Designer fashion goes street with wear on wheels

A neon green truck, parked along Commonwealth Avenue, blasted hip-hop music as passerby checked out the daily menu, but there is no fresh food for sale on this truck— only fresh clothes.

The re-vamped truck, called Green Street Vault, is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Derrick Cheung and Howard Travis, who have brought a new meaning to the term ‘street fashion,’ by selling designer clothing out the back of the truck.

Cheung and Travis, who created the idea for the streetwear store on wheels while working at a sneaker shop on Newbury Street, said they intended to operate the truck in union with a traditional brick and mortar store in downtown Boston.

After doing some number crunching and figuring out that the start-up costs for opening a traditional store would be about $250,000, the pair looked to pursue other avenues.

“And then we were like, ‘Hey why don’t we, you know, run the business out of the truck.’ We were thinking there’s no rent, all we have to do is pay for gas, and it’s a new and cool concept,” said Cheung, a senior at Emerson College. “And then we finally just did it.”

After combing through Craigslist advertisements, they found a suitable truck in Rowley, Mass.

“It’s an old N-Star truck. It had 2,000 lbs. of equipment inside it, so we had to gut everything out completely ourselves,” Travis said. “It was crazy.”

With the help of some friends, Cheung and Travis tricked out the gutted truck and installed windows, wood-panel walls, a wooden floor, a cabinet, hang bars and shelves.

They keep the truck stocked with sneakers, snapbacks and the latest clothing from Boston-based brands such as Annie Mulz, e.5.charlie, Boppo! and Puzl.

Since opening in August, Cheung and Travis said they have the most success around Boylston Street and Northeastern University. However, they take the truck all over the city and try to come to Boston University once per week, Travis said.

“It’s just weird to get here [BU] at the right time where they’re [students] not in between classes and they’re completely done for the day. It just seems like everyone is going to class,” Travis said. “You know, they’re looking at it saying ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ but then they have somewhere to go, but we keep giving it a shot.”

Monday, students walking to and from West Campus stopped to check out the truck’s merchandise.

Ben Birns, a College of General Studies freshman, purchased a pair of sneakers from the truck.

“I was just on my way to class, and I saw the truck so I had to stop in,” he said. “It’s pretty sick. I mean you don’t have to stop at Footlocker or Champs they just come right to you.”

Cyrus Nazmiyal, a sophomore in College of Arts and Sciences, checked out the truck after receiving a sticker advertising Green Street Vault from one of his friends.

“I put it on my computer, and then they were like, ‘Just walk by CGS and you should see it,’ so I’m just checking it out for the first time,” Nazmiyal said. “It’s a nice play on food trucks. It definitely attracts the eye.”

Students looking for Green Street Vault’s location can follow @GreenStVault on Twitter, where they tweet their daily stops.