The US brand PopSockets, famous for spinning a simple life hack into a multimillion-dollar company, has opened its first permanent store in China.
Nestled in the 3000-square-foot basement of Shanghai’s trendy K11 Art Mall, the new store features a rose quartz and moss green colourway and large mirrors perfect for showing off cute phone accessories in selfies. Drawing on Chinese Gen Z’s love of collectible items, PopSockets used a “treasure hunt” theme for the store launch, enticing shoppers to search for unique designs amid the vast selection of Pop Grips, many of which are inspired by IP from the world of animation, games, and comics.
A promotional post for the store opening on Shanghai K11’s official Weibo account referred to PopSockets’ notoriously high prices in the Chinese market (one phone grip typically costs 300 RMB (41 USD)). The post listed the multiple benefits of the product, such as fun customisation options and the ability to binge content unimpeded.
PopSockets started out in 2012 when David Barnett, a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, wanted a phone-attached device for storing earphones. This evolved into the now ubiquitous phone grip. After selling an impressive 35 million units over the course of 2017, PopSockets entered the Chinese market the following year. The store in K11 marks PopSockets first permanent store in China after years of opening pop-up stores in various locations across Shanghai.
