Plein Sport opens its first U.S. store in Soho

Little things are not in the nature of Philipp Plein. Therefore, when the founder and creative director, who is at home in Lugano, Cannes, Los Angeles and New York, arrived in Manhattan to celebrate the opening of the first Plein Sport store (version 2.0), he prepared a chic cocktail party at his mansion in the Upper East Side the night before. The juxtaposition of the uptown and downtown events was a fitting image for the exuberant entrepreneur whose brands have seriously entered categories that Plein sees as untapped, like highly designed yet budget-friendly sportswear.

“If you want to wear fashion brands you have hundreds of options, but if you want to meet me at the gym to work out there are few options. So I need to bring a new option. i am disruptive I like disrupting markets; first watches, now sports, which is my next big thing: changing the active sportswear environment,” Plein told FashionNetwork.com in a pre-party interview. Sounding like a huckster, he said, “Put on your tigers and run after me Soho to get your new gear.” Tigers are the name of the collection’s sneakers, which feature a tiger face embedded in the sole. He also points out that it’s a vegan line.

This isn’t the first time Plein has looked into activewear. Plein Sport was originally launched in 2016 with a price point closer to the Philipp Plein collection. For example, sneakers in this new line will retail for around $150 versus $1000 for kicks from the main collection. The new initiative is dubbed “The Re-Evolution” by Plein Sport.

Its distribution will also change drastically. The Soho location is considered a temporary location to draw attention to the brand. It featured clever paint jobs, some graffiti art, and futuristic portable display mounts.

“This store in Soho is really a pop-up. We don’t have an architect, just a clever use of color, and we don’t want to scare them off because they think it’s too expensive,” he said of the space he’s targeting an urban rap hip hop Aesthetics. His continued exploration of the convergence of technology and fashion can be seen on the boxes, which include a rechargeable screen showing a commercial and an automated refill system planned for future locations. Plein has signed a 10-year lease for the space and predicts he will use it for a flagship store in the future.

While this location is a marquee, the additional planned Plein Sport stores will be offered in commercial retail spaces, also known as malls. Next month it will open in Beverly Hills, Madrid, with locations like Rome, Bergamo, Arezzo, Nice and Poland next. The worldwide rollout is planned at 300 locations over 36 months.

“We want places with high public traffic. Small sites around 1000 to 1200 square feet, and half of that is storage space. It will be a narrow product selection with limited SKUs of unisex styles. We pay less rent in these places, so it’s affordable, and we’re also saving on staff in a small space,” he continued.

He celebrated standing room night with a performance by rap-hip-hop legend Jadakiss, whom another guest dubbed a “New York legend” — a moniker Plein is aspiring to with this latest project.