At Appear Here, our aim is to connect exciting ideas with spaces to make them happen in, which is why, back in June, we launched our Space For Ideas competition to find the next generation of retailers and help them bring their ideas to life. Four central London shops were up for grabs. The winning ideas each got two weeks rent free alongside support and coverage from the Evening Standard, mentoring from three of the best design agencies and a tech package from EE to help them kickstart their business.
We followed our winners as they transformed the spaces and set up shop and filmed all of their hard work behind the scenes. After an exhausting but game changing two weeks for all four of our lucky winners we are excited to show everyone what each brand managed to achieve. Watch our video and be inspired.
And some final comments from our winners...
"My favourite moment was definitely walking up to the shop and I seeing the RUN&FELL shop sign above the door." - RUN&FELL Founder, Naomi Jackson
"Opening a shop in Covent Garden has been an amazing experience. It's allowed people to connect to my story in a much more personal way." - Porterlight Bicycles Founder, Lawrence Brand.
"We're learning a lot about our customers, who they are and the lifestyles they live. This will help us enormously." - Wonderluk's Co-founder, Andre Schober
"It's a brilliant feeling to see the women who have been so supportive of us since our launch enjoy spending time with us in the store." - THE MINI EDIT Co-founder, Jessica King.
We'd like to say a big thanks to our competition partners EE and London Evening Standard. Capital & Counties, Sloane Stanley, 19 Beauchamp Place and BOXPARK for providing the shop space and we'd also like to thank, Sheridan & Co, Not Tom and Marmalade London, who helped bring the winners ideas to life.