Take a Tour of SEED Brklyn, Bed-Stuy’s Buzziest New Concept Store

Ever walked along Bedford Avenue in Bed-Stuy wishing you could get your hands on a pair of chunky Martine Rose mules, satiate your caffeine fix, and flip through a glossy Taschen hardcover—all at the same time? Now you can. For the latest episode of #ShopTalk—our ongoing look inside our favorite stores in the world—we took a long, dizzying stroll through SEED Brklyn, a buzzy, maze-like concept store situated just a few blocks off the A line.

“This project started five year ago,” says SEED founder Christophe Roberts, a Chicago expat who’s been living in the borough for over a decade. “Artists, designers, athletes—it’s all a melting pot right now. So naturally, when building a concept space like this, I wanted to create a fully immersive experience.”

For Roberts, an artist whose sculptures have caught the attention of Mark Cross and the Chicago Bulls, it often felt like the type of place where you could pick up a slick coat and a rare Rizzoli title—oh, and maybe grab a solid cup of coffee while you’re at it—only existed in Manhattan. “Where is Brooklyn’s version, that’s Black-owned and led by an artist?” Roberts wondered. (Brooklyn’s Black population has been rapidly shrinking for years—from 2010 to 2020, 69,000 residents left the borough, the steepest decline across the five.) So he set out to create exactly that. 

There’s no right way to enter the SEED universe, but you could start by stepping into the Greenhouse, which serves up draft La Colombe and baked goods from Colson Patisserie. (Pro tip: If you’re in need of a quick afternoon reboot, order the espresso, brewed in a very sexy La Marzocco machine.)

Then make your way to the Garden, where you can finally take those Martine Rose mules for a spin, or browse a healthy selection of the store’s clothing and accessories, a mix of insider-y favorites like Undercover and Maharishi and indie labels you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere. Dribbled a little coffee on your sneakers? No sweat: drop them off at the Jason Markk cleaning station and pick ‘em up the next day.

Next door is the Oasis, a gallery that doubles as an epic hang area, and also happens to serve as Brooklyn’s first brick-and-mortar repository of NFTs—with a nifty catch. Most NFTs are purely digital, but all art on display in the Oasis comes with an accompanying physical component too, a trippy print made in partnership with Infinite Objects, say, or a custom letterman jacket. “It’s the physicality of the NFT, not just having it in your wallet but being able to wear it, to share it with the world,” offers Roberts by way of explanation. All of which ties into his mission to make the bubbling tech scene more accessible to his community, and in particular, to the Black folk who put the borough on the map.

In partnering with architect Daniel Elmore to create a 3-in-1 space designed to service and inspire its clientele in equal measure, Roberts more than achieved his goal. It’s hard to describe the look of delight on born-and-bred Brooklynites—grandmothers, teens, young parents with strollers—coming to an abrupt halt, mouths agape, turning to each and asking incredulously: “What is that?” SEED is a store, sure, but it also represents a sense of homecoming that feels long overdue.

Head to @GQRecommends on Instagram to watch the full video now. 

Martine Rose bulb toe mule

$650

SEED Brklyn

Against Medical Advice varsity jacket

$895

SEED Brklyn

Ando. Complete Works 1975-Today

$25

SEED Brklyn

424 distressed jeans

$340

SEED Brklyn

SEED Brklyn is located at 1217 Bedford Ave. Brooklyn, NY. Retail hours are from 11a.m. to 7p.m. The Greenhouse café is open from 7a.m. to 7p.m.