Backdoor Market in collaboration with Kalve Coffee opened its first pop-up shop in the center of Riga. This has been a meeting place for two brands/ movements/ collectives whose aim and values of sustainability & high quality aligned, thereby creating a shared character, aesthetic and intention.

With Backdoor Market positioning itself as a new sustainable streetwear forerunner of Latvia but Kalve Coffee being the leader in the Latvian coffee scene & the only B corp coffee roasters in Latvia, the partnership was like a combination in heaven. Kalve Coffee came in with their unique coffee assortment, Backdoor Market - its clothing and crowd. Where one lacked, the other fulfilled - this all resulted in a collectively designed, limited edition & refillable packaging for Kalve’s coffee jars.

The pop-up came to life in 9 days - in the company of six friends, the previously abandoned beauty salon was quickly and completely transformed into a contemporary pop-up space. Doing everything by themselves, the Backdoor Market team built everything from the ground up. Each detail in the store has a backstory, be it the somewhat ‘cozy’ lamps from the USSR times or Reinis sewing machine for showing Backdoor Market’s ‘backstage’ processes.

Together with guys from BMT Steel Workshop, we made a huge glass table and jewelry frame. Yet, also this massive table by the pop-up's windowsill has its history - its surface uses glass that once was Burberry store’s window. This huge piece of glass was found left hanging next to a trash container and we picked it up - you never know when things might be useful. The walls of the bathroom have been dedicated to serve as an homage to club life and street culture - when you step in, the local artists have covered them with graffiti, reminding the visitors where Backdoor Market is coming from. Yet, the pop-up also has its own animal, that being the fish JAK, an irreplaceable being in all of our events and everyday proceedings. 

Of course, some of the design elements placed in the store are like an ‘inspiration on and about the theme’. The incomplete, brutalist feel of the place symbolizes existence in this temporary, ever-changing and progressing space - Backdoor Market is halfway in being there, fully ready.

The one-month long collaboration experimented with a coffee shop concept that meets street culture. With the introduction of the Sofa Nights concept, every Friday and Saturday the pop-up became a spot where people from all kinds of backgrounds came to meet others, exchange ideas and have a good time. All of the diverse artists performing on the now legendary sofa were friends of Kalve Coffee & Backdoor Market, but the atmosphere was homelike and free. By the end of the pop-up, Backdoor Market had formed a bigger, more extended community and a new place for people that was much needed in the Latvian cultural scene.