by Evelyn Bailey
Rich Schroedel and Russ Shaner, Grand Marshall’s of the 2009 Pride Parade, are the current owners of Outlandish Video and Gifts. You may remember that this store in Village Gate was not always Outlandish. Village Gate was purchased in 1982, by Gary Stern. It had been the Stecher Traung Printing Company. At the time of the sale the building resembled an abandoned warehouse. Gary believed the neighborhood could make a strong comeback in the near future. And so, Village Gate became a place to live and a place for retail establishments and art galleries.
In 1989 Chuck Antonelli and Walter Dyer decided there was a real need in Rochester for a store selling leather goods. At that time people had to travel to New York or Toronto for leather outfits, which Walt and Chuck also did. When Walt and Chuck got outfitted, they went to Toronto and spent over $1200 on the basic things. Within six months they started having problems with the clothes, seams ripping out, and so on. They decided that they could do better. On July 29, 1989 Rochester Custom Leathers (RCL), a store specializing in leather apparel and some adult/fetish merchandise, came into existence taking up residence at Village Gate. John and Walt did a lot of the work themselves, but they also had to two full-time employees to part time, and three people on call. Chuck and Walt also operated the MultiCom 4 computer bulletin board.
