JUICE Taiwan

As one of the Asia regions leading retailers, Hong Kong-originated JUICE and its subsequent brand CLOT forge ahead with another retail location in 2010. This latest location represents an all new piece to Taiwan’s ever-growing streetwear market as it brings to the table a number of highly respected and sought after labels from Japan and abroad. We took the opportunity to speak briefly with JUICE and CLOT co-founder Kevin Poon to get a quick insight into JUICE’s upcoming expansion and his thoughts on the Taiwanese scene.

Interview with Kevin Poon (Co-founder of CLOT)

With your second store in less than twelve months, what led you to latest location in Taiwan?

As a collective, the CLOT family has always had a strong fascination with Taiwanese culture. We had an ongoing desire to open in Taiwan for quite awhile. Eventually an opportunity arose with a close friend of ours, Jahan Loh. The new JUICE Taiwan location will be located in the same space occupied previously by Jahan’s sneaker store, Leftfoot.

What sort of characteristics are at the basis of each next location?

Whenever we explore each potential location, we keep an open mind. We don’t really feel the need for each location to specifically share the same characteristics throughout. It’s purely an organic process to figure and feel things out and to see if the location will be a good fit throughout the JUICE family.

How would you describe Taiwan’s streetwear scene?

The local Taiwanese street scene has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years. The style embodied by the local population is definitely an amalgamation of both Hong Kong and Tokyo which makes for an interesting scene overall. Hopefully we can help further contribute to this growth through both interesting initiatives and educational experiences.

How will JUICE in Taiwan different from Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Hong Kong? In what facets are they similar?

While I mentioned that each JUICE location doesn’t necessarily hold the same intangible characteristics, we do aim to keep the interior decor relatively similar. There’s a definitive clean and cool approach to the design in Taiwan due to the maturation of the street fashion market there. The predominate color of JUICE Taiwan is white with the goal of creating a clean and tidy image to visitors and shoppers. Some of the brands, spirit and aesthetic will all remain.

With a strong focus on interior design, what was the plan this time around?

JUICE Taiwan is on a design style which is an amalgamation of our previous spaces. Looking back, each respective store throughout Asia had its own place. For JUICE Kuala Lumpur we were aiming to infuse technology with timeless materials. At JUICE Shanghai, we went for a strong Chinese influence. For our original JUICE Hong Kong store, our re-modeling a little while back was representative of a clean and simple decor. Something you could associate with say your home. You’ll find that our Taiwanese location will be a combination of all these pre-existing themes.