While most of the people in the metro went home to their provinces to spend their long weekend, hundreds of ARMYs, fans of the global sensation BTS, lined up as early as Wednesday night in front of SM Mall of Asia for the much-anticipated opening of its pop-up store last Nov. 1.
Called BTS Pop-Up Store: Space of BTS, the “Magic Shop” was the third concept store of the K-pop group in Manila, following the BTS POP-UP: MAP OF THE SOUL in 2021 and BTS Pop-Up: Monochrome stores in May.
But what makes the pop-up more special is that, for the first time, HYBE Merchandise collaborated with some of the local brands, who had lent their skills to create Philippine-exclusive, BTS-inspired merchandise, which became possible because of the initiative of the verified localized arm of HYBE Merchandise, Apop Collection’s Agno Almario, who’s also a self-admitted ARMY.
“These were all created by ARMYs for ARMYs,” Almario told Manila Standard Life.
Talking more about the exclusive merch, Almario shared that he wanted to put the spotlight on the talents of Filipino artisans and it deserves to be showcased in the global stage.
“This is to showcase how creative with the Filipinos. i wanted the Filipino identity to be presented. And these were made, the pop up for the fans talaga. This is for them,” he added.
The collection includes a handmade Barong, handwoven bags, tumblers, shirts, and anik-anik.
Each product was only available until supplies last with the 15 limited edition Barong, which features the drawings of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, crafted by Randolf Clothing, came with the price of P30,000.
The handwoven bags, designed by sustainable Filipino fashion brand Rags2Riches, were able to sell all of its stocks for one and a half hour during the opening.
“We will try our best to re-stock. We made more than our usual inventory. But takes a while to make. When you buy the product you will see that there is a card with the name of the artisan who made it actually. to give them representation,” said R2R’s president and co-founder Reese Fernandez-Ruiz.
On the other hand, local brand Sunnies Flask also dropped three designs of BTS-themed flasks that come with a free photocard holder. The brand also released a special charms that fans can hang to their flasks.
The concept store also sells seasonal products from the seven-member group that were alread sold-out on Weverse Shop, such as Artist Made collection, Festa collectibles, and solo album merch.
BTS Pop-Up Store: Space of BTS is open until Dec. 30.
