Changing Gears PT.1

Like all great things, change is inevitable... for better or worse.
Our change was a little different and we wanted to share it with you.

On January 30th of 2019, we finalised handover of the business and began an overhaul.

What we were starting with...

As you can see, the store was in a bit of a state and the challenges around that were very real... How do we make this presentable again?

So let's take a step back....

For those of you who haven't visited the premises before, it's a 23m² space  - or 76ft² for those playing in the USA. Space is a commodity here but it's something the store owners previously understood. Erik (Founder of GEAR) went through 6 or 7 iterations of fit-out until he found something that work. After the last owner acquired the business it remained as it was for the past two years of trade. It didn't match the aesthetic we wanted so it had to go!

From the get go, in a 3 to 1 vote (Sorry Dave), we opted to re-fit prior to opening the store - and I will be the first to admit that I (Matt) voted wrongly in favour of doing so... the journey wasn't so smooth.

Step 1... Removing the stock

Before I address this, I must give a shout out to all our friends and family (as well as staff) who helped us clear this out so quickly. In the short space of 32 hours we had removed all the stock ready to be demolished.. We got into it all pretty quickly. Workplace health and safety eat your heart out!

Don't try this at home kids.

Removing the interior was a pretty quick process. For anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing Dave for as long as I have, they would know his love of hammers and/or destroying things... Turns out demolitions could be his calling. I am just as guilty as him as seen by all the mess but we wanted an efficient demolition, not a neat one.

It wasn't long before pretty much the whole place was empty.
Looking back, I sitll don't know how we did it so quickly. A lot of sleepless nights, trips in the car, beers, and great Japanese food from our neighbours and friends, Izakaya Goko.

The end result of this?

We're going to do a few more posts around this in the coming days - stay tuned fam!