When Harry Arnett met Mark Wahlberg (yes, that Mark Wahlberg) over 15 years ago, they bonded over one thing: to create a lifestyle brand that had versatile, performance-driven products and inspired others to tap into the power of self-belief — something they felt truly didn’t exist in the current market.
From that first meeting of the minds, Arnett and Wahlberg started to build the foundation for Municipal, which focused on four core principles: Dream, Plan, Hustle, Repeat. And now they’re celebrating a major milestone: Municipal’s first permanent brick-and-mortar store.
“I know it sounds cliché, but we really wanted to make a brand that we always wanted ourselves,” Arnett said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. At a basic level, that meant creating a product promise rooted in innovation and performance, as well as a style that combined street culture cues with high-end luxury aesthetics. The result: apparel and footwear that “you can wear in and out of the gym, as well as in the office, without looking sloppy or like a clown,” he explained.
But Arnett and Wahlberg wanted to do more than just sell some cool apparel. They wanted Municipal to embody an aesthetic and a lifestyle philosophy. “We wanted to use the brand-as-influence model and really put our mantra of ‘Dream, Plan, Hustle, Repeat’ into place,” Arnett explained. “Because it’s not enough to just have a dream. You have to understand the type of work you have to do and what you have to put into it.”
The brand mission and vision created natural alignment on how Arnett and Wahlberg built the visual world of the brand, including product design and color use, as well as the experiences Municipal would create both online and in the real world. And that includes the brand’s physical retail journey, which just started in July 2024.
The ‘Pro Shop’ Principle is Rooted in Community
Municipal opened its first permanent location on Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles, seeking to truly embed the brand into the local community. But the 1,100-square-foot space is more than just a store — it’s a Pro Shop. Arnett reaffirmed that this moniker isn’t just a clever turn of phrase; it’s used intentionally to assert the brand’s broader brick-and-mortar philosophy, focused on localization and authentic relationship building. The goal was to create a space reminiscent of a unique club inspired by golf, tennis, pickleball and other beloved sports. Customers can gather in lounge spaces to enjoy complimentary treats and beverages from Urth Café, or they can hit up the indoor putting mats to put products to the test.
“We have done a really good job of building our community in a really short period of time, of folks that tap into the ‘Municipal mindset,’ so when you go into the Melrose store, it feels like a luxury boutique retailer but with [enough] service and connecting points that people are going to feel there’s accessibility attached the experience,” said Arnett. “The community we’re building gets it; they get that our brand is aspiring to do more than just make cool shit that we want to sell to them.”
Of course, like any retail store, the Pro Shop does offer, as Arnett put it, some “cool shit.” Shoppers can browse the latest and greatest from Municipal as well as innovative products from other disruptive and entrepreneurial brands that represent the “Dream, Plan, Hustle, Repeat” values, such as Les Monts eyewear, LAB Putters, and Sub 70 Golf. These brands will not only have a presence on shop shelves but also will host various in-store events, led by their teams, to drive product awareness and education.
“We’re focusing on brands that showcase the audacity of the entrepreneurial spirit, brands that are influencing the bigger brands in these categories,” Arnett explained. “We believe the bigger you get as a brand, the slower the innovation process is, so when people go into a Pro Shop, we want consumers to feel like they’re seeing the very leading edge of what’s driving culture in those categories.”
Advancing Culture Through Community
Municipal worked with Starch Creative and Taco Truck Creative to bring the brand to life within the shop’s four walls, which are adorned with brand logos, original sports artwork and curated Los-Angeles themed artwork to reaffirm the space’s connection to the local community. But a neutral color palette of whites and light grays, complemented by black fixtures, allows the clothing and footwear to speak for themselves.
“We always felt like with our use of color, fabric decisions and the way our shoes are constructed, you can’t really get the full appreciation until you hold it in your hands,” Arnett said. “That’s why we always felt like there needed to be a physical manifestation of what the brand was all about, so people could see, feel, touch and really live with the brand in real time. Community is such a big part of what Municipal is all about, so we really felt, in our grandest aspirations, that these spaces were going to be physical meeting places for people that share the Municipal mindset.”
As Municipal opens more locations, it plans to stick with this highly curated, community-driven approach to store design and experience. That means all core partners, including design vendors, food vendors and even brand partners featured in stores, will have a tie-in to the local community.
“We’re not taking a cookie-cutter approach because we feel like that’s not how you build community or advance culture in a positive way,” Arnett explained. “It’s all about how we can have a symbiotic connection and relationship with the physical space and environment, so when you walk into that door you feel like it’s been there forever. Even if we open another store in Los Angeles, those two stores are going to feel very different. We don’t like the standardized, antiseptic, planogram approach. We feel that’s a completely uninspiring experience. It may be efficient, but it doesn’t advance the culture forward in any materially positive way.”