SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Westfield Corporation and Forest City Enterprises officially unveiled Bespoke, the first coworking, event and tech demo space designed to foster a retail-tech community and to support retail innovation at Westfield San Francisco Centre. Strategically located at the intersection of San Francisco’s tech and retail marketplaces, Bespoke provides a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs, brands and retailers to research, create, collaborate, refine, showcase and debut work all within the Centre – home to more than 20 million annual visitors and a built-in network of more than 200 established retailers and restaurants.
“The partnership is proud to launch Bespoke and showcase our commitment to supporting the future of retail innovation. A core pillar of Westfield’s strategy is to better connect the retailer and shopper through the use of digital technology and Bespoke fits perfectly into this strategy. We are creating a physical ecosystem for companies to create, learn and test all within the shopping center environment. We believe this initiative is a world-first for a shopping center company,” said Westfield Corporation Co-CEO Steven Lowy. “Westfield San Francisco Centre’s location next to Silicon Valley and in the heart of the downtown shopping district perfectly positions Bespoke to serve as a hub and catalyst for innovation in the retail-tech space,” Lowy said.
“Bespoke is an investment in the people of this dynamic city. It shows how our companies are focused on creating new opportunities for commerce and community by building next-generation retail ecosystems and by improving our urban environments. For 30 years we’ve been working in San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area to build innovative and authentic urban spaces with sustained value to the community. This investment applies that creative spirit to the technology and retail industries like never before,” said Forest City President and CEO David LaRue.
Bespoke is composed of three unique spaces across 37,000 square feet, which combine to create a fully integrated ecosystem.
- Bespoke Coworking – a curated community of retail-tech entrepreneurs and brands, Bespoke Coworking offers private offices, shared and dedicated desks, and unique storefront-conference rooms that seamlessly convert from a meeting space into a retail pop-up shop. The one-of-a-kind vibrant community, focused on creating “the next big thing” in tech and retail, gets exclusive access to shoppers and retailers alike in the most iconic shopping marketplace in San Francisco.
- Bespoke Events – optimized for maximum space flexibility to create tailored experiences large and small (capacity of 30 to 1,200.) State-of-the-art technology meets all event needs and will impress guests with premier presentation capabilities ideal for conferences, workshops, hackathons, runway shows, trade shows, consumer events and other large-scale activations or intimate events.
- Bespoke Demo – interactive space where entrepreneurs and brands can showcase and customers can discover, touch, test and play with products in a real-world environment. Today, there is nowhere in San Francisco for the community to get their hands on the latest technology and innovations. Bespoke is changing that. Fully customizable digital walls and a high-tech, high-touch environment opens doors for unique product demonstrations, beta testing and market research in one of the most heavily trafficked destinations in the city, attracting the most tech-savvy customers in the country. A rentable 3,000 sq. ft. pop-up shop presents a ripe opportunity for established retailers to reimagine their in-store experiences and infrastructure; it also serves as a unique testing ground for companies new to physical retail that want the chance to pilot new, exciting retail products and monitor their sales performance.
For more information or to inquire about space rentals within Bespoke please visit BespokeSF.co.
Bespoke Grand Opening Event
To celebrate the official launch of Bespoke, Westfield Corporation and Forest City will host a grand opening event on May 28, 2015, at 6 p.m. PT. In addition to tours of the space, musical entertainment and remarks from brand executives in a program emceed by Founder and Global Publisher of VICE’s Motherboard, Thobey Campion, attendees will have a chance to experience live activations and hear announcements from a range of Bespoke’s first brand partners, including:
- Bow & Drape: a fashion brand that allows women to customize quality clothing basics and accessories online will be showcasing their on-demand personalization experience at Bespoke Coworking in the mall-facing pop-up space. Customers can visit Bow & Drape’s pop-up shop and customize the brand’s most popular products with fun lettering and embellishments and then pick up their finished creations within an hour.
- Fashion Incubator San Francisco (FiSF): a non-profit corporation that’s mission is to accelerate emerging apparel and accessory design businesses while supporting fashion industry economic growth. FiSF will be showcasing the collections of five San Francisco designers in the Bespoke Demo pop-up shop occupying 1,416 sq. ft. of retail space directly Under the Dome May 28 to June 30, 2015. Bespoke offers local talent the opportunity to co-work, develop, scale and showcase new ideas in fashion and design in a state–of-the-art environment.
- Indiegogo: the world’s largest crowdfunding platform will host a series of programs and events at Bespoke Coworking throughout 2015, including office hours with Indiegogo team members to learn more about crowdfunding and trends in tech. In addition, they will be displaying trending products across their platform at grand opening in Bespoke Coworking.
- Product Hunt: surfaces the best new products every day and will be launching its first physical presence at Bespoke in partnership with Westfield Labs. A place for their product-loving enthusiasts to come test, learn and discover the latest products and tech creations. This Coworking pop-up is a great example of taking the best of the digital world and bringing them to life in a real-world physical space so people can touch and test each product.
- Rovio Entertainment Ltd: the global entertainment media company with games at heart, and creator of the world renowned Angry Birds brand, will be demonstrating its exclusive and limited time Angry Birds VR (virtual reality) experience at Bespoke Demo, presented by Samsung. The activation, including touchscreen Angry Birds gameplay, will be live for public participation, with select weekend hours for VR, the entire month of June.
- Shoes of Prey: a global, multi-channel retail brand that enables shoppers to design their own shoes online as well as in-store at select Nordstrom department stores, will showcase their shoe customization experience in a Bespoke Coworking pop-up featuring their interactive 3D shoe designer on iPads, various shoe design samples, raw leathers and materials and as well as a display of their on-demand manufacturing process.
Other Bespoke partnerships include; Autodesk (tinkerplay app station), Britelite Immersive (experiential technology firm in Demo), Hotel G (sponsored sleeping nooks in Coworking), OMsignal (wearable technology), RetailNext (retail analytics platform), ShopWithMe (retail store of the future-VR preview), Suitable Technologies (Beam mobility and video conferencing), Style Lend (production suite in Coworking), ZeePro (3D printing station in Demo), and many more.
For more information on the grand opening event, follow Bespoke on Twitter here, Westfield San Francisco Centre on Facebook here and Twitter here and use our #BespokeSF hashtag.
About Bespoke
Bespoke is a trifecta of coworking, technology demonstration (demo) and event spaces strategically located at Westfield San Francisco Centre on Level 4 in the epicenter of downtown, where San Francisco’s tech and retail marketplaces converge. The Bespoke ecosystem will create an opportunity for innovation, collaboration and inspiration unmatched in San Francisco – serving as the premiere destination for entrepreneurs, brands, retailers and dreamers alike. This multi-million dollar project is funded by Westfield Corporation and Forest City, the partnership that created and owns Westfield San Francisco Centre, and highlights how both companies are focused on building the next-generation of retail ecosystems. For the latest, follow Bespoke on Twitter and visit www.BespokeSF.co.
