River Island teams up with Supa Academy

Fashion chain River Island is teaming up with Supa Academy, a youth focused start-up to help teenagers build confidence and develop skills, with the opening of a pop-up at the Boxpark mall in Shoreditch, east London.

The pop-up will run from July 14 to 19 and will stock a range of 56 key items selected from River Island’s women’s holiday shop including accessories, shoes, and apparel. The shop will be manned by 15 Supa Partners, who will be managing the shop and selling the River Island stock under the watchful eye of mentors from the retailer, who will be guiding and advising them.

The Supa Partners will be taken through the whole journey from start to finish from pre-retail, setting up the space, being there to talk and advise customers, as well as being given the chance to have a hands on experience of what is like to run their own pop-up.

Ben Lewis, CEO of River Island, said: “River Island is a business that invests in people, which is why the Supa Academy initiative, with its desire to foster a spirit of entrepreneurialism in young people, makes it the kind of project that we are extremely excited to support.

“It's our hope that through this initiative, we can play a part in helping to shape the future of young enterprise across the country and foster an interest in business and retail.”

The aim of the Supa Academy is to create hands-on business challenges and opportunities, and they will be holding a similar event called the Supa Academy Hack, which will run from July 24-26 at The Old Truman Brewery in London, during which 500 18 to 24-year-olds will run a pop-up supermarket as well as selling and shipping products via an accompanying website.

Images: River Island