On Friday this week (16/10/26), we will be back at the O2 in Greenwich for another K-Pop Show, this time the Girl Group Le Sserafim. But last week, in preparation for the event, Sokollab opened a pop-up store in London. Naturally, we had to go, didn’t we? So, here’s what we found.
The five-piece K-pop sensations are one of our shared loves, we even have a shared bias- Chaewon- but most of the rest of the group will also feature in our upcoming annual Top 100 Females, so this is a big one for us. When the pop-up appeared on our Social Media last week, we had to get ourselves along to the shop in order to stock up. So we could have the right look at the concert – at least that was the plan. The shop’s location was a bit random. Not in the West End near the sponsor’s shop, or even on the Peninsula near the venue, but instead, it was near Old St Station. Close by for us, but we had to book (Free) tickets via Eventbrite, so we booked in for Saturday afternoon.
We arrived to find a pretty small space – clearly a gallery or vacant coffee shop, underneath the newly built student accommodation. The entrance was blocked out to present a wall of portraits of the girls in their majestic beauty, with a screen blasting the music videos and the music filling the interior.
Then you turned into a shop interior, rows of white shelves filled with rails and bookcases filled with merch. Each item displayed with variations laid out beneath. There wasn’t a mass of items to choose from – one item per bookcase.
We started to wander, looking at T-shirts, jackets, bags, photocards, plushies, tote bags, and even fold-up camping chairs and laundry baskets. Why, we ask? All set out around a maze of shelving. Everything had the new album colour scheme – pale blue, white and lilac tones. Of course, there were albums and the inevitable keychains, as any good pop-up should have. But there wasn’t a massive selection. There was, however, a large portion of the items that had labels below them simply stating ‘Merch available after the Concert’, with no price and no availability to buy or reserve.
Talking of price tags.
“FUCK!” – There we go! Yes.
In typical Sokollabs style, the prices were ridiculous. £80 for a t-shirt, £45 for a stool, £135 for a bag, etc.
We tried to take our time, take in the stock, look carefully at each item and not judge the prices too severely on first viewing, but one glance at the small white tag below each product and we quickly started to find any reason we could to vacate the premises. Maybe the keychain at £14 each wasn’t so bad. But the rest was far too much to justify, I mean, the photocards were £43! We watched one FearNot snatching up armfuls of hoodies, albums and lightsticks and heading to the till, only to turn to her Grandfather for him to hand over his card and pay out the £200+ he happily spent. We, however, left with armfuls of nothing and went in search of coffee (that’s a whole different post!).
This was not surprising for a Sokolabs event, but we thought, given the last one – Enhypen – we would have left with maybe a keychain. The diy station here was 15 pound for the ring and the charms were just letters, nothing unique to the group. To make a member of the group’s name, at minimum, it would have cost £51 – given that the beads are the same type you can get from Amazon for £3 for 1,000. How can this be justified? Why do we seem to be in the minority in noticing how much of a rip-off this is?
So that was the pop-up. Tomorrow, the concert! Review coming next week, so stay tuned.
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