Pop-Up No More: Chinese Clothier JNBY Goes Permanent at 75 Greene
By Tom Acitelli January 11, 2010 9:08 pm
reprints
75 Greene Street
You know the branding of non-conformism has long outgrown its days as an edgy advertising concept and become a globally permeating marketing principle when a fashion company in Hangzhou, China, calls itself JNBY, short for “just naturally be yourself.” The company, which has stores across Asia and Europe, was strangely absent from the U.S., where just-being-yourselfness was actually patented.
In 2009, that already fast fading yesteryear when pop-up stores and toy hamsters were the retail rages, companies figured out how to take something as ephemeral as our fascination with impermanence and call it a pop-up store. Then with any luck, they transformed the ephemeral into brick-and-mortar reality. JNBY is one instance of a 2009 temporary store paving the way for a 2010 permanent one, moving from 93 Mercer Street to a 2,250-square-foot space at 75 Greene Street.
“JNBY wanted to be surrounded by strong national retailers and Soho is the ideal location,” said Robert K. Futterman’s Robert Draizen, who represented the retailer in negotiation with the landlord, repped by Stephen Tarter and Catherine O’Toole of Tarter Stats and O’Toole. “The success of this store will launch their national expansion for both retail and wholesale.”
egeminder@observer.com
