Community Corner
Business Q&A: Extra Butter
The Merrick Road sneaker shop offers cool kicks and special events.
When Extra Butter celebrated it’s third anniversary last fall, the specialty sneaker store that has become a mainstay in the village of Rockville Centre expanded to include a showroom. We spoke to co-owner Jason Faustino about the store’s success.
When did the store first open?
We opened in August 2007. One of our owners had experience running family footwear stores and my co-owner, Russell, and I had worked in his Huntington store. When we had the idea to do a specialty sneaker store, we chose Rockville Centre for our location because we're all from Long Island and we like the neighborhood feel of RVC. We’re very fond of the community here.
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Are most of your customers big collectors?
We do get a lot of collectors, but I would say that we cater more toward individual customers. We get a lot of kids — ranging from high school to post-college — who grew up with an interest in sports or fashion and want to know the latest trends in sneakers.
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What did the name “Extra Butter” come from?
Extra Butter is an old slang phrase for things that are smooth and fresh. It describes our sneakers and also points to the movie screenings that we’ve become known for. We host screenings with themes related to upcoming sneaker launches. On Saturday, May 14, we’ll be showing a werewolf movie to celebrate the midnight release of the new Wolf Grey Air Jordan 5s. We also do seasonal movie screenings around certain holidays, like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. It’s really just something that everyone in the community can come out and enjoy.
In addition to designer shoes, do you manufacture any of your own products?
We actually launched our own line at the beginning of this year. We make and sell tee shirts and caps with the Extra Butter logo. We also have designs inspired by the movies that we love and screen in the store.
What do you want people get out of their experience at Extra Butter?
I just hope that people have a unique experience. We have a lot of limited-edition sneakers, collectibles and sneakers that are hard to find elsewhere.
