In June, Bagman team opened a new Kyiv store on Prorizna Street, 5. They not only increased the space and added new types of goods to the range, but also launched a new format — a cafe. DTF Magazine talked to the Bagman team and tells about the new space in detail
About the premises
The Bagman team said that they had planned to look for a new and bigger space back in late 2018, but difficulties in finding the right location near Zoloti Vorota (Golden Gate) or Khreshchatyk and the COVID-19 pandemic put the process on hold.
‘We have long outgrown the location in the courtyard on Zolotovoritska Street, 2a both physically and conceptually. We simply could not accommodate everything we wanted to show our regular customers. We really dreamed of expanding the line of brands to attract a new audience’.
Answering the question about how long it took to create the showroom on Prorizna Street, the Bagman team said that they approved the design project back in January 2022. At the same time, the renovation process began, which was later suspended due to the outbreak of a full-scale war and resumed a few months later.
The new store is located in a 1950s house near Khreshchatyk metro station. According to the team, they looked for the premises on their own, without the help of realtors, and they saw the current location during one of their walks along Prorizna Street.
‘We talked about how cool this place was, walked around it and dreamed about how great it would be to find something right here. That only happens in movies, but then we saw the ad. When we crossed the threshold, we immediately fell in love with this space. It was in a bad state and needed a major renovation, but we didn’t consider any other options’.
In the design of the space, the Bagman team wanted to ‘preserve authenticity as much as possible’: the house was built on the site of structures destroyed after World War II.
For example, the arched windows and entrance area needed complete replacement, but the Bagman team fully reproduced the design and color scheme of the elements. The same was done with the windows: the old wooden panels were replaced with new ones, without switching to metal-plastic structures.
The space consists of three separate rooms, the first of which serves as a kind of entrance area, the second room is completely dedicated to accessories and clothing, and the third room is a cafe.
A special feature of the first room is the white stucco on the ceiling, which was restored during the renovation and returned to its original appearance. Concrete shelves in the middle of the room are decorated with illustrations by Sestry Feldman.
The second room is a showroom featuring backpacks, bags, suitcases, clothing and accessories. The room was supplemented with mirrors, armchairs and fitting rooms.
‘Back before Ukraine’s independence, there was a tailor shop in this space. An old mirror was left of it, which we kept and used in the interior. In general, we used the concept with many mirrors as an echo to the history of the space. Behind it all, there is a kind of sense of intactness or preservation of the original design’, the Bagman team explains.
The third room is a coffee shop, which was an innovation in the second Bagman store. The team said that the original idea was to place a self-service coffee machine, but the zoning of the space ‘prompted the creation of a full-fledged cafe’.
‘It was an added challenge for us because we had no experience with HORECA. Except that we like to go to cafes’.
A separate team consisting of baristas and an administrator was recruited to work in the cafe. The Bagryanyi space team helped them with the opening of their own mini cafe, advising and supporting them throughout the whole process.
About the range
Among the global brands featured in the new Bagman are backpacks and bags by American brand Eastpak, German brand pinqponq, French brand côte&ciel, Swedish brand Sandqvist, and British brands Stighlorgan and Brooks.
Also there you can find such Ukrainian brands as Riot Division, GUD, keep and m0d44.
The new store has new categories of goods: Bagman now sells sneakers, socks, as well as clothes and shoes of global streetwear brands. Nike, Rombaut, Saucony and Stance are represented here, and the team promises to keep increasing the range with new brands.
Now a selection of clothes and shoes from Bagman can only be purchased offline on Prorizna Street.
