Keeping it Interesting, Puma.

I finally got a chance to check out LOT-EK’s Puma City today after visiting Shepard Fairey’s exhibit up at the ICA. Puma City is mobile multi-function space (store, lounge, event space, home base) made entirely of recycled shipping containers that is traveling around the world, starting in Spain in October, along with Puma’s 70-foot long sail boat promoting the 2008 Volvo Ocean Race.

Puma’s pop-up marketing is clearly taking advantage of the global shipping network already in place, and by attaching the brand and marketing strategy to a worldwide event, spreading costs and beyond the structure high-minded aesthetic, it’s surely meant to encourage spending even if through novelty alone. And as flexible interventions become increasingly more popular in public space, they will undoubtedly will considered in the urban planning of our cities – which makes for an perspective, in the case of Puma, and how much brands can affect urbanism.

Anyhow, it’s up in Boston through mid-May, so if you have some time and are down around the water, it definitely deserves a look.