Scottish startup Meander Apparel has found a spot in the city centre for the next three months.
They are moving onto George Street alongside other big names, and with the help of some Olympic allies.
Sustainable fashion start up, Meander Apparel, will open the doors to their pop up premises on Saturday morning.
As well as their sustainable fashion, much of it made from recycled material, some with a bit of cashmere thrown in for good measure, they have partner products on sale in their lifestyle store at Number 33 George Street. We had a look around the store this afternoon at an exclusive preview event.
In the window they have Five Rings Coffee – another sustainable business, this one serving coffee. Five Rings is a startup launched by Olympic gold-medallists, Callum Skinner, Owain Doull and Philip Hindes. The really neat connection to Edinburgh is that they have used timber from the former Meadowbank velodrome to craft a counter to serve their tasty coffee from.
Knowing this is a risk, co-founder Jill Henry is quietly confident of success. She said: “We completely appreciate that some people may think that expanding our online business onto the high street in the midst of a global pandemic is completely mad, but the opportunity to showcase our brand and occupy one of the most sought after retail spaces in the city centre in the run up to Christmas was too big to miss.”
Callum Skinner, Olympic gold medallist and co-founder of Five Rings Coffee said of their collaboration: “At Five Rings Coffee, we’ve always wanted to get closer to our customers so when the team at Meander asked if we’d like to join them in store, we jumped at the opportunity. 2020 hasn’t been the best of years for many of us, but we believe in seeing opportunity in the face of adversity and, for me, coming home to Scotland to do my part in helping to boost the high street is something I’m incredibly excited about.”
In addition to the Meander Apparel collection and the Five Rings Coffee café, the pop up will be selling a carefully curated collection of other Scottish brands, including Shand Cycles, Instmnt, and Tens.
Jill explained: “We wanted to create a concept store to showcase Meander alongside some of the best Scottish design-led brands and to give consumers the opportunity to shop locally.”
The Meander Apparel Pop Up Store is open from Saturday 17th October until January 2021 at 33 George Street, Edinburgh.
Launched in 2018, Meander Apparel is a fashion brand with a conscience. They create sustainable, technical clothing for commuter cyclists and for your everyday adventures. The company is on a mission to simplify life for the modern adventurer with a versatile collection of functional and timeless designs that have both style and performance.
Their flagship collection has already been sported by the likes of Sir Richard Branson, his son Sam, fashion designer Henry Holland and Olympic cycling gold-medalist Callum Skinner. Despite being a small business, Meander committed to donating all profits on sales to the WHO Covid-19 Response fund and the NHS charities together at the start of lockdown, a move that resulted in an increase of 135% in traffic to the website and a 340% increase in sales. They have now ended the initiative as restrictions eased and non-essential businesses reopened.
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