WHAT: Spacing to open brick-and-mortar retail store

WHERE: 401 Richmond, (ground floor, northeast corner)

WHEN: Fall 2014

FACEBOOK: “Like” our store’s fan page on Facebook

TWITTER: Follow the Spacing Store on Twitter

Spacing is pleased to officially announce that the magazine will be opening a brick-and-mortar retail outlet in downtown Toronto in the fall of 2014 — Toronto’s first city store — offering all kinds of items celebrating Toronto and Canadian cities.

Spacing‘s new home will be at 401 Richmond, the massive arts and culture cluster near Queen Street West and Spadina that is home to over 140 amazing organizations, galleries, and arts/media-focused businesses.

We believe our new home will let us offer our readers something hardly any other Canadian magazine can: a real retail experience. Our new space will be a storefront, created just for us, with direct access right off of Richmond Street West, between Spadina and Peter. And housed within our store will be the office of our magazine staff.

Since our inception, we’ve touted the benefits of experiencing public life and breaking down private-space barriers in the public realm. We’ve been feeling guilty for some time about how a magazine that promotes the merits of public space remains holed up behind two security doors. We’re excited by the idea that our readers will be able to walk right in and have a word (good or bad) with our staff. And we love the idea that people will be able to buy the unique merchandise we currently offer at our e-store, and so much more.

Not only will this new space be unique in Canada’s magazine world (only one other Canadian-owned magazine, Down Home in St. John’s, Nfld., has a brick-and-mortar retail space), but it will also fill a niche that is lacking in Toronto: a true city store. There are a handful of outlets that sell really cheap and boring t-shirts with “Toronto” or “Canada” or a beaver printed on them, but no retail store collects all of the amazing things produced by local artists and craftspeople that celebrate neighbourhoods and urbanity. The products we’ll offer will focus on Toronto, Canadian cities, and urbanism. We’ll offer apparel, stationery, prints, vintage transit stuff, books, and an assortment of urban ephemera that use the city as its muse. Oh, and buttons. Thousands and thousands of buttons.

While the move is rooted in our philosophy about public space, it’s also a business decision. The way magazines have operated for decades is no longer a model that works in the digital age. By opening up a retail store we are diversifying our potential revenue as well as creating greater awareness of our brand (we’ll stop the biz jargon now).

We are excited by this new opportunity and cannot wait to show you our new home. You can keep up with us by following our store’s Facebook page and/or Twitter account.

Do you make Toronto or city-themed products?

Over the last year, Spacing has been working with a number of local designers to bring new items to our e-store: toques, coasters, prints, cycling gear, and more. Part of our mandate with our new retail space will be to help showcase the great products that compliment Spacing‘s own line of merchandise. If you have Toronto or city-themed products and would like us to consider carrying your item, contact us at spacingstore@spacing.ca.