Meet The Girl Tribe Co., The Brand Behind Taylor Swift Eras-Themed Pop-up Shops

If you've been to a Taylor Swift Eras tour date in these past few weeks, you've probably noticed a nifty little pop-up shop selling some cool Taylor Swift-inspired merchandise with a packed crowd lined up to support. If you aren't already familiar, allow us to introduce you to The Girl Tribe Co., the place where you can find an array of graphic tees, hoodies, sweatshirts, and more, along with various other non-graphic designed clothing and apparel where you can purchase tops, pants, outerwear and more. Founded by Carrie Barker and Sarah Baucom, what started as a local boutique in Charlotte, North Carolina, has since progressed to a buzz-generating renowned brand that is beginning to capture attention globally.

RELATED: KidSuper's Colm Dillane Talks Paris Fashion Week, Meta and Working with Jordan Clarkson

Image credit: Girl Tribe Co.

This is thanks in part to the unprecedented success of their recent Eras-themed pop-up shops across the nation, where they have been partnering with like-minded businesses and brands to offer the ultimate Eras-pop up experience for Taylor Swift fans and concert goers. "The idea came from our social media manager Taryn who started just about 90 days ago," says a Girl Tribe Co. representative Rileigh Harnett. "She emailed saying she had a cool idea of doing a pop-up in L.A. for Taylor Swifts last five shows and sold our graphics. I thought it was a great idea, so we pitched it to our co-founder Sarah and Carrie, and they loved it! Instead of us just going to Los Angeles, they wanted us to go to all of them."

What has followed is massively successful dates in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh—pop-ups so successful that it has almost been overwhelming. "We had an Uber driver who just didn't understand what we were doing," continues Rileigh. "We told him we were selling Taylor Swift graphic tees, and then we pulled up to the store there were almost 200 people in line. I told him that all those people were here for us, and he didn't believe it. When we got out of the car people started cheering, and he was like 'Wow!'"

Image credit: Girl Tribe Co.

While the success seems overnight, the brand has been here rockin' and rollin' for a minute. I asked Rileigh what life was like for the company pre-Taylor Swift:

"Pre-Taylor Swift, we launched by having a Girl Tribe Co. pop-up that showcases women-owned vendors. We would pop at the Charlotte Convention Center and other venues, and that's really where we got started. From there we into Girl Tribe Co. and started making and selling graphic tees. Now we have three brick and mortars, and we typically design graphic based on your everyday Charlotte girl, the Panthers, Charlotte F.C., Queen City, etc., but we still dabbled into the pop culture world. To leverage ourselves and get out of just that Charlotte bubble to keep growing, we began doing a lot more pop culture and that's when we began taking off."

And while their Taylor Swift pop-up journey has been successful, it's still very much respectful and full of homage. "Yes and no," Rileigh responds when I ask her if Taylor is aware of the Girl Tribe Co. movement. "Taylor is very good at trademarking and we never want to step on her toes. We try to be very cautious about what we use and don't use as we don't want to use anything that she has copyrighted herself.

So what's next for Girl Tribe Co.?

Image credit: Girl Tribe Co.

"We keep saying that Beyoncé is next! She's currently overseas at the moment, and then she comes to the U.S. July 12th," says Rileigh. "Who knows? I don't want to say we're scared, but we're apprehensive because we're trying to keep up as it is and it's all so exciting. I think we're going to see where we go from here when it comes to this idea of pop culture and following around these figures that people love. Taylor Swift was a really big home run for us because that's our demographic and she's crushing it! We hit something at the right time which is so difficult in this industry because trends come and go quickly, but we did it!"

You can visit the Girl Tribe Co. website here and keep up with all of their latest updates via Instagram.