jack spade, thriving on brand imperfection

09/25/2006 11:18:00 PM
In July, Metropolis Magazine wrote an interesting review of Jack Spade's 500 sq ft retail space in Greene St, New York.

The store is a great example of bringing character to a brand through the items that surround it. Jack Spade sells men's bags, but the store also sells old Schwinn bicycles, a Sony Watchman, Arizona travel stickers and miniature Christmas trees.

It's all branding, but in a far more subtle way than most luxury brands. This is all about turning Jack into a character with considerable quirkiness and appeal. Unlike most brand personas, this guy Jack isn't perfect.

As Peter Hall writes in his Metropolis piece:

"Your new friend, the fictive Jack, is a rambling, shambling character who comes from old money and keeps a tidy home but can't quite let go of his threadbare rug, favorite sofa, and boyhood hobbies."

To translate Jack's brand character into a store experience required some deft thinking from Steven Sclaroff, the store's architect. It's about mashing-up the quirky and the interesting; from art, taxidermy to toys.

While Jack Spade, with its strange retail format, support and development of short films and strange marketing tactics, might look like a brand that doesn't have its stuff together, nothing could be further from the truth. The enigmatic, character driven approach is exactly what it takes to capture the imagination of the cynical, jaded and "cooler than thou" male hipster.

In the shallow world of fashion, where any sort of depth is frowned upon, Jack Spade stands apart.
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