Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown is known for its dollar discount stores, filled floor to ceiling with cheaply made Asian clichés and counterfeit goods.
But Asia Pacific’s number one premium beer, Tiger Beer, is proud of the creativity of its origins and the craft that goes into its making. And to compete well in the imported beer market, Tiger Beer needs the US to believe in the creativity of the beer’s origins and the craft that goes into its making too.
So Marcel Sydney repurposed a Canal Street discount store and turned it into a pop-up store – a showcase of the best Asian art, fashion, technology and design.
The Tiger Trading Co was open from June 6 to 9 and was by far the most fashion-forward, design-savvy Asian discount store New York’s Chinatown has ever seen.
Its purpose was to help New Yorkers discover that “made in Asia” means much more than inexpensive goods and fakes, and to demonstrate that Asia stands on a top tier for design, fashion, technology and creativity.
The store was filled with more than 700 products from some of the best creators in Asia, such as Felix Tai from Pomch, Douglas Young from Goods of Desire, Singapore’s Mokoko, Hong Kong’s Zixag and Kelly Lim of Kllylrck. Goods like SQ37 leather sneakers made by Square Street in Singapore, a folding bamboo bike from Vietnam’s Mekong++ and a traditional Chinese dye jacket from Hong Kong’s Goods of Desire.
To enter the store, people presented a Tiger Beer coaster from one of several nearby bars – an idea that ignited the curiosity of New Yorkers. Queues stretched around the block and people camped out for up to 12 hours. The store sold out just one hour after opening every night.
Scott Huebscher, executive creative director of Marcel Sydney said, “Tiger is a premium beer. It’s an authentic, Asian original. But “made in Asia” carries a lot of negative baggage in the US. For our first NY launch, we figured, why not tackle the elephant in the room head on?”
The store, created by Marcel, produced by Will O’Rourke and designed by James Dive of The Glue Society, was built in just 2 weeks and featured a 118 square metre glass floor filled with stereotypical products from Canal Street itself – a powerful counterpoint to the objects above it.
“The design decision to place cheap, clichéd goods underfoot was key,” Dive noted. “To see what real Asian design is, you literally had to walk over what Asian design isn’t.”
While New Yorkers explored a new world of goods made in Asia, they could also sample Tiger Beer and taste authentic street food by Thai chef, James Syhabout and 3rd generation popiah-maker and celebrity street food chef, Michael Ker, flown in from Singapore.
“New York has the largest Asian population outside of Asia, but most people here don’t see past the cheap goods in Chinatown,” stated Mie-Leng Wong, global brand ambassador at Tiger Beer.
“As the number one premium beer in Asia, we wanted to give New Yorkers an unexpected way to explore what Asian quality and creativity is all about. So we’ve invited them to explore and discover the best in contemporary Asia for themselves and reset their perceptions.“
Credits:
Agency: Marcel Sydney
Production company: Will O’Rourke
Design/curator and project director: The Glue Society’s James Dive
Managing director/ executive producer: Michael Ritchie
Executive producer/ head of projects: Josh Mullens
Producer: Jasmin Helliar
Curator/designer: Silvana Azzi Heras
Production designer: Thomas Ambrose
Post production: Heckler
Public relations: c/o Chan
Media: Starcom MediaVest
Client: Tiger Beer
