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One Direction to open only U.S. outpost of 1D World in Northbrook
Niall Horan onstage during the One Direction concert at Allstate Arena on Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Rosemont. | Chandler West~Sun-Times
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Updated: October 29, 2012 11:56AM
When British boy band One Direction brought its tour through the Chicago area in June, fans lined up not only for the concert — they lined up for the stuff.
A special pop-up store hawking the usual concert merchandise — One Direction mugs ($20), One Direction soda cups ($5), One Direction laminates ($10), One Direction glow sticks ($15), One Direction stickers ($5) and a dozen different One Direction T-shirts ($35-$40) and more — opened at the concert site the day before the show. During the concert, all the baubles sold out. The store reopened the day after just to satisfy the demand, even though the five buff boys were long gone.
This week, the boys aren’t back — but the store is.
After opening two new pop-up merchandise shops — in Sydney in April, Toronto last week — a third opens at 9 a.m. Aug. 25 on the second level of the Northbrook Court mall, near Neiman Marcus, in Northbrook.
The store remains open through Sept. 9.
In Sydney and Toronto, fans lined up and camped out for the store openings.
This ramped-up, transparent marketing salvo comes not surprisingly immediately after the quintet — Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan — performed Aug. 12 as part of the closing ceremonies at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The hard sell is typical of manufactured boy bands but seems especially urgent in this case, given that these boys are already men, many of them over 18. Time’s a wastin’ for the cash-in.
One Direction even put its second U.S. tour on sale before the band barely started its first. 1D will be back in Chicago — performing and, of course, selling more plastic stuff — next July 13-14.
In the meantime: Posters! Mugs! Glow sticks! (Giggle!)
