Edison Chen & Kevin Poon: JUICE Kuala Lumpur | Hypebeast

An Interview with Kevin Poon

How long ago did you start planning for this particular store?
 
My first thoughts of entering the Malaysia market probably were around Christmas time last year. There were a lot of requests and feedback from Malaysians and I thought “Hm, wouldn’t it be fresh to set up a store out there.” The first actual thought about doing it was probably during February of this year, so about 4 months of planning and brainstorming.
 
Whoa, 4 months is a super quick turn around, but that is pretty indicative of Hong Kong efficiency, haha. For those unaware, including myself, what is the retail market like in Malaysia? How does it differ from Hong Kong?
 
The retail market for a lack of a better term, for street fashion (at least), is just starting to develop. This provides us with a clean slate to start from. At the moment, there are a lot of fans that are from that region and I feel like they really have a passion for the culture and the products, but don’t have a real avenue to get any products. That’s really where the Malaysian market is at right now. Hopefully with the opening of Juice KL we can provide a platform for the youth and make it a possibility for them to get products at a retail price.
 
Of all the fledgling Asian cities engulfed in streetwear, why Kuala Lumpur as opposed to Taipei, Singapore or Mainland China? Are those viable expansion opportunities down the road as well?
 
Great question. We didn’t say we aren’t going to the places you mentioned. We just wanted to start with KL first. We always do things unconventionally.
 
Despite the obvious in a global economic downturn, how has the Asian region and more notably the JUICE/CLOT demographic reacted to the financial difficulties everybody is facing? Did this at all linger in the back of your mind before opening JUICE KL?
 
We are very thankful the recession didn’t really hit us in a negative way (at least up until now) and more in a positive way. It opened up doors for us to get lower rent as well as creating more ideas and keeping us focused. We believe that if we have a good product people will still buy.
 
I think we’ve seen a fair share of CLOT line-ups (i.e. KZKlot denim releases) in the very recent past, making me think that your demographic is perhaps (relatively) recession proof. Moving onto the store, I know that you guys really prided yourself on the renovations of the previous JUICE Hong Kong store, what sort of themes can we see in the KL location? Will it be a continuation of the HK store with the abundance of clean white lines juxtaposed with futuristic elements or will it take on a life of it’s own?
 
I think this time people will be excited. The store is more like a continuation of Hong Kong. You will see some clean bits and you will see some futuristic elements. This time we also tweaked with the lighting and the effects, so I hope you guys like it. Also, this is our flagship in South East Asia so the space really is a decent size and is in an area where there will be room to grow and see other developments move in. We are pretty excited about it… the store renovation, the location, the expansion. It’s really all about a maturing phase

we are stepping into.
 
I was speaking with the store’s designer, Linton Kwok and he mentioned the store came in at approximately 3,000 sq feet, which by most South East Asian standards is quite big. Did this make it easier to design on the whole or was it detrimental since you’re working with almost twice the space of JUICE HK. Did it provide more flexibility in creativity on the whole?
 
I think that the size of the space really gave us flexibility to do what we wanted to do and the sky was the limit. Looking at the plans after we confirmed the space, I was like “Whoa, how should we get started and what should we do here with this space.” Working with Linton this time was amazing because he was able to put everything in AutoCad and we were able to tweak the store the way we wanted to. I sat in front of his workstation and was basically quarterbacking the design, (mind you we were like a few thousand miles away from the site) and was being real bossy like “Hey do this, take this away, we want more of this” and he was putting his expertise to work by suggesting materials and all the calculations behind it.  It was kind of like when I was a kid building something in Sim City, except this time it came to life.
 
You touched upon how this new location would be a reflection of “a maturing phase”, what exactly does this mean and on what levels? Will we see a higher-end diffusion line perhaps or is it more indicative of your executions and aesthetics in the realm of streetwear?
 
When I say maturing phase I am talking about maturing on many levels. First and foremost, our mindset. In the past 5 years we have learned a lot from designing clothes to running a company, pushing for the culture in terms of music, ideas, way of operating, events, shows, collaboration ideas, I would say we just graduated from the beginning phase.

We’ve been in the game for 5 years now. It’s a short time in some aspects and long time in other aspects as well. I mean in 5 years we have accomplished a good amount with our retail, clothing label, consulting, and media management company.

I am hoping the next 5 years will bring stability in our operations, expanding our base, and continuation in a push for excellence moving forward. Whether it’s our execution in making clothes, the maturation of our company, our expansion regionally, it has always been organic and we continue to strive and move forward this way.
 
What does it mean to have EDC back and reunited with the whole CLOT/JUICE fam? Do you see the brand and operations being back on track and returning to a sense of normalcy? Or were you able to adapt with him being outside of Hong Kong for the last little while?
 
Having EDC back is great, we are like family, so its always good. We focus on different things, so even when we are not around together, the technology these days is so good we can stay connected easily. So for us, it hasn’t been a problem at all.