It was the opening week for our shop competition winners as each of them finally saw their ideas come to life in their spaces in Shoreditch, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden and Chelsea. Each brand had applied to win a two week free residency in a top location in London, mentoring from the best design agencies, exposure in The Evening Standard and a tech pack from EE. Hard work and determination were key in ensuring each of the spaces was ready for launch week. We caught up with the four brands to see how they're getting on.
The Possibility Shop by Porterlight Bicylces- 12 Floral Street, Covent Garden
"Opening a pop up shop in Covent Garden has been an amazing experience. The chance to engage with potential customers on a really personal and accessible level has proven to be a real help for the business."
"Having the shop has allowed people to connect to my founding story in a much more personal way, and many customers have been actively asking us how they can help promote us online, or even taking photos to dispatch to their friend who they think needs to buy one!"- Founder Lawrence Brand
Run&Fell- 340 King's Road, Chelsea
"My favourite moment was definitely walking up to the shop as Not Tom were in the middle of installing their shop design, and I saw the RUN&FELL logo shop sign above my shop front for the first time. So exciting!"
"It's been really great meeting customers and getting some great responses on the designs and the concept of the pop up shop!"- Co-founder Naomi Jackson
WonderLuk- 26 BOXPARK, Shoreditch
"We're learning a lot about our customers, who they are and the lifestyles they live. This will help us enormously with the creation of new products and collections but also allows us to target our marketing activities much better. We see first hand how different designers and their styles resonate with with different customer segments - that's valuable insight and intelligence."
"One of our favourite moments has to be the first meeting with the creative agency who designed and built our pop-up store. The team at Marmalade London were just fantastic and we've spent a whole day talking about the DNA and the soul of our brand, drilling into the what, why and how. This made it so much easier to create a striking store design."- Co-founder, Andre Schober
The Mini Edit- 19 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge
"What we've learnt is that you definitely get out what you put in! It is hard graft keeping the store looking fab alongside writing next season¹s orders and maintaining social media and our e-comm business, but the more we¹ve found time to do, the more we¹ve been seeing in return through social engagement, footfall and
sales."
"The biggest win for us has actually been meeting the customers we interact with daily on social media in real life! It¹s a brilliant feeling to see the women who have been so supportive of us since launch pop in with their kids and enjoy spending time with us in the store."- Co-founder, Jessica King
If you haven't visited the stores yet, you only have one week left to discover these emerging brands in-store, however, we're sure this is just the beginning of the journey for our winners.