Unlocking Locker: A Q&A with ‘Locker’ Founder Kristine Locker Plueger
Unlocking Locker: A Q&A with ‘Locker’ Founder Kristine Locker Plueger
By Ava Rosetti — June 13, 2025
Locker is a shopping app and Chrome extension designed to assist users to curate and organize their shopping experiences. It saves products customers wish to buy from any website while also offering curated wishlists, the ability to collaborate with friends, and even create collages of your own saved items.
Kristine Locker Plueger is the CEO and founder of this innovative social shopping and fashion discovery platform. Plueger began her career in real estate finance after graduating from Southern Methodist University, starting at Goldman Sachs in Dallas before returning to Los Angeles as a real estate broker.
After a few years in the real estate industry, Plueger wanted more creative freedom. Inspired by her love for fashion and online shopping, she began sketching an idea for a platform that captured style inspiration from not just influencers, but everyday girls like her friends and family. So with her finance knowledge and endless creativity, Plueger began building Locker from the ground up.
Square Magazine: How did you come up with the idea for Locker?
Kristine Locker Plueger: When I would get home from working my real estate job, I was always browsing on my phone or computer to find clothes for any vacation or event I had coming up or I would find a piece that I thought would look amazing on my mom or my best friend, but I had no way to keep up with it. I actually had a Google spreadsheet to keep up with all the links to everything I would find, because I wasn’t always buying things at the moment. My phone was filled with screenshots and random lost links, and it made me wonder if there was anything out there that could solve this problem for consumers. So, I started sketching what I thought would be the ideal tool to solve this problem for me. When I looked at the landscape, there were tons of tools being created in the influencer monetization space, and also Pinterest and Instagram starting moving into shopping, which were both catalysts for me leaving my full time career. During this time, I knew that if I was going to build something in that space, it had to be now, because the moment was moving so quickly and I knew I wanted to focus on the consumer journey. I needed a place where I could online shop, save the links for later but also be the owner of my own curation. That was the genesis for Locker.
SM: How would you describe your own personal style and how has Locker helped you create or maintain your own style?
KLP: I love the simple things and buying quality pieces that will last me a long time. I love finding pieces that I can wear in multiple different ways. If you were to look in my closet, you would see denim, white, black and neutrals. I always say that I am nothing if not an outfit repeater, because I find my favorite outfits and want to wear them over and over again. Locker not only allows me to discover new trends from other people, but it also gives me the space to think about which trends I want to adopt.
SM: What does fashion mean to you and how did it inspire your ideas about Locker?
KLP: I want everyone to understand that fashion has nothing to do with anyone else, and everything to do with you. All it should mean is that you are wearing the thing that makes you feel your best and it doesn’t matter what others around you are wearing. Clothing is naturally a cloak, because it’s the first impression that someone is going to have of you. That is your superpower to decide ‘here is how I dress myself to show up’. For me, I love to be comfortable. A matching sweat set and my new balance sneakers makes me feel confident and put together. I just encourage people to find whatever it is that allows them to express their own individuality.
SM: How has Locker evolved from where you first started?
KLP: The North Star of Locker has not changed. We still have this vision of building a platform that serves consumers while they are shopping. Our users can show up during every part of their shopping journey, whether they love to shop, or even if they are seeking inspiration. We have really built our product around this. But, Locker has become more robust than it was in the beginning. We started with just wish lists and a few social features, but now we have launched features like giftable collections, collaborative collections and partnerships with brands. We even have a payback feature that allows us to share a portion of the commission we are earning as a company back with our community members and it makes social shopping even more fun. Our product vision has not changed at all, we have just been able to grow into so much more.
SM: Did you ever expect Locker to become this big?
KLP: To be honest, I am so glad I was so naive at the beginning because this has been such a hard journey. We started five years ago and when I look at what we have become in that amount of time, I’m amazed at everything we have been able to accomplish and I am truly in awe of our incredible user base. There is always this pressure to be more and accomplish more because comparison to other start up companies that are in similar spaces is a thing. I am always in shock that it is the company that it is but I always think we can continue growing.
SM: How have Locker Campus Ambassadors helped grow your brand?
KLP: We have been able to run our campus ambassador program completely online, but as we continue to grow we hope to be able to shift for it to be more in person. We had college girls reaching out because of how much they love and use the app, so this has been an opportunity to allow these girls to reach their friends and followers from school, but also their friends from their hometowns as well. We have been able to reach more areas than just the campus they are on. We started with representation on only three college campuses, but now we are present on eight campuses with 96 ambassadors. We are hopeful that it will grow to become something even bigger than it is now.
SM: What has being the founder of Locker brought to your life?
KLP: This has been one of the scariest, but most expansive things I’ve ever done. Because I am my own boss it has been this form of forced confidence and I have been able to teach myself everything that I know now. It has definitely been a learning experience. It has taught me that we are all capable of so much more than we can even think of. I’ve always had this “gold star personality” and college was the perfect place for me to thrive in that because I was able to study and execute a task and then basically receive this grade or gold star. Then, I got into the real world and realized that life does not function in that way, so I struggled and went through a period of depression trying to figure out how I was going to control my life. Between 2015-2020, I had to figure out who I was and wanted to be in this life, and that’s when Locker became something that I could build on my own and find purpose in. I needed autonomy and to be able to execute my drive, so I put all of my energy into creating Locker. Locker gave me this new ability to understand who I am and how I want to function in the world.
SM: Is there anything new with Locker we should get excited about?
KLP: Price Drop is coming!! This will allow you to get a price drop notification about any product you save on Locker. We are currently testing it internally and it has already convinced me to buy multiple things. As a founder, I am obsessed with having that lightbulb moment and this has been that for me.
To keep up with Kristine, you can follow her on Instagram @kristinelocker . To get updates about the Locker app, be sure to follow @wantlocker on Instagram.
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