In the loop

His streetwear site is a hit. Now Greg Selkoe aims to connect the in crowd.

Karmaloop founder Greg Selkoe and his wife, Dina, the company's creative director, in their Boston office. (Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)

In the fashion business, everyone has a muse - an inspiration for their work, a guiding light. Givenchy had Audrey Hepburn. Halston had Liza Minnelli. Marc Jacobs, Sofia Coppola. Jamaica Plain native Greg Selkoe, 32, the comer behind streetwear retailer Karmaloop, has Stephen Coyle, former head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

It's an odd pairing. Truth is, Selkoe doesn't even know Coyle. But as a kid growing up here in the '80s, Selkoe watched as the urban planner helped revitalize Boston: negotiating, rethinking, wheeling and dealing. One project led to another and then another.

Selkoe, too, is obsessed with development, so much so that he earned a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. But these days, the landscape he sculpts is on the Net. Karmaloop, the online urban boutique he launched in his parents' basement in 1999, has become about more than sneakers, hoodies, and the hipsters who ring up millions in annual sales. To Selkoe, it's a place that connects communities, even cultures. It's an opportunity to determine what's new, what's cool, and what's essential, whether his customer is a 25-year-old graphic designer in Tokyo or 17-year-old hip-hop artist in Roxbury.

Now Selkoe's parlaying his retail success into several new projects. KarmaloopTV, a style-oriented Web video site, launched in October. This week, the company unveils its first clothing line, Sons of Liberty. Next up: Junglelife.com, an exclusive social networking site for those in the know - designers, DJs, artists, and other fashionable types, plus longtime customers.

"There are a lot of similarities between streetwear culture and public policy," Selkoe says, sitting in his office overlooking the Boston Common. "You have to be political, keep brands happy, build excitement, make a lot of deals. And this is a type of culture that's artsy and urban, which I've always been interested in."

Peppered with toys, posters, and a flat-screen TV, the ambience at Karmaloop headquarters is pop art-infused Bohemian on a neo-soul bender. Selkoe saunters through with his two Chihuahuas, who scamper freely about his feet. The place hums with young employees, most sporting tattoos, funky eyewear, or both; it's a petri dish for trends and a launch pad for new designers.

Karmaloop sells clothing, accessories, and footwear by scores of established labels and underground designers. About 40 more are available on the Kazbah, a section of the site devoted to Karmaloop's hand-selected new designers. It's a go-to site for those who traffic in limited edition T-shirts and sneakers, as well as fashionistas committed to setting the style curve.

"We have the most valuable demographic," Selkoe says, "hipsters, urbanites, and people from high socio-economic backgrounds." They're between 18 and 25. Many work in creative fields. He calls them "alpha consumers."

The local alphas can hit Karmaloop's Newbury Street store, which opened in 2005 (the store is being renovated and reopens in April). But the majority of customers visit online. Selkoe says Karmaloop racked up nearly $20 million in sales last year, with New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, and Tokyo among the top-grossing markets.

So much is Karmaloop a cornerstone of the urban scene that Selkoe doesn't have to do much negotiating at all to get hip-hop icons like Kanye West or Lupe Fiasco to drop by the office when they're in town. Employees tick off other boldface names who've made cameos: Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run DMC, actor Jason Lee.

Green Lantern, Jay-Z's DJ, was among the guest performers at the holiday bash the company threw in December. Selkoe himself, in a T-shirt and jeans, surveyed the fist-pumping crowd from behind the turntables.

In with the in crowd
KarmaloopTV does for street-culture junkies what IFC does for film buffs: It features some of the industry's biggest names as well as up-and-comers talking about their art and influences.

Selkoe has leveraged his site's loyal consumer base to get time with Russell Simmons, guerrilla designer Shepard Fairey (the guy behind the iconic Andre the Giant graphic), Richie Rich of Heatherette, and Jonas Bevacqua, founder of LRG. When "The Wire" had its red carpet premiere in New York last fall, a KarmaloopTV producer staked out a spot near journalists for the BBC, VH1, and BET.

"I've been watching all their footage," says Danica Dow, senior producer at hip-hop news and music site SOHH.com. "They bridge the gap between the urban and hip-hop world and the streetwear fashion world."

It's not the first time Selkoe has helped pioneer urban style. Back in 2002, he teamed up with Puma, which has global offices at the Boston Design Center and in Westford, to collaborate on a limited edition sneaker design. Selkoe chose the colors for what was dubbed the Freedom Trail XC.

"It was one of the early collaboration projects between a retailer and a brand that's now become very popular," said Barney Waters, vice president of marketing for Puma North America.

"Ultimately, streetwear culture comes down to people who love the best of, the rare, the limited, the premium, but for a long time there was no real outlet for that in mainstream media.

"Greg facilitated the growth that brought stuff to the masses. On his site, you'll have mega-brands like Puma next to brands developed by two guys in their house. The average consumer would never have had access to half those products because they'd never find it."

Design for success
For all his savvy, Selkoe is the first to say he's not a born businessman. Or, when he was young, much of a student. He was tossed out of Brookline High thanks in part to a dreadful attendance record. "I didn't like school," he says simply. He ended up in boarding school and, later, at Rollins College in Florida.

Karmaloop was born while Selkoe was working as an urban planner for the BRA. At first, the site was just a sideline. But when Karmaloop picked up momentum he left his job to "make a go of it," he says, "and see if I could make it a real business."

It hasn't been easy. After the dot-com crash, people thought e-commerce wasn't such a great business model.

But a handful of supporters had enough faith to invest money and time, including his father, Dennis Selkoe, a professor of neurologic diseases at Harvard Medical School, and Sam Gerson, former CEO of Filene's Basement, who mentored the young entrepreneur on how to organize his growing inventory. Selkoe's wife, Dina, who in 2001 earned concurrent degrees from Harvard Law School and the Fletcher School at Tufts, now works for Karmaloop as its creative director.

The support helped immensely, but it hasn't always smoothed the path to success. "We almost went out of business 10 times," Selkoe says. "I was borrowing money all over Boston. I had $80,000 in credit card debt until a year ago." This will be his third year with a salary.

But Selkoe keeps thinking bigger. While Karmaloop this week launches a political T-shirt line under the label Sons of Liberty, a second clothing line, KLP (it stands for Klothing Liberation Project), will soon feature designs culled from customer submissions. Selkoe hopes to expand it by the next holiday season to include pieces designed in-house.

And then there's Junglelife.com, which Selkoe intends to be a place for industry insiders to meet, talk, promote, and show off their wares. "It's more niche, it's for people who are in the culture - movers and shakers like DJs and designers," he says. Everyone whose work is sold on Karmaloop will have a page, as will entertainers and artists.

Presumably, so will Selkoe. It'll be yet another place for him to network, make deals, generate ideas. Another way to stay in the loop.