StockX Co-Founder Josh Luber & Ashley Merrill, CEO/Founder of Lunya share their retail origin stories behind the intersection of passion and profit, positioning their innovative online sites for the COVID era and beyond

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada

On this episode we’re in the motor city, Detroit, to talk with innovative online retailer and sneaker marketplace  StockX co-founder Josh Luber.  We talk about the intersection of passion and profit, how StockX innovative formula drives authenticity and credibility into the collectible re-sell market, and how a perfect price transparency model based on the stock market is driving record sales even in the face of the covid crisis.  Last, we explore the wildly innovative IPO market that StockX creates for brands to launch product lines in this celebrity (Drake, Mark Walberg, Eminem) funded platform.

Next we head west to Santa Monica and chat with Ashley Merrill, CEO/Founder of Lunya Company, a purpose-built retailer focussed on bespoke sleepwear for the modern women.  We talk about the origin story behind the brand, and how the COVID crisis had changed the way Ashley is thinking about the business and how Lunya goes to market.

But first, lets check in with Josh from StockX

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Thanks to Josh and Ashley for being my guests on this episode.   If you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a safe week!

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.