Dr. Dre’s Beats by Dre has landed in Lower Manhattan,
opening what is the first ever Beats by Dr. Dre store.
The store opened last night on 67 Greene Street, with several
major industry players were in attendance including, Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre,
Will.i.am and Luke Wood.
The pop up store, which will be serving the needs of music
enthusiasts from Nov. 3rd to Jan. 15th is nestled amongst the fashion district’s
sheik stores and yet rustic environment.
“The Beats store belongs downtown right now. It’s
got the right environment, the right feel with the cobblestone streets,”
Jimmy Iovine told The New York Post. “Beats is as much about fashion
as it is about audio, we wanted to plug into a place that had quality and
Luke [Wood] thought that we should try a place downtown.”
Beats Electronics President and COO Luke Wood also explained
how the area’s history reflects the style and essence of Beats by Dre
Headphones.
“Beats has a history, so doing it in SoHo — which
has a history of being creative and on the edge — is where Beats should
be,” Wood explained to The New York Post. “We want [the customer]
to understand the idea behind Beats, the emotion of sound, the feeling of
sound, we want them to understand it’s about the emotional art effect,
it’s like music, film, a comic book, Beats is cultural, it’s relevant,
it’s realWe want people to learn about why it sounds that way, the narrative.
It’s really a way to tell our sound story.”
Iovine believes that the headphones have become a cultural
phenomenon and that they are breaking boundaries both culturally and socially.
Even Green Bay Packer Aaron Rodgers and T.I. have received
their customized versions of the the high end headphones.
The shop also serves as a deterrent to would be bootleggers
attempting to sell knock-off versions of the high-end headphones.
“One of the things we care about the most is stopping
the people making bootlegs, which are of inferior quality and helping the
people who are getting ripped off. There are only a certain amount of dealers
that carry our stuff, we don’t sell them to everybody. With this store
and the Beats website, we have a place where people can get them legitimately,”
Iovine said.
The very first pop-up store will not only sell headphones, the store will
also carry the full line of Beats products including the Solo, Studio, Pro
and Wireless versions of the headphones and other Beats-related merchandise.
allhiphop.com