Vollebak SpaceShop for Bang Olufsen Anodised Aluminium Beosound 2 Vollebak Edition and Vollebak Anodised Jacket

 

 

We've written about Vollebak before, which is unsurprising as we discuss luxury goods and Vollebak price points put it firmly into the luxury goods category.  However, Vollebak, started by two English brothers in 2016, creates unusual pieces.  For example a Graphene jacket we wrote about.  It's pretty reasonable to observe therefore that either due to an understanding of marketing, or desire to stand out, their projects and products are not pedestrian.  The latest set of releases from them tends to suggest they enjoy both spectacle, and are excellent at marketing.

The project is in fact quite difficult to understand conventionally.  What the brand has done is engaged Saga Space Architects, a company which designs products used in the International Space Station, and Bang & Olufsen, which needs no introduction, and created a pop up shop designed like a space ship.

It's quite easy to dismiss this as merely a marketing gimmick to sell two new products, a speaker and a jacket.  Which principally is right, but that would entirely fail in our view to appreciate the level of creativity and craftsmanship that went into this.  We often write about tired cliches of brands collaborating to produce nothing other than an existing product in a new colour, and repeatedly level criticism at the profound lack of creativity in the obvious attention grabbing creations designed for attention only of brands such as Louis Vuitton.  Yet to fail to be even slightly impressed by the SpaceShop suggests a person lacks heart.  Just look at the way they positioned the Beosound 2's, they're like little laser guns on the front of this space fighter jet.

As for the products, the Vollebak jacket is made from the same type of anodised aluminium which NASA makes it's astronaut garments out of, and which are given to participants in race's to insulate, and costs £2,995.  While the speaker is an unusual design.  We don't mean to sound effusive in our praise here, but we often criticise Bang & Olufsen as precisely one of the brands that lacks creativity, by committing the sin of releasing a different colour and charging more.  However with this they have created something quite unusual.  The finish looks different enough to justify the premium, and it's priced at £4,450.

After its debut in Copenhagen the SpaceShop will tour the world.  It's a matter for you whether you're enthused by the jacket and speaker.  But we feel whatever you think of the products, it behooves you to be impressed at the presentation, and of the SpaceShop.