauding his work and asking if they could contribute to the blog. Paul created his own magazine, naming it the only thing that made sense, Sweet Paul. Incorporating his own years of experience, and showcasing the work of his talented food-geek, photography-obsessed, and craft-genius friends, Paul created the lifestyle magazine that illustrated the life he lives as an expert in the field. "I wanted Sweet Paul magazine to be an anticipated quarterly that readers could use to sweeten their everyday life. I strive to put out a magazine that is as creative and visually stunning as mass-marketed lifestyle magazines but without being weighed-down with impossible recipes and projects developed for expert chefs and crafters," explains Paul.

Sweet Paul magazine is the source people all over the world turn to for inspiration in easy and beautiful crafts, simple yet elegant recipes, and entertaining ideas for any crowd. "When I’m on a shoot with a client, I always seem to have several people pull me aside to tell me how much they love my Sweet Paul magazine for its creativity, beautiful photography and unexpected ideas," says Paul. In Spring 2012, the first print edition of the magazine was launched in Anthropologie stores nationwide. Paul is now working on distribution in Anthropologie UK and specialty stock lists worldwide. Like the magazine’s tagline, Paul is continually “chasing the sweet things in life.”

From the timeless recipes and crafts, to the charming and simple entertaining ideas it is easy to see the passion and history Paul has in each area of Sweet Paul Magazine. Paul is committed to keeping his family traditions and heritage alive through the pages of the magazine. Taking another drink of tea, Paul begins another story about his days spent in his grandmother's kitchen, the place where all of his passions are rooted. "Even if she passed away years ago, I feel that my grandmother is with me everyday."

To learn more about 'Sweet' Paul Lowe and Sweet Paul Magazine, check out his website at http://www.sweetpaulmag.com/.

Portrait: Rikki Snyder. Photos: www.sweetpaulmag,com