A Mile High Next Chapter: Feature Interview With Tattered Cover Bookstore CEO Kwame Spearman

The Tattered Cover Book Store has long been an iconic jewel in the “Mile High City” of Denver. Founded in 1971, its inaugural location opened in the city’s toney Cherry Creek North district on Second Avenue.

Now fast-forward to 2020. Amid a raging pandemic, uncertain political climate, and a racial justice movement in full bloom, the store one might say was “tattered” from the impact. During that year it became abundantly clear that Tattered Cover was going to need an infusion of funding and new leadership in order to survive. 

Denver businessman David Back, concerned about the store’s future, reached out to his friend and high school speech and debate rival Kwame Spearman. They reflected on and conversed about the declining state of the bookstore that had been such a special place to them during their formative years. Then came the big ask from Back, namely, whether Spearman would be interested in partnering with him to acquire the bookstore. Spearman said, yes. 

Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Spearman in person at the Tattered Cover location on Colfax Avenue, just a short trek from East High School where he attended as a young adult. Here’s what he had to say about the transition as CEO, his views of today’s forever evolving world, and his own book interests. 

Describe what it felt like to return to your hometown for the Tattered Cover CEO role? 

Having grown up here, I actually view Tattered Cover the way I view the Rocky Mountains — you just don’t know anything different. Being gone for a prolonged period of time reminded me from all angles of how beautiful and utopian the mountains are. Tattered Cover has a similar feel in that I have always felt like this was my local bookstore. 

What sort of memories has this evoked?

I can remember when I decided to pursue law school and needed to take the admissions test. Tattered Cover is where I went to purchase my LSAT book. And then there were the frequent visits each year to purchase Christmas presents. It's just what you did here in Denver. It was my bookstore. 

Have there been any surprises as you’ve re-immersed yourself in the community? 

I think the biggest surprise is that everyone has a Tattered Cover story here in the Denver metro area. Everyone. And most of them are positive. Frankly, I’ve never experienced a brand that has such a deep emotional connection attached to it.

How does that help in terms of the journey forward? 

I think it helps immensely because it unlocks so much potential for what we are trying to do in terms of building upon our status as a community institution. We can leverage that energy and that excitement to really start doing wonderful things in the communities that we’re in. That’s definitely the number one thing. 

Coming out of a tough period with the pandemic, racial justice protests, and caustic political climate, what do you see as Tattered Cover’s biggest obstacle? 

I think it’s important for our community to decide what they want to see in terms of local business. Just being mired in the day-to-day isn’t enough if you want to have a vibrant local business community. My hope is that consumers will be incredibly intentional about where they shop, how they shop, and who they support.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this point? 

I’m all for innovation and technology. And I think that watching companies grow is a big part of the American dream. But it is a struggle for a local business like ours when you have a company like Amazon that’s making so much money based on Amazon Web Service. They are using that profit which is from a totally different business model to undercut us. That’s hard. So when we ask our communities whether they want local businesses to thrive, I think it’s important to have some sort of awareness of what Amazon is doing and its local business impact. 

So have you ever been an Amazon user? 

I have but now I won’t do it, even though the price and convenience of it are great. I’m not necessarily one of those let’s boycott Amazon folks. But I do want to remind everyone that every time you have the opportunity to support a local business and don’t, that may be contributing to the struggles of that business.

Is Amazon’s impact really that significant?

Well, it feels predatory to me. Once you understand how much a book costs and how much Amazon is selling it for, you very quickly realize that they have no intention of making any profit on that sale. Sure that’s fine here and there as there are certain things that Tattered Cover does to lure customers in. But that’s not our mission like it is at Amazon. Their mission is disruption. They simply don’t want us to exist. 

What do you believe can be done to overcome this? 

That said, Tattered Cover is actually in an incredibly fortunate situation because we have brand equity. We have those deep emotional connections I just talked about with our customers. And I think we can provide an experience that will allow us to not only survive but thrive. I really do think we can do that.

