Pop Up Shops and Pop up Malls

           Typically, when a urban street wear apparel brand is starting up or even recently, establish couture brands, still trying to keep it street and capture the essence of its the grassroots, they proceed to open up a pop up shop. Hoping to make a name for themselves; add a little hype to their growing brand, capture some foot traffic, get rid of surplus inventory all to generate income. The concept of a pop up shop is pretty cool if you ask me because if you do not know by now I am sale kind of guy.  A pop up shop is essentially clever gorilla marketing at is best.  However, a pop up mall? That is the best thing since slice bread for a street wear sale connoisseur such as myself.

            I’m all for the three C’s in street wear: cleverness, craftiness and classiness. I don’t know if this will be an ongoing trend but I just recently read on yahoo that Boxpark has open up a pop up mall in London, England neighborhood of Shoreditch on November 3. Boxpark claims to be the first to ever open up a pop up mall and plans to be at the London location for 5 years, possibly opening up another 4 more pop up malls; one in London, two in the UK and one in Europe by 2013. What's crazy is Boxpark’s pop up mall is two stories and offers over 60 brands including well establish brands such as; Vans, Evisu Lacoste, Nike and Puma. 

          The pop up shop concept is not new but the pop up mall concept is but I first wondered, was Boxpark's pop up mall, an actual mall or just a pop up retail shop? Are these clothing brands opening up shops within the mall and have sale associates or representative selling their clothes or is Boxpark pop up mall just slanging the brands out their pop up mall window as if it was a back alley deal? Based on further research in the form of google, I found Boxpark's pop up mall floor plan, video and pictures I believe it to actually be an legit mall and all that is missing is a food court but they have cafes on the bottom floor. The Boxpark's pop up mall is essentially a lifestyle shopping experience. It is a creative concept, a concept I feel the US retail apparel industry will soon mimic in big American fashion, no doubt. Honestly, this is the sort of rejuvenation the US retail apparel industry needs to adopt in order combat poor sales or lack of brand familiarity and I am just waiting for that moment. 

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