A Frankie4 shop Down Under (Image: Frankie4 Shoes)

Global brands big and small continue to dabble in retail experiments and new concepts in Pike/Pine. The latest will be rapidly growing Frankie4 Shoes as the Australian fashion footwear designer plans to open its first U.S. “concept store” later this year on E Pine.

Permits for the shop show it taking the corner space at 501 E Pine with a classic Capitol Hill recent retail history — ventures including the shuttered anarchist co-op Black Coffee and a shop for the PUBLIC Bikes startup that closed after just under two years of business.

The new store will neighbor the Raygun Lounge. CHS checked in with the game shop and arcade as the popular hangout struggled through COVID-19 restrictions. It has now fully reopened.

UPDATE: Business Operations Manager for Frankie4’s Madeline Losee tells CHS the Capitol Hill location will also be home the company’s U.S. headquarters with office space and a customer support call center. The company’s Australian leadership chose Seattle, Losee said, due to the “innovative nature of the city” and it “marriage of culture and style” based around a growing number of outdoor and adventure brands.

“It’s a perfect fit,” Losee said.

The headquarters and store will bring new activity to the building and some new jobs to the neighborhood — Losee says they are hiring for retail and call center positions.

The store will debut in September with a soft opening and “private fittings” for customers in the new space designed as “a beautiful showcase with natural wood and plants,” Losee says,” and a focus on “a personalized experience for these customers” and “everything they need for better foot health.”

Frankie4 Shoes has grown from its Australian roots with a focus on footwear fashion grounded in “Podiatrist-designed support.” Continue reading →

Standard Goods is moving to 501 East Pike, the former location of Bassline Fitness in the Dunn Motor Building. Sign designed by Scott Moffatt. (Image: Standard Goods)

Don’t be surprised if you see the Standard Goods team shuffling inventory from their 701 E Pike location to their new digs in the Dunn Motors Building, especially this week — it’s crunch time. Standard Goods’ lease is up at the end of April, and the retailer is busy moving into a new home at 501 E Pike, the former home of Baseline Fitness. The plan is to close the last two days of the month and officially open the new location on May 1st. Luckily, they’re only moving a block and a half down the street.

“[The old shop is] such a small space and we have been filling it with so much product that it’s a really tight space to walk in,” said Maxx Kautz, Standard Goods’ Capitol Hill Manager. “When we found this space that was kind of twice the size, and we knew our lease was coming up, it was like, ‘We might as well.’”

Standard Goods features apparel, candles, pins, stickers, patches, rain gear, health and beauty products, and much more, many from local Pacific Northwest makers. Owner Jeffrey Gardner launched the shop in 2015 at the location that previously housed occult bookstore Edge of the Circle for over 20 years. When Gardner heard about the availability of the Baseline Fitness space through Jill Cronauer, a frequent customer—as well as Chief Operating Officer and designated broker for Hunters Capital—the idea of moving into a location about twice the size was too good to pass up. Continue reading →

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Two industry veterans are coming together to create a new fashion shopping experience on E Pike they hope moves beyond faceless, soulless big box retailers.

“We both became a little more disillusioned with faceless, fast profit, fashion companies,” William Rheinhardt tells CHS about Ritual, the new store he and business partner Sarah Randall Williams are creating in the 900 block of E Pike in the middle of the neighborhood’s nightlife and club scene.

After meeting in the trenches working on West Coast efforts for Swedish retailer H&M, Rheinhardt says he and Williams are breaking out after a combined 40 years in the industry to create their own fashion shop featuring clothing as well as household and lifestyle goods.

“We’ve been looking to partner with brands that have a social conscience,” Rheinhardt said. “We see that as the greatest need in fashion.” Continue reading →