TONS Builds Its Foundation In Steel City Launching A Collaboration With BTFL

Founded in the Steel City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, TONS is an immersive retail experience offering some of the most coveted luxury and contemporary fashion brands, curated with accessories and beauty products. TONS is positioning itself as a high-end fashion and lifestyle destination in the East Liberty community by offering luxe fashion items, artful displays, designer furnishings throughout, and lavish interiors seen from notable retail spaces like New York City or Los Angeles.

Pittsburgh is known for its Steel production early on in the American Industrial Revolution with influences like Andrew Carnegie and holds a history that breeds workwear styles over 100 years old. Creating an upscale shopping and cultural experience for their customers, TONS has attracted clientele, including athletes from the Steelers like wide receiver Anthony Miller and the many University of Pittsburgh stars, as well as customers who seek high-quality, luxury goods and services they can try on in person.

TONS opened its doors in November 2022 by Diana and Adam Kucenic, who also own and operate successful restaurant projects in the Pittsburgh, East Liberty area, like its Muddy Waters Oyster Bar.

“Pittsburgh is a diverse and cultural city with many offerings in the arts, hospitality, and even opera scene, and we are honored to take up space in all of the areas that we truly love,” said the founders.

“We own and operate the restaurants, and now we have our fashion concept store TONS. We regularly engage with people from Google, CMU, and Duolingo, and we wanted to offer the people of Pittsburgh a local destination for fashion. Many people that we communicate with shared that they rely on traveling to NYC or Los Angeles when wanting to update their closets with the latest collections, and TONS is here to solve that.”

Diana Kucenic’s experience as a buyer for her mother’s fashion stores and her regular travels to Milan and Paris fashion week presentations has developed her fashion taste and knowledge and helped her establish valuable relationships with renowned contemporary brands. She has given her prowess in fashion to the city of Pittsburgh, which has frequented the brick-and-mortar since November 2022. “We are also grateful to have an overwhelming amount of support from the local fashion community, artists and creatives, and, of course, athletes,” she notes.

“One thing that will never change about Pittsburgh is its love for its sports teams. The support from professional and collegiate athletes all across the tri-state area has been overwhelming. We have watched Pittsburgh transition from a steel and coal town, to an innovative city thriving in technology and healthcare. The same is happening with Pittsburgh fashion, and we are happy to be at the forefront of this movement. We are overjoyed to open such a beautiful store with an extraordinary interior, contributing to Pittsburgh’s ever-growing environment.”

With large scale works of art by Alexander Brodsky are hung throughout, and imported Italian fixtures, a Paradoxical Hi-Tech armchair by Piero Lissoni, a Mate chair by (a+b) dominoni, glass products from Glas Italia, a Wiggle Stool designed by Frank Gehry for Vitra, and a load-it shelves system by Wolfgang Tonk, TONS is a subversive sophistication.

Contrasting the high-end fixtures and furniture, TONS displays a medley of recycled food cans turned into an intrinsic lighting design that connects their associated restaurants to the lifestyle the retailer is cultivating in East Liberty.

Friday, May 12, 2023, TONS hosted its official grand opening and launch party for the Local Pittsburgh community and fans from all over. With all the attention on the new establishment, TONS held a panel discussion with Alejandro “Buchie” Rodriguez, founder of one of its best-selling brands they house, BTFL, formerly BEAUTIFUL FÜL. “Buchie” Rodriguez founded the famed Los Angeles workwear label in 2013 and went on to live under the ‘FUL’ name for the next five years.

Rodriguez discussed his disposition and creative direction of BEAUTIFUL FÜL, explaining his transition to BTFL, founded in 2020, just before the COVID pandemic. The inspiration for the most recent campaign of BTFL was a callback to the workwear created for gardeners of the Southwest region of North American-slash-Mexican culture. The campaign “Work Clothes” [Delivery 2], worked with Desert Creations run by the Chavez Family who cultivate artful cactus plants for aficionados.

Additionally, BTFL created a collaborative capsule with the TONS retailer that referenced the Steel City and its genesis of a steel-infused landscape. The capsule displayed blueprint designs for Pittsburgh’s most notable structures. The standout piece, a hoodie twice-dyed to create a rust color – a brownish-grey – mimicking the rust seen throughout Pittsburgh’s steel-covered bridges, buildings, and the artworks inside each and located around the city.

“I’m born and raised in LA,” Rodriguez explains of his ethos for his last campaign lending the idea for his TONS collaboration. “My dad’s from Mexico. My mom’s from California. So I grew up in a Mexican household. In high school, you learned about Pittsburgh, and you learn about [its] history, so it’s kind of what I expected. [It’s] beautiful. I love history, I love old buildings. I love industrial aesthetics. And driving in through ‘that’ tunnel…” Rodriguez relishes the Fort Pitt Tunnel under Mount Washington, designed in distinct rectangular shapes.

Pittsburgh has been experiencing growth in various industries recently, particularly in technology and fashion. Gucci’s opening of a store in Pittsburgh is a testament to its growing luxury market. Meanwhile, Carnegie Mellon University, Google, and Uber have established a strong presence in the technology industry, contributing to a strong development of the sector. Now TONS is building its foundation in Steel City and establishing a solid community presence.