He gave Tacoma style. Now he’s embarking on a bigger challenge — making print cool

Umi Wagoner has nothing left to prove, not that he did in the first place. That’s what frees him up.

As the celebrated co-creator of eTc Tacoma , Wagoner took something undeniably niche and foreign in the city where he was raised — boutique streetwear, or “rarewear” as it’s known — and turned a vision into a local fashion phenomenon.

Specializing in limited-release collections that remix 253 iconography with an increasingly recognizable brand, the clothing business Wagoner launched with eTc co-founder Perris Wright roughly a decade ago is now part of Tacoma’s cultural lexicon, worn by trendsetters , mayors and even hack newspaper columnists trying to look cool on public television .

Wagoner shot his shot, hitting nothing but net. At this point, he doesn’t need outside validation. The fact that he was never searching for it in the first place is one reason he’s found success.

All of which is to say:

When Wagoner looked me dead in the eye this week, sitting on a bench near 9th and Pacific, and told me about his dream of bringing an old-school, big-city style newsstand to Tacoma, stocked with a curated collection of glossy print publications from across the region and globe, I didn’t bat an eye.

If anyone can pull it off, it’s Wagoner.

And if it doesn’t work?

So be it, Wagoner told me. The payoff is in the process, and he’s got nothing to lose.

“To be honest, I’m at a space now where I’m blessed enough to just try stuff,” Wagoner said over coffee on a blustery day as we discussed what he’s calling Umi’s Corner, scheduled to debut Friday at The Broadway Gallery downtown from 7 to 9 p.m.

“Getting the online version of things is totally cool. It’s the way of the world, and that’s all right. But I’m also a collector, and many people still are collectors,” Wagoner told me.

“When you get the physical experience of something, that’s truly the collecting, and really when you can connect in a real way.”

Consider this a starting point, Wagoner suggested.

Initially, Umi’s Corner — a hip but inviting nook tucked inside Neon Thomas’ new Antique Row gallery and event space at 765 Broadway — will operate similarly to those little free libraries found in nice neighborhoods, with a few key differences.

The finely-tuned, rotating collection of reading material, made available on loan, will consist largely of chic magazines and unique print publications, including many titles from Wagoner’s personal collection and those of his friends, like Carlos Avalos, co-founder of ism. , a Southern California based independent publishing company.

Available for low-investment on-site perusing or careful reading to visitors, Umi’s Corner will be a place for people to find things like the British arts, fashion and music bi-monthly i-D Magazine , Wagoner said, or discover one of his current favorites, Monocle , a global affairs and culture glossy published in Switzerland.

So why now? And why Tacoma?

“For years,” Wagoner told me, he made regular trips to Uwajimaya in Seattle, drawn by the Asian grocer’s large and cultured selection of magazines, ranging from hip-hop publications to European fashion magazines. But the store’s offerings have dwindled, he explained.

Now in his mid-30s and celebrating the 10-year anniversary of eTc Tacoma’s grand opening, Wagoner said he’s passionate about magazines and independent publications because they’ve provided inspiration, direction and a creative connection to something bigger over the years. He’s so enamored with print that he even took a job at Big Little News in Seattle, just to learn the business, he told me.

Eventually, Wagoner would like to open a similar newsstand in Tacoma, offering a wide array of publications and upwards of 30 titles available for purchase; he believes it could work, and would help breathe even more creative life into a city he loves.

For now, Wagoner is starting with Umi’s Corner, content to let the people of Tacoma see what they think of his big idea, he said.

He’s hoping we’ll tell him what we love to read, and in the process help him create a physical space that brings us closer together.

“This is what has helped curate my taste and my purpose. I would not be the Umi Wagoner that I am if I did not get my hands on these things,” Wagoner said. “I hope that what I’ve done — and what we’ve done, what the village has done — has given me enough credibility and validity for people to be like, ‘This guy knows what the (expletive) he’s talking about.”

“To be honest, I don’t know if this is going to last. I don’t know if this is going to work. I don’t know if Tacoma wants this,” he added.

“But I grew up here, so that means there are other Umis out there who need to be nurtured.”

Official opening of Umi’s Corner

Friday, April 19 at The Broadway Gallery from 7 to 9 p.m.

765 Broadway Ave., Tacoma