A camp mug. It sounds like a remarkably simple piece of gear, but outdoor lifestyle brand Snow Peak creates their titanium drinking mugs with distinct aesthetics and details that go far beyond a basic need.They consider how the mug’s smooth metal feels against your palm, as well as the strength needed to withstand generations of use. This level of integrated design extends into Snow Peak’s other outdoor equipment, furniture and apparel, as well as their newest retail space in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood.
The 59 Crosby Street location is an ideal platform for Snow Peak to share its rich history of harmonizing world-class design with outdoor culture, so we spoke with Brand and E-commerce Manager Russell Borne to explore how Snow Peak plans to cultivate a sense of nature-inspired community among urbanites in NYC.
Q. So, why New York City?
A. For us, it’s the perfect next location. Purely from a demand standpoint, many of our customers and advocates live in the New York area. Just hinting at the idea was met with a huge amount of positive feedback, and our team is really excited to engage with our NYC community through a physical retail space.
Q. What does this specific SoHo location contribute to the Snow Peak USA brand?
A. We’ve been hunting for the right location for some time, and when this particular street in SoHo had an open space, we knew it was just perfect. Being located near other great brands like Saturday’s, Aether and Totokaelo helps us tremendously, too.
The traditional outdoor industry has never really understood where to place Snow Peak. Are we a manufacturer of lightweight camping equipment, or are we a luxury brand for apparel and accessories? All of our wonderful retail partners usually have to choose what sort of Snow Peak products they carry based on their customers’ demographics. What our SoHo store offers is a platform for us to highlight and balance both sides of Snow Peak.
Q. How is the NYC shop curated?
It is a true Snow Peak store with all of the beautifully designed gear our customers expect to see, as well as seasonal releases of apparel. For space reasons, we are light on tents and furniture, and heavier on apparel, but that does not limit our ability to ship tents and furniture to any walk-in visitor.
For the most part, both our Portland and NYC stores will have the same third party brands represented, such as Topo Designs, Helle Knives and Gränsfors Bruks. We’ve taken great care in curating a selection of interesting and relevant products to compliment our Snow Peak gear and apparel.
Q. We know you’re often the creative force behind merchandising buildouts and experiential shopping structures in the Portland, Oregon flagship. Could you tell us about the SoHo store’s design?
For the SoHo store, we worked closely with the wonderful design and build team of Andrea Westerlind and Grant Blakeslee, who most recently created the Powder Mountain Westerlind store in Utah, which GQ named, “America’s Most Stylish Outdoor Clothing Store.” We all worked together to create a space with elevated and artistic displays, such as Ash wood fixtures, islands of rock and live plants, and locally crafted displays that support a constantly evolving retail shop.
We found inspiration for our store concept’s aesthetics in the pursuit of harmony with nature found in the countryside of Japan. It’s a really fresh take on an outdoor store, giving customers the opportunity to experience of the tranquility of nature in a bustling city.
Q. Will Snow Peak NYC host community events and gatherings like the PDX flagship location?
A. This is something I’m really excited about! We are working on a speaker series to bring in designers and tastemakers to host talks and presentations. There’s also some discussion on outdoor demos and survival training events. More details to come!
Q. Do you have any NYC-based collaborations in the works to celebrate the opening?
A. There are actually a few collabs in motion, each with an NYC focus. I can’t say much more than that on the topic, but stay tuned.
This article was originally published in RANGE Magazine Issue Four.
Images courtesy of Snow Peak.
XX SYDNEY
