Camper opens its first Together store in Osaka, the first outside Japan’s capital. It has been designed by Nendo, the young studio founded by Oki Sato which has already gained international acclaim after barely ten years. The new space has a distinctly minimalist look and produces the delightful sensation of weightlessness.
“We appreciated the fact that the raison d’être of Camper shoes is not to help people run faster, or assign a recognisable status by wearing a prestigious brand, but simply to contribute to the pleasure of walking, which is why in our design for the interior of the store the shoes seem to float in the air and stroll about the place. The ones on display for sale float as well. They are placed on barely discernible stands―their own footprints—fixed to thin tubes rising out of the floor. The angles and positions of the footprints scattered around the walls and ceiling vary slightly, creating a specific route from one part of the store to another and producing the illusion that the shoes are actually walking in slow motion.” NENDO
Oki Sato (Toronto, 1977), the founder of Nendo, studied Architecture at the Waseda University in Tokyo and opened the studio in that city in 2002. Nendo is a multidisciplinary studio embracing architecture, interior design, events, furniture, products and graphic design. Despite the characteristic hallmark of oriental creativity, neither the studio nor its projects can be described as classical. Oki Sato’s preferred language is “ethereal”, which his team of collaborators interpret and reproduce with the same voice, enabling him to fulfil his numerous commissions. The studio has been warmly received in the west by leading companies such as Cappellini, Cartier, Driade, Fritz Hansen, Hermès, Kartell, Moroso, Puma and Thonet, among a long list of clients. So much so, that in 2005 the studio decided to open a branch in Milan. The work accomplished since then has led this year, 2012, to the Wallpaper* Designer of the Year award.
The design that Oki Sato has produced for Camper is his first project for a Together store but not Nendo’s first collaboration with the brand. A few years ago the studio designed the Camper stand at Bread & Butter, when this international tradeshow for selected brands was still held in Barcelona. For the store in Osaka, the team has designed an exquisitely subtle white, ethereal space to make the shoes feel comfortable.
The store hosts men’s and women’s collections. You can check the exact location at our store locator.
The Intermediate Zone at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (Art, design and society) is a diverse exhibition which combines different collections which, from a design perspective, tackles a number of questions regarding the importance of design within society.
As the curator of the explains, the exhibition aims to offer an open and complex vision of an attitude and a way of doing things and that the first priority of design should be “people” – although in practice this is not often so clear.
Everyone who comes into contact during the life-cycle of a specific design or design service (including those involved in the construction process, or as end users) must have as rich, stimulating and enjoyable an experience with it as possible.
Camper one of the participating projects with its “Shoes and indigenous art” works. Opened for the first time in 2001 in Barcelona, Camper designed and set up this project as a way of paying tribute to the cultural diversity of indigenous people across the world through artistic expression with shoes.
The exhibition takes place in ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies in Barcelona and will be open until May 20th.
If you want additional information about this exhibition, you can visit the official website: http://acvic.org
By Kenny Sanders, Camper Designer.
A while back, before the Volvo Ocean Race even started, we were heavily involved in designing sailing shoes for Emirates Team New Zealand. As a result, we decided it would also be great to develop a shoe for the team.
Following a visit to the CAMPER boat, we were inspired by how stripped back and minimal the whole space was. Everything had a reason for being there. It encouraged us to think about how we could apply the exact same philosophy to a shoe – to take things back to the bare bones of what you need. As a result, we set out to create our lightest shoe ever.
We selected lightweight upper textiles and microfibres and stripped things back to the bare essentials.
The attitude of the crew on the boat was also a huge inspiration. Although they are professional sportsmen working at the top of their game they still have this great laidback attitude and make time to have a laugh. A great combination!
The result was that we were able to combine a lot of new elements in one shoe; beautiful design, technical lightweight materials and an injected EVA midsole for support. All in all, we managed to achieve everything that we wanted without it feeling too complicated or forced.
We came up with the name Water Runner. It´s nice, it´s simple and it conjures up images of walking on water. I’m not saying that you’ll be able to run on water with these shoes but it could be a lot of fun trying!
The end result, I think, is a pretty versatile shoe which you can wear throughout the season and combine with different looks. Wear with a pair of jeans for an everyday casual look or, when the sun is shining, combine them with shorts for the ultimate summer sports styling.
Camper presents, a limited collection in collaboration with the English brand, Swash.
This new line belongs to the Camper’s “Twins Artista” concept, a project that started in 1992 and shows the relationship between Camper and the worlds of art, design and fashion.
A new vision of Twins has been created now by Sarah Swash and Toshio Yamanaka, the founders of Swash. These two designers, who studied at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College in London, have as their hallmark hand-printed illustrations (hand-drawn by Toshio and hand-painted by Sarah) inspired by 19th century botanical drawings and the idea of creating a Swash’ Cabinet de Curiosités’ but translated into a world of surrealistic aesthetics that takes one back to childhood tales and stories.
The result of this new collaboration is a very feminine and romantic collection, with styles of different heights and full of classic details. Two different patterns have been developed for it. The first one presents nautical figures like traditional fisherman’s knots, anchors, compasses and diving helmets, that bring back, with nostalgia, a summer spirit from the past.
On the other hand, the second print recalls a dream and fantasy world through a kaleidoscope of multi-coloured balloons that come from studying depictions of early flying machines – “Dream Machines” – which were the ultimate sky ride and a utopian summer’s pastime in the early 19th century.
Like in all Twins, in this new collection each shoe has its own personality, but when part of a pair, they represent a scene which makes them indivisible.
A collection filled with creativity, imagination and fantasy that prove that there is a different way of walking.
You can find Twins by Swash at our online store.
Today Camper opens a new store in Montrel which is the first in Canada. The store is located in 928 Sainte-Catherine Street, the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal.
The design of the store was made by Gaetano Pesce as part of the Camper Together Project.
Born in La Spezia, Italy, in 1939, Gaetano Pesce, an architect-artist-designer based in New York City, has undertaken diverse commissions in architecture, urban planning, interior and exhibition design, industrial design and publishing. In more than forty years of practice, Pesce has conceived public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, from residences to gardens and corporate offices. Pesce’s extensive body of work – recognized for its emotive and tactile qualities, unrestrained use of color, and insistence upon innovative building materials developed through new technologies – has been described by prominent architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as “the architectural equivalent of a brainstorm”.
Gaetano Pesce shared with us some draws of his project for Camper, we hope you enjoy them.
If you want to know more about this incredible artist you can visit his web: www.gaetanopesce.com
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