Meet Alan Lopez | True crime and oddities collector

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alan Lopez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was at the end of my twenties feeling burnt out from working dead-end jobs through my 20s. I needed something new something that allowed me to live the life I wanted.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It all started when I was in Las Vegas for Punk Rock Bowling and this lady that goes by Becka Makes Buttons gave us a button but to my shock it was a bottle opener. All my years attending Houston local shows and what not I had never seen one of these. At that moment everything changed for me I remember turning around and telling Linda when we get back to Houston I am going to buy one of those machines and start making these for all the bands. When I got back I showed a few musicians and they were all in awe so I knew I was onto something. After doing a few custom orders for local bands and artists I started posting up outside of venues trying to sell bottle openers to people in line and started setting up at Vintage Street Fest with just buttons and homemade stickers but wasn’t making much like I remember the first time I made $100 it was a big deal. Eventually I started adding more like patches, vintage clothing, toys from thrift stores, shrunken heads replicas and true crime items. Business was good for a couple years but eventually it started feeling stale. I felt burnt out tired of the whole vintage thrift thing but at the same time true crime started getting traction due to all the Netflix Hulu , daytime tv and podcast true crime boom. Me being a true crime collector started focusing more on true crime and selling of bits and pieces of my collection. Those items are not cheap so I knew I needed something affordable in the subject so I started learning to screen print to print mt original designs. Now I have a websites with my original clothing that in print myself and true crime collectibles. We also do a monthly oddities event at brash brewery with our friends at obscure Houston oddities. Leesons I’ve learned keep pushing and stay positive when business is down. Also don’t be afraid to move on to the next thing. I mean in started with buttons and now I’m dealing true crime collectibles who knows whats next. What do I want the world to know about me hmn that’s a tuff question. I’d say Shamebers is always striving to to move to the next level or move to the next thing like true crime right now but wjo knows could be a completely different things years later… Oh and shop at shamebers.com

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Live music live music live music. Local punk shows at Trip 6 , local metal shows at White swan live. Stand up comedy at The Secret Group .
Drinks and video games at Neil’s bahr.
More drinks at D&W Loung.
Grand prize for Punk and Metal Mondays
Dancing at Etros for goth night on Thurs and Club Numbers for more goth dancing.
Vietnamese food on Bellaire at the Hong Kong Market.
Middle Eastern food at one of the many great spots in Harwin drive.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My partner in crime Linda who has supported me and pushed me to keep going even when business was down. My mother and grandfather for always cheering me on and the memories of my father that makes me strive to hustle like he did.

Faith & Chris Cisneros with all the Shop Local Family at Labels Vintage Street Wear. They were the first people that gave me a chance to set up shop at their monthly pop up Vintage Fest even though we were completely different in what we sold.

The Houston Punk /Metal art scene. All the local bands that gave me business to help me get started. Tony glasses from GFF that let other bands know. GFF, Thundertank , Killer Hearts who were the first bands that gave me a chance. Also graffiti artist Skeez 181 , artist Diablo Macabre and political activist Los Brown Berets de Houston Tejaztlan who were all my early customer.

The many friends that give me a hand at events. Samuel Ramirez (also artist that drew our original logo and was a helping hand in the early years ) Jake Duran, Milin Andy Cuetzpalin, Bianca Binx, Steve Osorto ( artist that draws our ideas as well)

Website: Shamebers.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shameberz/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SHAMEberZ/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/SHAMEberS

Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdS9J9TH/ @shamebers