Blake Jewelers Founder Blake Shelhamer Opens His Retail Model to Independent Jewelry Store Owners

Lahaska, Pennsylvania, USA, November 15th, 2026, FinanceWire

After rethinking how fine jewelry is sold, with non-commission staff, broader choice and customer education, the Pennsylvania jeweler is extending the same approach to entrepreneurs who want stores of their own.

Blake Jewelers, the independent fine jewelry business founded by Blake Shelhamer, is extending its retail model to independent entrepreneurs through a licensing approach that lets owners run their own Blake Jewelers stores. The model is already operating at Township 5 in Camillus, New York, where owner Stephanie Pullano runs an independently operated licensed location alongside the company’s two Pennsylvania stores.

The expansion carries the same philosophy that shaped Shelhamer’s original business into a new area. Having set out to make buying fine jewelry less confusing and less pressured for customers, he is now applying that idea of accessibility to business ownership itself. Notably, the company has grown almost entirely through word of mouth, without relying on traditional marketing or advertising.

A Different Way to Sell Fine Jewelry

Fine jewelry has long been a difficult purchase for many shoppers. Customers face unfamiliar terminology, complicated comparisons and significant financial decisions, often while working with a salesperson whose pay depends on the size of the sale. Shelhamer built Blake Jewelers to approach that experience differently, combining competitive pricing, technology-enabled product selection, customer education and a non-commission sales environment.

A visit to one of the stores, at Peddler’s Village in Lahaska or in West Chester, combines the familiar parts of jewelry shopping with options that go beyond the showcase. Customers can examine real pieces, ask questions and buy from a ready-to-wear assortment that includes watches and jewelry across a range of price points. But their choices are not limited to what happens to be on display. Through extensive product access, digital merchandising and custom design, shoppers can explore a far wider range of engagement rings, wedding bands, colored gemstones, precious metals and custom fine jewelry.

For someone buying an engagement ring, that might mean starting with a physical design, learning about different stones and settings, and then exploring personalized alternatives that better suit their style or budget.

Taking Commission Out of the Conversation

One of Shelhamer’s most deliberate choices was to remove individual sales commissions. Blake Jewelers employees are not paid a percentage of the transactions they generate. Instead, the company emphasizes product knowledge, professional guidance and long-term customer relationships.

That matters in a category where many customers are unfamiliar with gemstone grading, manufacturing differences and the factors behind price. An employee explaining the differences between natural and lab-grown diamonds, for example, has no personal commission riding on the more expensive recommendation. Shelhamer’s view is simple. A customer spending a modest amount deserves the same professional respect and attention as someone making a major luxury purchase.

The same thinking shapes the company’s approach to value. Blake Jewelers offers both natural and lab-grown diamonds and treats the decision as the customer’s choice rather than steering shoppers toward one category. It also publicly advertises a 100 percent trade-in program for qualifying natural and lab-grown diamond jewelry bought from Blake Jewelers, allowing customers to apply the original purchase value toward a qualifying upgrade costing at least twice the original price. The policy is designed to support long-term relationships and to ease common concerns about owning and upgrading fine jewelry.

From Running Stores to Supporting Owners

Opening an independent jewelry store requires a demanding mix of product knowledge, retail experience, supplier relationships, operating systems and customer trust. For many aspiring owners, building all of that from scratch is a major barrier. Blake Jewelers’ licensing approach is designed to remove it.

Licensees gain far more than a name over the door. They have access to the infrastructure Blake Jewelers has built to run its own stores, including its proprietary integrated software and point-of-sale system, sourcing and importing, quality control, customer service and loyalty programs. Together, those systems cover much of the operational work that would otherwise take an independent jeweler years and significant investment to build.

Much of the administrative side of the business has been streamlined and automated, freeing owners to focus on the parts of jewelry retail that technology cannot replace, the human expertise and personal service customers rely on when making an important purchase. Owners also keep their independence, including their own customer relationships.

For Shelhamer, that is the real innovation. Large chains have long had the systems and buying power that independent jewelers lack. His model makes those capabilities accessible to independent store owners, without requiring each of them to build and maintain everything themselves.

The Camillus store shows how that works in practice. Pullano opened Blake Jewelers at Township 5, near Syracuse, in November 2023. Speaking to Oswego County Business, she said that she and Shelhamer “shared a mutual vision and collaborated” to open the store. She also credited local resources, including the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College and the Women’s WISE Business Center, which helped her secure a local grant to get the venture started.

The store has since built its own local identity, offering custom bridal rings and bands, lab-grown and natural diamonds, and in-store collections ranging from sterling silver to gold. Customers can also order online and have pieces shipped anywhere in the United States, and Pullano has described her plans as reinforcing what she calls “the store’s ethos of personalized service.”

Camillus is an early example rather than proof that the model will work everywhere. But it marks a clear step beyond founder-operated retail, toward a business that helps others build jewelry stores of their own.

Questioning Convention

At the center of the story is Shelhamer’s approach to problem-solving. Rather than rejecting tradition outright, he separates the parts of jewelry retail worth keeping, such as craftsmanship, expertise and personal service, from the practices he believes can be improved, including how customers access merchandise, how staff are paid and how a jewelry business can grow.

In his view, meaningful innovation does not always require a new invention. Sometimes it means bringing existing capabilities together in a way that changes the experience and the incentives of the people involved.

That idea reaches well beyond jewelry. As shoppers expect more choice, clearer information and fair prices, while still valuing personal relationships and the chance to see products in person, Blake Jewelers is testing whether independent retailers can combine the best of both and keep local ownership at the same time.

About Blake Jewelers

Blake Jewelers is an independent fine jewelry business founded by Blake Shelhamer, specializing in custom bridal and fine jewelry, natural and lab-grown diamonds, colored gemstones and precious metals, alongside a ready-to-wear selection of watches and jewelry. It operates stores at Peddler’s Village in Lahaska, Pennsylvania, and in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and an independently operated licensed location at Township 5 in Camillus, New York. More information is available at blakejewelers.com and on Instagram and Facebook.

Contact