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A week before mega-star Kanye West kicks off his highly anticipated Saint Pablo tour, the artist has announced 21 pop-up shops for his wildly popular The Life Of Pablo merchandise created alongside his latest studio album of the same name.
The rapper and fashion designer took to Twitter late Wednesday night to announce where shops will be opening worldwide this weekend, including locations in Portland, S.F., LA, NY, London, Amsterdam, Singapore and Sydney, to name a few. Each store will have its own unique merchandise. Exact locations will be announced 24 hours before they open.
Each city will have its name spelled out on tees and hoodies with Cali Thornhill DeWitt’s gothic script in a myriad of bold shades reminiscent of the collection Kanye showed at Madison Square Garden in February.
Popular a few years ago, pop-up shops have made a resurgence in 2016 thanks in part to Kanye. He dipped his toes into pop-up shops this March, opening a store in NYC that was met with endless lines. A few days later, the $400 Pablo jackets being sold at the shop were listed on eBay for $2k. In a weekend, the store racked up a reported $1M.
The marketing/retail strategy has become popular among performers looking to boost merchandise sales. A month after Kanye's success, fellow rapper Drake opened a one-day storefront. Two weeks after that, Justin Bieber had his own pop-up. If three's a trend, five's a phenomenon. This summer, the 10-act super group Bad Boy Entertainment opened a pop-up quickly followed by a pop-up record store from The Strokes a week later.
Retail properties have found that pop-ups are typically interesting tenants that generate a lot of buzz (like an article on Bisnow) and foot traffic. With the hot retail atmosphere across the nation leading to low vacancy, pop-up shops have become an even more attractive option.
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