Pop-up Shops: Cute retail trend or here to stay?

This weekend in a city near you, there is a damn good chance that, in some capacity or other, there is a pop-up shop going on. What's a pop-up shop you ask? Well it's supposed to be a gathering of craft workers and artisans to connect with people,  share their story, and sell their products, but more and more of these pop-up shops are turning into small, exclusive, hipper-than-thou twee-fests of young companies with the same branding and products to pretend that they are craftspeople with lengthy histories of handicraft. Too scathing a remark? Probably, but the present burgeoning of the  pop-up shop points to one of the main tenets upon which Overboeck was founded: people want to connect with the people behind the products they buy. It's as simple as that, and despite a certain pocket of the market misconstruing the true point of pop-ups, their popularity will continue to grow.

Large corporate brands are starting to copy the trend too. Companies like Louis Vuitton, American Eagle, and Nike are creating pseudo-events and markets by producing their own pop-up shops, events, and "trucks". But do they have stories and the original founders there to tell their brand stories, or just more of the same sweatshop products for sale for wannabe mindful consumers to have a "richer" shopping experience. Though likely the latter, the trend affirms the desire in consumers to connect with brands, learn their stories, and buy an experience and a connection that they can appropriate to the amalgamation of their personal aesthetics.

Stick to what your gut tells you is true. There are some badass, bona-fide brands at many pop ups, but you should be able to tell if they're the real deal if their branding doesn't look like. a Fiverr artist whipped it up, or it doesn't have some tacky two-name brand title. 

Demand more of your brands and the goods you purchase. To an extent, the future of retail and consumer goods depends on your standards as a consumer.