Anthony Peronace's streetwear line reaches customers in an unlikely place: A grocery store on Shelter Island
Anthony Peronace in SPRMRKT, a small shop inside the Shelter Island IGA. It features Peronace's streetwear brand of T-shirts, hoodies, hats and sweats. Credit: SPRMRKT
Most people who go shopping for groceries don't expect to find streetwear in the frozen food aisle but at this market, you're in for a treat.
SPRMRKT, a casual line of emblem T-shirts, sweats, hoodies and caps that launched in 2018, is sold at a snug shop tucked inside the IGA grocery store in Shelter Island.
“I’ve always been into fashion and I’ve always wanted to help my family out,” says SPRMRKT creator Anthony Peronace, 29, who manages the Shelter Island IGA owned by his parents. They also run the Massapequa Park IGA. Peronace helps stock shelves, runs the register, handles truck deliveries, orders for the store and more. “This is my way of doing both of those things.”
After graduating from Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills, Peronace studied food marketing at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He now lives in Shelter Island.
“I have my own sense of style and fashion,” Peronace says, adding that he finds creative juice all around him. His designs include shopping carts, bagged groceries and stylized type treatments of his brand name.
“My inspiration comes from my everyday life in a supermarket,” he says. “The brand is true to myself.”
Six years ago, Peronace launched his line by displaying items on a shelf in a grocery aisle. “They sold out,” he says. Since then, SPRMRKT has expanded and has its own dedicated space — and register.
The vibe of the shop is easygoing and casual. Clothes are displayed on U-boat carts and milk crates and in coolers.
The starting price on retro sweatshirts is $65, while screen-print tees and embroidered caps each run $35 and up. You can bag a grocery tote for $25 and up.
Peronace relies on social media to announce new items and says seeing people dressed in his brand never gets old.
“My community has been so supportive,” he says. “It’s always cool to see people wearing SPRMRKT in town.”
SPRMRKT, IGA at 75 North Ferry Rd., Shelter Island, 631-749-0382, thesprmrkt.com