Hoffman's work on display at Fice. Photo: Christenson
On Friday December 10, 2011 strange lights and occurrences were reported on East 200 Street in downtown Salt Lake City in the vicinity of Fice, Laura Hadar and Corey Bullough’s boutique shop, as Seattle-based headwear company Spacecraft descended.
As the rain fell on Salt Lake, making the Seattle crew feel right at home and portending good things for the Wasatch, hundreds of devotees of SLC’s burgeoning skate, snow, and art scene converged on Fice for an opening featuring Spacecraft’s Stefan Hoffman and local artists Mike Murdoch and Dan Kristofferson. The show featured Hoffman’s latest series of prints focused on some of the lesser known saints that inhabit a part of Hoffman’s mind where timeless human characteristics collide with the excesses of modern society. However, more than simply delving into the artist’s subconscious and artistic expression, the show shone a light on the strategies of a brand, a store, and an entrepreneur.
The Brand
Spacecraft has been touring the country with a series of art shows that mark a renewed focus on the brand’s artistry, developing a network of creatives that support the brand, and perhaps most notably a returned focus to Spacecraft’s roots in art, guerrilla marketing, and headwear to broaden its perspective and focus on its aesthetics.
While its roots are firmly planted in action sports, you’ll find a new look and feel at Spacecraft’s website focused on telling its story through artistic expression, whether that canvas be an actual canvas or the mountain, a set of stairs, or a mini ramp. “Our focus is on art and bringing other artists together inside and out of action sports,” explains Spacecraft Sales and Marketing Director Kevin Wattles.
Spacecraft is expanding that creativity beyond its products and marketing into the events that showcase them. In addition to upcoming art shows in Hollywood and New York City, they’ve got something special up their sleeves for the e 2011 SIA Snow Show. “We will be partnering with So-Gnar, one of Pat Millbery’s projects, doing a traveling art show in the back of a semi-truck parked across the street from the big bear [outside the convention center],” adds Wattles. “The show will be running each day of SIA and will be serving coffee and hot chocolate.”
Video by Josh Martinez, DayDream Cinema
The Store
While Salt Lake City may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of boutique shopping experiences, Fice is seeking to change that. Located below an artist collective, the shop was launched in April 2008 by pro shred Laura Hadar and artist, DJ, and all around nice guy Corey Bullough.
The shop feature’s a minimalistic approach to retail, carrying select upscale items including shoes, apparel, headphones, and limited skate hardgoods from Nike, Alife, WeSC, Creative Recreation, Insight, Married to the Mob, Hellz Bellz, Nikita, and 10Deep among others.
The store has gained momentum according to Bullough over the last two years and has become a fixture on the SLC scene with monthly art shows, parties, and carrying brands and SKU’s that aren’t available elsewhere in town. The open showroom also provides plenty of space for customers to truly view and become familiar with each item, while limited runs add to the feeling that each product is special.
The Entrepreneur
If boutique shopping doesn’t readily come to mind when you think Salt Lake, artist collectives are probably even more remote of an association , but thanks to Thomas Lee, this is also changing. Lee, who wears numerous hats, is creating an artist and action sports friendly community in SLC, while at the same time building a real estate empire.
Lee, a fourth-generation Chinese manufacturer based in Salt Lake, is the director at Process Agency, which lends its creative designs and manufacturing expertise and facilities to brands such as Frends, Roxy, Skullcandy, Dragon, and Nixon. “We manufacture what we design from packaging to product overseas for many of the clients,” explains Lee about Process’s services.
Lee also owns the building Fice and the artist studios that sit above it inhabit, the Process building, which houses photographer Nate Christenson’s studio, as well as additional properties around the city. Lee was instrumental in connecting Spacecraft and Fice through Process’s work on Spacecraft’s upcoming 2011/12 catalog.
At the Process office we got a sneak peak of the upcoming Spacecraft line and what the company’s “renewed focus on artistic expression” will actually mean to retailers and customers and it’s definitely ready for lift off. The line looks amazing, the art inspiring, and the new direction will definitely broaden horizons and perspectives of the brand into something, well, otherworldly.
TAGS: fice, kevin wattles, laura hadar, process agency, spacecraft, Stefan Hoffman, thomas lee
