Green Street Vault, a mobile clothing store that used to tool around the
Back Bay, has sold a hand-picked collection of Boston-based and
national apparel brands since August of 2011.
Now, after struggling with the city over permits, and finding solace in a
pop-up shop on Newbury Street, the men’s apparel shop is again on the
move.
The store has taken on a new name for another pop-up store — Kyoto Jungle — which opened at 50 Gloucester St. on Friday.
Clothing company Annie Mulz joined forces with Green Street Vault to
open Kyoto Jungle, which creators call “an experiential concept store
that challenges the idea of traditional retailing with visionary
creativity.”
Matthew Elijah O, co-founder of Annie Mulz, said the pop-up store, which
typically refers to a retail space with a temporary venue, has no end
in sight.
“It is not temporary; this one is indefinite,” he said. “It is something
we have worked out to stay creative as it runs its course.”
The momentum is already there, with about 300 people turning out to the
store’s opening party Saturday night in an atmosphere that Elijah O
described as “alive and electric.”
“We have finger on the pulse, and want to give people what they want. We
take the idea of a concept store very seriously. We are not just trying
to create a place to go shopping, but we want them to discover
something completely new.”
According to his Kyoto Jungle partner, Green Street Vault co-owner Derrick Cheung, the new spot is original to its core.
“It’s exciting to do something that we can really call our own, and be
really proud of,” said Cheung. “We’ve built the store from the ground up
because it was vacant for 30 years before we moved in. We had a lot of
work to do to clean it up. We completely renovated it.”
Their last pop-up store at 252 Newbury St., which Annie Mulz also partnered on, closed on July 31, Cheung said.
As for Kyoto Jungle, Cheung said he expects it to be successful because of it’s apparel, and unique atmosphere.
“People can expect some of the hottest gear in the city, for sure,” he said.
Green Street Vault ran into some trouble in the spring, when city
officials told the mobile store to stop selling products because there
are no permits for retail trucks in the Hub.
While Green Street Vault were stalled from selling shirts from their
truck, they opened the Newbury Street pop up, called The Green Street
Jungle, in May.
