Rick says "We've gone out and recruited people with very strong creative skills, who have demonstrable abilities to shoot a film, or to be a musician or be a deejay. We've taken creatives and taught them to become retailers rather than taking raw retailers and trying to teach them about the creative industries".
Rick Webb has a whole philosophy around this. He thinks the human race is heading out of the Information Age already. He ticks them off: "Agrarian, Industrial, Information and now we're moving into the Creativity Age. The only real differentiator is the ability to harness creativity, going forward. With information, we've been there, done it. We've figured out how to store information, how to extract it and how to mine it. I think the future's got to be about bringing creativity. I think the next decade will have the people able to use the right sides of their brains becoming the masters of the universe ... and certainly, we don't have unlimited natural resources any more. So if the next gold rush is creativity, we're selling the picks and shovels for it."
There's evidence that humans have inbuilt aversions to creativity, but hey, the hunters and gatherers probably felt the same way about the first farms and permanent villagers. And look at them now.
There's a Yoobee community you can join online for free which may even showcase your work - the entry to the new shop faces a stone wall, to be used as curated display space. At launch it is currently showing off custom iPad cases by The Cut Collective.
Other Yoobee-branded products are also available for the first time, like cases designed by New Zealand shoe designer Catherine Wilson, who has just showed off her latest range at Fashion Week. Her special leather iPad cases, which match her shoes, will go for $199 each (I think).
New products that carry the Yoobee brand fall into three categories: the standard 'premium' product; the high-end range and the Yoobee Designer Range. The last category contains products that emerge from collaborations with well known NZ designers, like $349 iPad cases from The Cut Collective that feature individual designs on anodised aluminium which is then varnished.
"If we have a creative community and they do beautiful work, why not highlight that work in a range of accessories?"
The new shop doesn't look like an Apple Store overseas. Whereas you might characterise those as 'smooth oak and white', the new Britomart store is 'rough kauri and black'. Real Newzillan. This look will gradually manifest itself in the other Yoobee shops around the country (Newmarket, Symonds St and Albany for Auckland; Christchurch and Dunedin; Hamilton; Wellington).
"We celebrate black in a big way, and rough timber and industrial lighting. We have sections of the store around the codes of creativity we have developed."
In fact, Doris Du Pont's 'Black in Fashion' show featuring New Zealand's fashion obsession with the darkest of hues opens directly across from Yoobee on 9th September.
Yoobee is planning an expanded store in Wellington, in the same building Natcoll is in. (Natcoll will be rebranded Yoobee Design School.) This will combine an Apple Premium Reseller with access to training and education. It will also have a black theme and reflect the more casual bench concept of the Britomart store, as against the old-style service counter.
Yoobee's Christchurch ventures were badly affected by the quake - currently, Yoobee has a small service centre running with a little retail area, but Yoobee has serious plans for expanded services, so stay tuned, Christchurchians. Rick: "We're committed to Christchurch. We have two temporary campuses in operation there."
It's a whole new aesthetic. So, Aucklanders and visitors, visit the new Yoobee store at Britomart and let us know what you think.
- Mark Webster mac-nz.com
