Cherryflava

More 'Shop-in-a-box'

Looking almost exactly like the Illy pop-up store from a few years ago, here's another example of a solar-powered lunch box - this time from Montreal Canada.

It goes from shipping container to fully-working restaurant in less than two minutes - which is just about 30 seconds faster than the motorbikes that turn into sidewalk stirfry bistros in Thailand.
Cool music in this promo video for the concept. Sounds like something out of El Mariachi or From Dusk till Dawn. Throw in a Desert Eagle .50 and a few snappy one-liners and we'd be there like a 'cleaner'.

via

Spacebuster: Have an event in a giant condom

Up until now, pop up stores and stuff like that have all been held in shipping containers [which are big and awkward to move around], but now a company has had a great brainwave while blowing up a condom.
Spacebuster erects a giant, inflatable room wherever you need it from the back of a panelvan. Once you've finished doing whatever it was that you needed the space for, you simply pack the bag back into the truck and pretend that things like permits for inner city gatherings don't exist.

 

[via PSFK]

Secret - keep it hush hush - Fly Bar buzzes into Cape Town

During our formative years there were three movies you were obliged to own on video cassette tapes - Debbie does Dallas [that goes without saying], Top Gun [yip - it was the late 80's...early 90's] and The Fly; starring Jeff Goldblum.
Here's a trailer to remind you of the horror - or introduce you to the best horror movie ever man.

Perhaps it's the name or the promise that by its very secret, undercover nature it will yield a complimentary shiver of suspense and intrigue just as the movie did in 1986 that's got us dancing the two-step this morning.

As part of this year's Design Indaba the Fly Bar, a pop-up design bar tailor-made for the event, will be accepting guests between 27 February – 3 March 2009 at a secret location in Cape Town.
GPS co-ordinates and a secret password will be issued to those that sign up for updates on the website and for good measure you also stand a chance of winning a case of legendary Jack Black Beer [Cape Town's own].

More:

Fly Bar website
2009 Design Indaba - Pop Up bar designed by Fly-Pitcher - Fly-Pitcher
The Fly (1986) Trailer - YouTube

OMG look at GHD LOL

If you're male...a straight male who can braai meat without burning it and know the difference between rolling maul and a set scrum, then you shouldn't have a clue as to what ghd sells.

But if you can successfully identify the four characters in Sex and the City and hand cream is an important part of your daily beauty regime. you'll know that ghd have built up a world-beating hair straightening iron business....from frizz to fabulous in four easy strokes [that's our line - not ghd's]

The hair iron business must be pretty lucrative, cause check out their HQ in Leeds. The place looks a bit like the USS Enterprise in Star Trek.

The ghd brand seems to on a bit of a roll.

Locally ghd will be launching the ghd style lounge, a luxurious, temporary pop-up salon [also featuring the rather cool Newton Machine photo booth, which Topshop in the UK also recently used] held at a secret location in Cape Town on December 12th for those much needed pre-party makeovers [we're told].

Entrance is free, but you'll need to apply for star treatment online here. [thanks Dan]

Right - back to celebrating that Springbok win at the George 7's.

More:

GHD headquarters - thecoolhunter
Topshop presents the 2008 Helmut Newton photo machine - Topshop

Japanese love of vending machines translates into unique giveaway

Instead of throwing the city into chaos by giving away product at traffic intersections, Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo added a bit of drama and a few props to a promotion they held the other day in New York's Times Square.

Giving away 'Heat Tech Innerwear' the crafty Japanese marketing folk made geeky New Yorkers line up in the cold and have their core temperature scanned by 'androids' dressed in tin foil catsuits [sexy] before entering their human vending machine. After a few blue lights and an innocent, yet enjoyable 'patdown' from the robot people punters left with free high tech Long Johns.

There's nothing better than pretending to be 'Die Man van Staal' when getting sold underwear in a giant silver box with a smile.

More:

Uniqlo vends innerwear in Times Square - Racked
Japan-powered dancing androids invade New York - DVice

Puma pop up store pops into Cape Town

There are a bunch of lunatics visiting the city right now, all disguised as yachtspeople taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race.
We can't think that racing around the world in a high-tech bath tub in seas that even whales have second thoughts about swimming in could in any way be regarded as fun, but the money must be good because they all do it quite happily.

