Sub Pop Opens Record Store At Sea-Tac Airport

Sea-Tac Airport can now boast indie and vinyl cred in future branding with the opening of Sub Pop's new merch and music store. The store's inventory includes not only vinyl but books, dvds and a lot of Sub Pop branded merch from t-shirts to travel stuff to coffee beans. Visitors will have to decide if it goes too far but it sounds like a good fit for Sea-Tac and is part of an initiative to bring new kinds of businesses to the airport.

Jonathan Zwickel toured Sub Pop at Sea-Tac (via @hifidelics) and found it to be a good airport experience. You can see tweeted photos from Sub Pop and a visitor here and here.

The new shop occupies 1,768 sq. ft. Mark Pickerel, the store's senior assistant manager, said on opening day:

"'The first sale was a classic Sub Pop baseball cap' bought by an airport security guy…'The first record I sold was Father John Misty. And I sold Nirvana Bleach about 20 minutes ago.'"

In the front:

"a neatly displayed explosion of wildly diverse Sub Pop-branded merch: standard T-shirts, hoodies and hats plus never-seen-before, upscale travel-oriented items like Sub Pop neck pillows, Sub Pop flasks, Sub Pop canvas luggage, Sub Pop lap blankets."

And in the back:

"Dozens of albums [not just from Sub Pop] set into recessed shelves…Books and DVDs lined an adjacent wall, stacked above Vestax turntables….Islanding the center of the space is a carved wooden bench and a pair of iPad-operated listening stations complete with custom-made headphones."

Said Sasha Barr, one of the designers:

“We didn’t wanna just slap our logo on a bunch of crap…We wanted to branch out to things that represent not just the label but the Northwest. Stuff that people who are just casual passers-by could be into, who wanna get something that reminds them of Seattle, not necessarily just Sub Pop.”

Apparently Sub Pop is part of an "initiative to attract local businesses that typically wouldn’t think to have a shop in the airport."

Sub Pop's founders, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, were also recently honored with a spot on the Nordstrom Walk of Fame.

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) posts music crowdfunding news @CrowdfundingM. To suggest topics about music tech, DIY music biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.