Streetwear Brand Staple Pigeon Opening First Store in SoHo
By Abigail Nehring July 22, 2024 2:34 pm
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Streetwear pioneer Jeff Staple will open the first permanent brick-and-mortar location of his brand Staple Pigeon at a former Nike store in SoHo.
The menswear brand signed a 10-year lease for 4,500 square feet on the ground floor and lower level of 21 Mercer Street, according to tenant broker Cushman & Wakefield (CWK). The deal was first reported by the New York Post.
A spokesperson for C&W did not disclose the asking rent, but average asking rent for retail space on the nearby Broadway shopping corridor in SoHo was $605 per square foot in the second quarter of 2024, according to a CBRE report.
Staple Pigeon is the menswear arm of Staple’s Staple Design, a creative agency with an office address at 530 Broadway, according to state records. The brand’s products are distributed globally, and the Mercer Street store will be its first permanent retail location in the United States, according to C&W.
The company has had space in Staple’s multibrand shop Reed Space, but its new Mercer Street outpost will be its first solo shop, Footwear News reported.
“People are going to think I’m wild, and sometimes I have to check myself and the things I say, but I realized when the brand turned 25 years old that it was time to open a store,” Staple told Footwear News last year. “That’s just how I think. Imagine a physical space that encompasses a quarter-century of history from a brand. I consider it more of a museum than a store.”
Landlord Premier Equities, which also owns 25 and 27 Mercer Street, has been on the hunt for a new tenant at the storefront between Grand and Canal streets since Nike departed last year. The sneaker brand opened a NikeLab store at 21 Mercer in 2008, and helped make the corridor at the southern edge of SoHo a celebrity hub, replete with parties attended by Spike Lee and Roger Federer, as Complex reported.
And Staple Pigeon makes sense to take over the Mercer Street address, since the brand has collaborated with Nike before. Eight years after Staple Pigeon was founded in 1997, it launched the popular Staple X Nike Dunk Pro Low SB sneakers as an ode to New York City. The rare sneakers — known as “NYC Pigeon Dunks” — can sell for $40,000, GQ reported.
The deal with Staple “felt like coming full circle” for the storefront, said C&W’s Alan Schmerzler, who brokered the deal for the tenant with Catherine Merck and Eric Hazen.
“Our team conducted a widespread search on the fringes of SoHo and The Bowery with the specific purpose of capturing the authenticity of the brand,” Schmerzler said in a statement. “The decision to pursue 21 Mercer was strongly influenced by the edginess of the location, the excellent condition of the store and the heritage of the address.”
Ripco Real Estate’s Richard Skulnik represented Premier Equities. Skulnik did not respond to a request for comment.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