Along with the travelling aqua circus, the Puma team have brought a rather sexy pop up store which you can drool over if you head to the V&A Waterfront.
The original store, which they left in Germany, was apparently made out of 24 containers all put together to make a mega-pop up mall, but you can see the two 6m box version in Cape Town right now.

We're going to head back quayside this weekend to try our the HD dome racing simulator they've got, just to experience a taster of how nuts these people really are.

More:
Retail prefab: Puma's Store-in-a-box - Inhabitat
Volvo Ocean Race - Official website

Sneaker vending machines: Cause you gotta have it right this instant

Look - in South Africa vending machines don't get more exciting than the stock-standard Coke and Simba chip versions, so the idea that you can buy designer takkies from a box in the street, makes us literally want to attempt to do cartwheels in the parking lot.

According to Springwise, Onitsuka Tiger, the Japanese sports brand, launched a sneaker vending machine on Carnaby Street, London last week.
Clearly branded Japanese sneakers are very cheap in in the UK and most Britons have roughly the same shoes size and shape for this kind of shopping to work.

Don't expect one of these to pop up in South Africa any time soon. Before you know it, the box will be relocated to Zimbabwe where the police will mount rocket propelled grenades onto the side of their new white sneakers and call that riot control.

In other related retail news, in Japan for a limited time only you can find the Sneaker Lover Pop-up Shop, featuring ranges from brands like Champion, New Balance, and G-SHOCK.

With retail rates as high as what they are in even the big city centres of South Africa, it's rather surprising that we don't see more of these things popping up all over the place. Maybe it's a matter of watch this space...

More:
Sneaker vending machine - Springwise
Sneaker love pop up shop - Jean Snow

Creativity in Cape Town spikes in the build up to this year's Design Indaba

It's almost Design Indaba time again, which means the city is on a creative high...and if you look carefully enough you could well spot some fresh innovation roaming the streets.

We snapped this pop up music vending store on Long Street last week. The stand [which is a modified tricycle] sells a small collection of CDs of homegrown Cape Town talent. If you'd like to try-before-you-buy, the player on top is hooked up to a car radio for your listening pleasure.

It seems the pop up store is linked to the arts initiative Goemarati, which aims to capture the cultural diversity of Cape Town. With serious throw backs to the ice cream man concept, it's a great idea for a mobile, temporary store.

See: Design Indaba portal
More: Goemarati website

Popup store: Soweto entrepreneurs impress Branson with PlayStation business

Two young entrepreneurs from Soweto recently proved that a business idea doesn’t have to be complicated to receive personal kudos (and money) from billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson.

With their innovative video gaming venture, Musa Mapongwane (32) and his business partner and childhood friend Amos Mtsolongo (38), managed to beat out 51 other competitors to win R100 000 in the Soweto Business Plan Competition sponsored by Branson and local business mogul Richard Maponya.

Located in seven shipping containers, the Starplex Gaming Zone venture provides computer games, PlayStations and other entertainment for the local kids, who are charged an hourly rate to play and use the equipment.

The young patrons have to adhere to some rules: For example, no gaming during school hours and if you bunk school, you won’t be allowed in or play Gears of War.

The two friends now run the business in three areas of Soweto and have franchised four others.

This has provided jobs to 17 people and with the mentorship training they are ­going to get from the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, they hope to grow the business and create even more employment ­opportunities.

Since they don’t currently have any business-related debt, they plan to use the prize money to expand the business through marketing and by adding more equipment, such as DVD players.

[Via]

 

Coffee shop which pops out at the touch of a button

We're big fans of the growing global business trend of pop up retail.
Here in South Africa, spaza shops and hair salons have been housed in shipping containers in the townships for decades, but the trend now is for serious retail business to set up in brilliantly designed shipping containers decked out with electricity supply and custom built interiors.

This is the pop up shop which coffee brand Illy will be setting up in New York later on this year.

Designed by Adam Kalkin, it's a push button concept that transforms a metal shipping container into a fully furnished space with the press of a button,

With shop rentals in a city like Cape Town reaching massive barrier to entry levels - the concept of the pop up store is a big entrepreneurial opportunity just waiting to be unleashed.

See: Adam Kalkin's other work - Architecture and Hygiene

Previously: World cup retail box - Cherryflava
The rise of bite-sized - Cherryflava

[via thecoolhunter and PSFK]