When Kori and Adam Fuerst met in 2008, they clicked over a shared love of Polaroid cameras, finding joy in an older, more tactile technology instead of staring at screens. But the college-aged couple quickly got some heartbreaking news: Polaroid announced they were ceasing production of new film.
“A lot of our first dates and memories are on Polaroids,” Kori says. Packs of film skyrocketed in price online, but the couple found a hack: People who were now ditching their Polaroids at thrift shops would sometimes leave the remaining film in them. So, the Fuersts began buying every camera they could find, hoping to score. “We amassed a giant collection of cameras,” Kori explains, which they began to sell on eBay.
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Then, a small miracle – a company called The Impossible Project purchased the last factory making Polaroid film to keep it in production. Demand for cameras increased, and the Fuersts ditched their plans to become therapists in order to sell and refurbish them full time.
They expanded the operation in 2015 by founding Retrospekt, a company that sells, in addition to Polaroids, other “retro tech” like cassette and CD players, clocks and typewriters. It’s a business driven by actual nostalgia and what the Fuersts call “secondhand nostalgia.”
“A lot of our audience did not grow up with these things. It’s now a novel experience that people are willing to pay to have,” Kori says. “In an increasingly digital world, people are craving tangible experiences. It’s not convenient, but there’s something charming and intentional about holding [an item] in your hands, putting [a tape] in a player, the noises it makes.”
By 2020, the company had grown enough that they moved to a 15,000-square-foot facility in Riverwest. Their building has a small storefront, but most of the business is fulfilling online orders in the attached warehouse. Retrospekt’s staff of about 35 includes purchasers who look for inventory, a team that refurbishes items, photographers who catalog and upload to the website, and a shipping department that mails the vintage treasures all over the world.
The Fuersts say their “bread and butter” remains Polaroids, but lately they’ve seen a bump in portable CD players. “We can’t keep them in stock,” Kori says.
In the past year and a half, they’ve faced an unexpected challenge: the chaos of tariffs. Although they try to source inventory domestically, they get custom parts and newly produced analog items from overseas, some of which were tariffed out of reach last year.
The uncertainty over pricing has led to lost revenue and a freeze on company growth. The Fuersts have adjusted by cutting down on imports and selling more refurbished items. A new path for revenue has been “used media” like CDs, VHS and cassette tapes – more easily sourced from warehouse finds and estate sales.
Despite these pressures, Kori says they find comfort in a built-in safety net – because no matter how tough times are, “nostalgia is recession-proof.”
Retrospekt
811 E. Vienna Ave., Suite 100
Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; closed weekends
Showroom offers limited selection of items;
retrospekt.com