Can you talk about Amazon’s dominance specifically in the digital book space and the sort of impact it’s having on Tattered Cover sales? 

That’s a really good question. While many have predicted the demise of the physical book, that trend seems to be reversing. To this point, our Colfax Avenue store location is right next to a place called Twist and Shout which sells vinyl records. It’s hard to believe how many people are into vinyl again. It’s absolutely nutty to me that people want those old records right now. But as in the case of these records, I believe there is still an emotional connection to holding a physical book. It’s certainly a much different, some would say, richer experience than reading on your Kindle or iPad. 

So it sounds like you are hopeful about the reemergence of physical books? 

For sure. I believe that the consumer migration we’re seeing back to physical books is helping to create a sustainable path for us. To that point, one of the things we’ve been clever about doing at Tattered Cover is highlighting the importance of a child holding a physical book. We’ve been incredibly aggressive of late in having either events or parts of our store that are just dedicated to kids. For us, this is truly about investing in the next generation. 

So you essentially stepped into this role as CEO in the middle of a pandemic all the while the racial justice protests are brewing over George Floyd. What was that experience really like for you? 

That’s a really good question. First, let me say that I have always loved Tattered Cover. So taking on this role has been foremost about trying to create a North Star to help move us in the direction that we need to go. But like everyone else when things were locked down I had a lot of time to introspect about life. It was during that time when I became aware of my level of privilege in a way that I hadn’t before. 

Interesting. Can you expand upon that thought? 

Sure. Well, I was fortunate to have a friend whose family basically had a compound in Vermont. That afforded me the opportunity to leave my small NYC apartment and head there. What really struck me during my time there is that while the world was literally on fire, I’m basically having the time of my life. I’m enjoying the beautiful nature, biking, shooting at wild turkeys, just having a blast. And then the George Floyd thing really hit me. I thought about how my dad had fought for equality and how he was one of the reasons why I have the opportunities that I have today. But there I am in Vermont not affected by all of what was happening in any way, shape, or form. 

How did that whole experience inform your decision to pursue the Tattered Cover opportunity? 

After George Floyd’s murder the question I had for myself, is what am I doing to make the world a better place? And so I looked at the Tattered Cover opportunity and all of the chaos around it. For starters, there was the challenge of just trying to sell books generally. Then you’ve got the pandemic. And then on top of that the BLM controversy. So I felt this was an opportunity to do something that I could feel proud about. And so that’s why I did it. 

So what does your own life of reading and books currently look like?

To be brutally honest, I don’t read as much as I’d like to because I’ve been super busy focused on getting Tattered Cover back on track. It’s one of those things right now where I’m just waking up, working, and then going to bed focused on transforming our store community. All this said I can honestly say that a big part of the reason why I’ve had success in life is due to reading. 

Can you elaborate?

Here’s an example: Our store team and I did these book battles when we opened up the kid’s store. And even though I don’t necessarily consider myself a bibliophile, I knew every one of the books that were a part of our little contest because I had read them all growing up.  

In your mind, what are the greatest benefits of reading?

Reading generates curiosity. In other words, I think from a cognition and sort of mental development perspective it just allows you to do some really beautiful things. I tell people that the trade-off for me right now is that I’m reading less so that our youth can read more. And I’m really trying to create an environment where we can spread our message and go out into communities and get folks reading. Because I’m a testament to what someone who has read a lot can do. So I want others to have that same opportunity. 

Concluding, what sort of legacy do you want to leave through Tattered Cover for the reading community here in Denver? 

I want people to walk, drive, see a Tattered Cover sign and say “that’s my bookstore, that’s our bookstore.” And as CEO, I want all of the good and bad responsibilities that go with that. In other words, if we are doing things that you feel are not representative of you and the community then call us out. I want everyone to feel comfortable coming into our stores and partaking in our events and suggesting things.

One of the mottos I always have lived by is “ always start with yes.” When people want to interact with us, why would we ever say no? I want people to take ownership of our business because we are here for them.