Kiki Couchman and Elan Halpern have mostly relied on what they call “the drug-dealer method” to move product for Sourmilk, their probiotic-rich yogurt start-up they launched in January after quitting their jobs in private equity and tech. Without a brick-and-mortar base, they use social media to generate interest and then deliver online orders directly to their customers, making the drop at street corners or businesses throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s a lot of work for a $5 serving of yogurt, but selling a perishable product without a storefront means that, for now, it’s pop-up or nothing.
The Stanford grads have done just fine this way; being light on their feet works for the pre-launch phase of their company. But as summer approached, they knew they needed to broaden their customer base. For them, that meant getting to the Hamptons to reach the wealthier, older New York City residents who they see as their future city customers.
They found a landing spot at SoulCycle’s Bridgehampton location, which invited them to be a part of a multi-vendor pop-up in early July. The brief stint seems to have paid off already; one pop-up led to a week of sold-out on-the-fly pop-ups around the Hamptons, and they have since landed a retail partner for the fall in the city. Several retailers on the South Fork now want to partner too.
Then there are the companies that are beyond the start-up phase, like Austin-based lifestyle brand Katie Kime, which launched a pop-up at the Goop in Sag Harbor this summer with bags, pajamas, and ice buckets customized with Hamptons motifs like the Parrish Art Museum and the Sag Harbor Cinema. For founder and CEO, Katie Kime, it’s less about the extra revenue than the exposure. “You are so closely concentrated within and beside the top brands in the world. I just haven’t seen anything else like it,” she said.
It seems that hundreds of other brands had the same idea. For the small-business owners paying year-round rents in the Hamptons to earn most of their income in the summer, the pop-ups can be a source of contention. Heidi Humes, the owner of a concept store in East Hampton called Sunshine Amagansett, worries that there were so many this year that it took money out of the pockets of smaller local shops trying to get by. (She’s already had to move her store two years ago when her Amagansett landlord rented the space to a high-end brand from the city.)
To be clear, Humes doesn’t mind when thought-out, small-business pop-ups like Katie Kime and Sourmilk drop in to test the market and meet with the customers who seem like the target audience for their brands. In fact, pop-ups are a weekly event at her shop, which features merchandise created by female artisans from around the world. Since her space is small, and she can’t store everything she wants to sell all the time, she dedicates summer weekends to hosting pop-ups with new, usually female-founded brands. So she’s not opposed to pop-ups on principle. But when the big luxury brands drop in, she finds it “disheartening,” she says. “It felt like commercialism did a hostile takeover this season.”
Photo: Jon & Vinny’s/Instagram
Humes isn’t alone in noticing the onslaught. Escaping the city for the beach life used to be a little easier, but the volume of city vendors, fitness instructors, and restaurants that temporarily set up shop has made the getaway feel like a lot more of the same. One summer resident, overwhelmed by the number of pop-ups, wondered, “Don’t people just go to the beach with a sandy paperback and then come home and throw a few burgers on the grill anymore? ”
Sure, shopping has always been a rainy-day sport in the Hamptons, and luxury stores have increasingly become part of the scene. But now there are pop-up brokers who facilitate them, pairing out-of-town brands with local companies, and the commerce has long left the main streets and taken over prime waterfront territory or set up in some of the region’s historic luxury hotels.
Photo: Matteo Prandoni/BFA.com
Ice-cream pop-ups have been a popular choice, with luxury brands like Gucci serving Jon & Vinny’s from a cart out front. The Maidstone Hotel partnered with Brooklyn’s L’Appartement 4F, which spent $500 to have its croissants shipped east for the weekend. Clothing brands that don’t have a retail perch, like Sezane, also set up there. Saks, which has an online storefront on Amazon, set up at the Hedges Inn for some luxury QR-code shopping — all orders shipped via Amazon — and Chanel did its own “summer salon” there. Topping Rose Hotel in Bridgehampton also had a rotating door of luxury pop-ups, from Ferragamo to Burberry and Giorgio Armani x Kith. Still others graduated from being a pop-up to hosting them; after years of doing pop-ups, Love Binetti set up permanent space last year in Sag Harbor and this year hosted pop-ups itself, including one with Missoni Home, Assouline, and New York vintage shops like Khata Space.
Multiple New York restaurants calling themselves pop-ups showed up just for the summer, with seasonal leases that will end soon. Many out-of-town retailers have done the same, too, like Elyse Walker, Rebecca Minkoff, and Carbon38. At the other end, some celebrities and brands popped in for curated events, like Cindy Crawford, who held a small industry lunch at Pierre’s in Bridgehampton for her beauty company, Meaningful Beauty. Yola, a mezcal maker, hosted a happy hour at Lucky’s in East Hampton with shrimp cocktail, tomato salad, and specialty cocktails.
But perhaps nothing illustrates the frenzy quite like what took place in Montauk all summer. The Surf Lodge felt like one giant summer-long pop-up with “takeovers” by Casablanca, Ned’s Club, and ASOS. Gurney’s Resort had its own beachfront takeover by Dolce & Gabbana and offered a Cadillac “experience,” i.e., chauffeured rides, while Sisley took over Montauk Yacht Club with themed treatment rooms. Hero Beach Club had weekend “wellness” activations with sponsors like DanceBody offering workouts alongside free sports bras and tights, available only in size small and extra small. The workout space, with a drone hovering overhead, was surrounded by a dozen or so brands offering potions and powders and branded hats and scarves, mini-massages, and requisite vitamin-B injections (a popular Hamptons party favor). Largely missing from the action were founders or company reps; just brand ambassadors handing out stuff for exposure or leaving giant, unattended bowls of stuff. “People basically leave with a tote full of landfill,” said one Hamptons regular.
It all seems to be amplified by the increasing presence of influencers in the Hamptons, who post a product or pop-up, setting off a chain reaction that brings more pop-ups to the area. It’s a cycle that’s all too familiar in New York. But not everyone is comfortable with their local spots getting crowded with people mostly doing it for the ’gram. As someone on Reddit wrote, “Influencers and brand pop-ups have made my favorite bars and restaurants seem like they’re clubs in Ibiza. It’s really a shame to see what this part of NY has turned into, especially Montauk.”
Some brands have leaned directly into this model, flying influencers to the Hamptons the way many brands have already done for more distant locales like Abu Dhabi or Bora Bora. Hotel Lobby Candle, maker of a tomato-scented Hamptons candle, collaborated with Wheels Up, a private plane operation, and flew a bunch of influencers to the Hamptons in the company’s planes. Both brands’ online posts showed a pillow on the plane that read “My candle flies private.” Which sort of says everything without saying anything at all.