Having been one of the most influential brand in the Indonesian street fashion scene for over a decade, Footurama opened its flagship store Saturday (15 Nov 2014), revealing its new concept and in Common House, Jakarta.

In the midst the worldwide sneaker culture boom, Footurama established itself in 2003 as a blog and online hub for sneaker enthusiasts. Its blog provided news of the exciting fashion movement, but the website’s highlight was its forum, where many traded opinions and news about what was going on in the global street fashion scene, as well as becoming a place where people can sell or trade their apparel. That interactivity and sense of community were brought into the offline world with the Footurama Swap Meets, where the community gathered to sell and trade their sneakers, and in the process, strengthened the network as well as create friendships among the participants.

As street fashion broadened its scope and people changed their behaviors online, Footurama has updated its design to accommodate new ideas, from being focused on developing its forum to becoming a hub that directed visitors to websites that would serve their interests. In a world obsessively focused on new and exciting innovations, a site like Footurama must not only keep up, but also propose a direction the scene might head towards, and that mentality is what has kept the website constantly innovating itself in its ten years existence.

For years, Footurama’s two active founders, Max Suriaganda and Taufan Irawan, have toyed with the idea of creating a retail space. Inspired by their visits to shops around the world as well as their creative desires to bring their ideas to life, the two has been involved in a number of retail projects including Archive in Kemang, and Footurama RPM pop-up shop.

The combination between online innovation and offline aspirations has Footurama arriving to its most current and impressive concept, Past Future Sense, and brought to life through its flagship store, a new Footurama.com, and Footurama Freeform Fabrication (FFF).

Past Future Sense is a philosophy that addresses time as well as our sense of awareness and appreciation for the things around us. Taking its cue from “Shadows of Tomorrow” by the Madlib and MF Doom collaboration, Madvillain, the Past Future Sense manifesto begins with “Today is the shadow of tomorrow, today is the present future of yesterday” before explaining Footurama as a brand that “…houses the old and the new, the nearby and the distant, the tangible and the abstract.” The explanation still a bit puzzling but becomes clear when looking at how it is executed in Footurama’s consignment store.

A consignment store is a place where items from one’s past becomes another’s future, and a sensibility of curating, in this case, Footurama’s, helps people find the right items for them. That, in a nutshell, explains Past Future Sense. The staff promises a friendly, quick and easy consignment process, and urges visitors to stop by make to their neglected items become someone else’s treasure.

Opening its retail shop in Common House in Pangilma Polim (better known as PangPol), Jakarta, Footurama joins a neighborhood known for its youthful creative entrepreneurship. It is where hang outs such as Mama Goose (also located inside of Common House), Maris, Orbis, Mangia, and Taco Local calls home, and Footurama’s store fits right in.

Taking two adjacent spaces in Common House, one can see from the available pre-owned fashion items by brands such as Supreme, Nike, WTAPS, Neighborhood, Hermes, and Thom Browne that Footurama has carefully selected the items. Footurama isn’t all about fashion, though, as the adjacent space houses everything from furniture, vinyl records, books, antiquities, toys, to little trinkets. During the store’s opening, a head-shaped incense holder became a hot topic amongst visitors, many took time to look at the toy figurines in a window display, and customers browsed through the treasure trove of punk, pop, jazz, funk, reggae, and new wave records.

Taking the Past Future Sense concept online, the new Footurama.com will have all of their consignment items available for online shoppers. Although the website will focus mainly as a retail site, it has not abandoned its publication-roots. The website promises regular recommendations, interviews, look books, staff picks, along with detailed look at products. Footurama.com will also be the place where news regarding sales and new arrivals will be announced, so regular browsing is recommended for the enthusiast.

One can see from the new logo and color scheme that Footurama has reinvented itself, and they have taken their formulation a step further with Footurama Freeform Fabrication (FFF), the brand’s original collection. FFF introduces itself with t-shirts, sweatpants, swimming trunks, sweaters, and trucker hats with the words Past Future Sense printed on them. Notable is the FFF t-shirt series, Footurama City Pack, which celebrates neighborhoods around Jakarta. Two neighborhoods are currently available, Glodok, Jakarta’s Chinatown, and Polim, the neighborhood Footurama’s store calls home. There will apparently be more neighborhoods released in the future.

It is exciting to see a brand develop and reinvent itself. Having existed for over a decade, the new Footurama is refreshing not only because they have redesigned themselves, but also because they are executing their Past Future Sense concept full-throttle on all fronts – from Footurama.com, Footurama Flagship Store, to Footurama Freeform Fabrication. 2014 is the year where the brand has reinvented itself, and it will be exciting to see how it will expand on this idea in the future.

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Footurama Store
Common House
Jl. Panglima Polim 9 no. 16
Kebayoran Baru
Jakarta 12150
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