Ryland Hilbert, Founder of Luxury Lifestyle Brand Ryland Life

The Good People, Cool Things Spotlights series features conversations with company founders. We discuss their reasons for starting a business, and the challenges, surprises, and opportunities along the way.

Today’s Spotlight is on Ryland Hilbert, the founder of luxury ecommerce and Sag Harbor brick-and-mortar boutique Ryland Life Equipment.

Ryland has supported local organizations like The Retreat, Campaign Zero, and the Brooklyn Bail Fund. When the store is open, he’s personally there to help curate the perfect look for both shoppers and their four-legged friends. He spent a year traveling the world prior to opening the store to personally seek out the best from global artisans, and his store features items from the UK, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, and more.

Ryland’s aim is to combat the belief that “brick and mortar is dead” by creating a truly special retail experience. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered his plans a bit, but he’s still finding success with pairing brick-and-mortar with ecommerce.

Why did you start Ryland Life Equipment?

I started Ryland Life Equipment because I saw a gap in the market for something unique and special for men. There are so many stores and boutiques that bring an amazing assortment of products for women, but none exclusively for men. I have an extensive background in fashion and have seen many different aspects of the business and felt that the men's market specifically was underserved in our community. Finding unique brands that have interesting backgrounds and ethos has always been a personal interest so I wanted to find a way to bring these brands to a wider audience.

With your extensive background in fashion, what's a positive change you've seen in the industry?

It has been great to see a movement towards a more sustainable model overall; from using ethically sourced materials, to recycled and reimagined items, to styles that are timeless, our brand partners are really doing some amazing things for the longevity of both the industry and the planet. When we started Ryland Life Equipment, one of the first principles we had is that we would skew the collection toward more classically stylish, hand-crafted items that would last many seasons and sometimes, many generations. We couldn’t do that without the amazing brands that we work with, and we’re really lucky to be part of this broader movement within the industry.

What's something that's surprised you about running a business?

Mainly, it was about despite how you can spend all your time planning but, you can never really be ready for the big curve balls. Having a business is unpredictable, and while planning and strategy help overall, you need to have a certain tact for the unexpected and always be ready to pivot.

What has been one of your worst moments as a business owner?

The unpredictability! The current pandemic is something I have never seen in my lifetime nor could have imagined we would have gone through in our first year of being open! Obviously, the human tragedy is a terrible backdrop in which to run any business, and having to shut our physical store after less than a year but still operate the business was an incredibly difficult moment. Our primary concern was how to keep our staff safe and still pay them, as we have an amazing team and wanted to make sure we were doing all we could to help them. This challenge forced us to adapt and change our business model in so many ways. Life throws you curveballs but I think what you do next is the make or break moments. There is the adage “out of adversity comes opportunity". For us the opportunity was shifting our focus to digital and make sure RYLANDLIFE.COM was as robust as possible and delivering the same high-quality experience that we create in-store.

The shift to digital has been a major change for a lot of businesses — what are a few strategies for how you're continuing to deliver a high-quality experience for your customers?

We try to emulate, as much as possible, the in-store experience online. Our webpage and social channels are “re-merchandised” constantly, so there’s always a reason to come back, and we look for exclusive collections that are only available in limited quantities for a limited time - like the one we are currently featuring: Hank x Camp Isidro.

Knowing that consumers expect the brands they do business with to have a net positive effect on their communities, we often use our digital channels to support local organizations and charities by donating the proceeds of special online shopping days to them. We believe that our success is inextricably tied to the prosperity and health of our local community, and our digital channels give us a bigger platform to do that.

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?

Never stop building meaningful relationships. With customers and other people in your industry — even competitors. Choosing to view competitors as potential partners and collaborators will benefit your business in a big way.

Spotlight: Ryland Hilbert, Founder of Luxury Ecommerce and Brick and Mortar Boutique Ryland Life Equipment