Camper Store | Nendo

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.