Rains, the Danish outerwear specialist, has officially opened its first Asia flagship at Shanghai‘s landmark shopping mall HKRI Taikoo Hui.
Located on the second floor of the mall, the 2,700-square-foot store, designed by the Swedish studio Stamuli, has matte Italian tiles, stainless steel display setups and a centerpiece water-droplet glass wall — which bleeds into a ceiling full of LED display screens meant to emulate a rainstorm.
Promoting flow and visual segmentation, the walls in the very back of the room, as well as the fitting room, are awash in bright yellow that allude to a sunny afternoon.
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The brand, founded by college classmates Daniel Brix Hesselager and Philip Lotko in 2012, began with a boxy rubber backpack that evolved into a lifestyle brand that made its Paris Men’s Fashion Week debut in 2021.
The new Shanghai flagship is meant to showcase the brand’s updated visual identity, one that reflects its pivot to lifestyle — despite its name and affinity for waterproof materials, the company currently sells 30 percent “everyday items” ranging from windbreakers and preppy knitwear to stainless steel water bottles.
“This summer, we also going to introduce footwear as a part of our core, which really kind of closes the circle. We now have the full outfit, so to speak — the full uniform,” Hesselager said.
Hesselager, who’s currently the chief executive officer of the company, said that being involved in the Shanghai market will also help the brand gain access to local youth culture, one that demands newness on a constant basis.
For Lotko, who was recently named brand creative director, having an anchor in Shanghai means that they can directly engage, entertain and even romance customers who are increasingly returning to a value-for-money proposition.
“We are very democratic when it comes to our mindset and also our price point, but when it comes to marketing, campaigns and retail, we probably have a mindset of a luxury brand,” Lotko said.
The flagship comes at a critical juncture when Chinese consumers are embracing the outdoors, which sits well with a brand ethos that’s about embracing the elements.
“We used to be about protecting people from the rain, but our design direction is now more about embracing the rain, how to connect with the rain — that’s probably also some of the transitions that the Chinese consumer has been going through, coming from being inside, to going out and exploring. This is where range becomes relevant, and where we are really trying to incorporate our urban-focused DNA and direction,” Hesselager explained.
“That’s also why having a lifestyle assortment is going to play an important role in succeeding in China and Asia in general,” added Hesselager, pointing to a stand-alone shelf in the store, fully stocked with the brand’s Home Away kitchenware collection, which also helps widen the brand’s price range.
Mixing up its assortment will help the company reach its goal of 1.5 billion Danish krone, or $234.7 million, in revenues by 2027.
”Having a full assortment that can cover the whole year, means that we can keep loyal customers engaged on a long perspective,” Hesselager said. “That also means everything needs to be restructured. To accomplish this, we built a new drop structure of deliveries, we added new categories, and we retooled the sales organization in order to integrate and build these main stores.”
He said the brand has no immediate plans to open more stores in China, but has been operating on the Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform Tmall since 2021 — its most popular item being the 13 liter rolltop rucksack. A similar style recently became available in Apple retail channels, joining the likes of Herschel Supply.