Notre x Ghostly International

For the fourteenth installment of our Notre Talk series, we welcomed Sam Valenti, founder of Ghostly International to the shop.

Founded in Ann Arbor out of Valenti's University of Michigan dorm room, Ghostly began as a label releasing records by the likes of Matthew Dear and Dabrye. From there, the music it put out only grew more eclectic, as did its modes of distribution and expression. Today, Ghostly is known almost equally for its product collaborations—working with everyone from snarkitecture, Warby Parker, to, most recently, Vans—though music remains the central pillar around which its output orbits. We chatted with Sam about Ghostly’s twenty years in business, how it balances music with its other products, how it approaches collaboration, and more.

In addition to our talk, we worked with Ghostly on a couple pieces of collaborative gear and an in-store pop-up shop of select Ghostly merchandise.