The good people of Mr Porter have set up shop on Gansevoort Street in NYC, bringing the online menswear destination to (real) life in partnership with USA network’s show Suits until next Sunday. I stopped by to check out the shop soon after it opened on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. Though to be honest, not anywhere near as surprised I was when I visited the Mr Porter offices in London this past winter – that place is insanity. The pop up shop has a limited selection of items from the online store which are available to buy on the spot (imagine that!) along with shoe shines, grooming services from Aesop and other worthy diversions. I think the aspect I found most interesting was an interactive installation that creates an interesting pseudo-physical shopping experience with Mr Porter. It was an intriguing way to bridge the gap between physical and virtual retail. At the very least it was an entertaining experiment that managed to keep my attention for a minimum 15 minutes.
The shop is mostly stocked with accessories – Smythson, Drakes, Aesop – that could certainly do the trick for father’s day if you have neglected that until now. There’s also some suits mixed in for good measure, though it is a little too hot in NYC for me to think about anything other than a swimsuit. Outside of the shopping and shoe shine bit, the pop up provides an opportunity for everyone to meet the guys that run Mr Porter, many of which were milling about on Saturday helping out and generally chatting folks up.
Crazy.. Im curious about the iPad installation, was it’s purpose more geared towards brand education or more as a style guide for online browsing of their site while in store? interesting either way.
Man I could eat those ties off my monitor.
Amazing idea! Sometimes shopping online fells a little bit to un personal. And Mr. Porter is the least unpersonal of them all.
These are the things that differentiate truly great business models from all the rest.
Great pics Michael
We did our first pop-up in Portsmouth, NH this last weekend. Lots of work to create, but a great way to interact with customers. As an etailer, getting out of the office and communicating face to face is rejuvenating.
This is a great example of a collaboration born in the 21st century benefiting both on-and-off-line interests. Kudos – great marketing initiative MR P.
Aesop. Shelby. Guy standing next to Shelby. Ingenious. Good.
i see i see, quite a cool idea on bringing online to life
Awesome marketing. Love the industrial, classic feel juxtaposed with the modern, connected, touch screen back end.
-TMM