New York’s Canal Street is world-renowned for its dollar discount stores, filled floor to ceiling with cheaply made Asian clichés and counterfeit goods.
To celebrate the true craft and creativity of its origins – the streets of Asia – Tiger Beer and Marcel Sydney have repurposed a Canal Street discount store and turned it into a stunning showcase of the best Asian art, fashion, technology and design.
The Tiger Trading Co opened on June 6-9 and was by far the most exclusive Asian discount store New York’s Chinatown has ever seen.
It’s purpose: help New Yorkers discover that made-in-Asia means much more than inexpensive goods and fakes, and prove that Asia is a world leader in design, fashion, technology and creativity.
Filled with over 700 products, every item in the Tiger Trading Co was sourced from some of the best artists in Asia, including Felix Tai from Pomch, Douglas Young from Goods of Desire and Kelly Lim of Kllylrck.
And anyone could get access by simply presenting a Tiger Beer coaster from one of several nearby bars.
With queues stretching around the block, and people camping out for up to 12 hours, the store sold out just one hour after opening every night.
Scott Huebscher, ECD of Marcel Sydney said, “Tiger is a premium beer. It’s an authentic, Asian original. But “made in Asia” carries a lot of negative baggage in the US. For our first NY launch, we figured, why not tackle the elephant in the room head on?”
The store, created by Marcel, produced by Will O’Rourke and designed by James Dive of The Glue Society, was built in just two weeks and featured a stunning 118 square meter glass floor filled with stereotypical products sourced from Canal Street itself; a powerful counterpoint to the objects above it.
“The design decision to place cheap, clichéd goods underfoot was key,” Dive said. “To see what real Asian design is, you literally had to walk over what Asian design isn’t.”
As they browsed the best Asia had to offer and picked an item of Asian creativity for themselves, patrons could sample ice-cold Tiger Beer and taste authentic street food by a Taiwanese chef and streetfood hawker chef flown in from Singapore.
“New York has the largest Asian population outside of Asia, but most people here don’t see past the cheap goods in Chinatown,” added Mie-Leng Wong, global brand ambassador at Tiger Beer.
“As the number one premium beer in Asia, we wanted to give New Yorkers an unexpected way to explore what Asian quality and creativity is all about. So we’ve invited them to explore and discover the best in contemporary Asia for themselves and reset their perceptions.”
