CONCEPTSâ„¢ BY SOLDIER DESIGN FEATURED IN VERY SMALL SHOPS
By Bobby Riley | December 7th, 2009
We received our contributor copy of Very Small Shops by John Stones today. Â The footwear/apparel shop Concepts in Cambridge, MA that Soldier designed & developed was featured in the book amongst other inspiring shops. John interviewed me a little over a year ago and since managed to put together a very nice piece along with Lawrence King Publishing Ltd, who you may also know from 100 Years of Menswear: A unique collection of images covering the revolution in menswear over the last 100 years or Fixed: Global Fixed-Gear Bike Culture. Â The first book to document fixed-gear cycling.
In Very Small Shops John discusses how the limitations of a tiny space, rather than inhibiting designers, often result in some of the most innovative and exciting retail design. This book brings together some of the best recent, innovative examples of small store designs from around the world. All the shops measure less than 150 square metres/1,600 square feet (many much less), and are categorized by size (small, smaller and tiny), with explanations and tips from their designers. Types of outlet featured include fashion, accessories, opticians, technology, food and confectionery. Each section begins with an interview with a designer of a small shop, explaining the creative opportunities and difficulties in greater detail. This book will inspire retail designers and small shop owners looking to create their own big statement in a small space.
Concepts has started in 1996 as a ‘snow, skate and culture’ boutique; a shop within a shop in The Tannery, a long-established Boston retailer owned by Tarek Hassan. But in 2008, it was decided that the time was right for Concepts to have an identity of its own and to create a dedicated space where the retail experience could be further developed and controlled.As many of its core consumers were ‘skaters or hipsters’, and ‘quite judgemental and in the know’, the store needed to look good without seeming to be trying too hard, says Bobby Riley of Soldier Design. Â What he had hoped to achieve was a deconstructed shop, something underpinned by the store’s main visual effect – wood ribbing that goes right through the space, crossing from wall to ceiling.The visual idea of layers of wood is a reference, none too sublininal, to the laminated wood used for the skateboards of Concept’s original clientele. Â The visual theme of layers is mirrored in miniature in the apple plywood that makes up the ribs themselves.
At the center of the store, on top of the ribbed table, sits and environmetally EcoSmart open fire, intended to confer a sense of community to the shoppers, as if they were around a campfire or some kind of urban equivelent to a log cabin. Â Strip lighting hangs from the ceiling in a seemingly haphazard way, intended to prevent the design from appearing too contrived or precious. Â Using stainless stell for wall fixtures and epoxy for the floor, as if it were a garage, lends a deliberatly ‘rudementary and crude’ quality according to Riley. Â So, too, does the wool felt that covers the stores wooden seating, which in turn been integrated intothe general ribbed scheme.
At the rear of the space, behind a counter made of white glass, is what appears to be a mini recording studio. Â It’s a small room enclosed by glass with psuedo soundproofing behind, a furnished with recording equipment that allows celebrities from the worlds of music and sportto record pocasts or similar. Â ’We wanted to create a live retail space’, says Riley ‘and this was a good way of highlighting the celebrities that shop at the store.’
The ribbing motif is partly retained in the basement, in order to perserve continuity with store upstairs, but the environment here is quite different. Generously proportioned armchairs, in distressed brown leather, are arranged around three further fake fires, on the other side of the wall of zebrawood members’ lockers.  Celebrity shoppers can sit backand enjoy a whisky while  being presented with items of special-edition clothing.
The sense of being near the action is amplified by the stores basement, which is devoted in its entirety to a private members’ area, accessto which is by invitation only. Â Membership is offeredto the most valued custmers, but knowledge of its existence gives a sense of aspiration to the other shoppers. Â Not only are the store’s key-brand clothes different, limited editions that are otherwise unavailable, but the experience in the members’ ‘club’ is intended to be select and unique, too.
A good book to have in the quiver!
Soldier Design
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