One Direction pop-up store opens at Chinook Centre

CALGARY – Calgary’s Chinook Centre was a hot spot for screaming girls Saturday morning, all looking to get their hands on merchandise from their favourite boy band.

Well, for two weeks anyway.

Starting Saturday at 9 a.m., Chinook Centre will host One Direction’s 1D World Pop-Up Store, featuring 125 items officially endorsed by the British boy band. It’s the 13th such store that has opened worldwide, including one that opened in West Edmonton Mall last month and attracted 3,000 fans on its opening day. “They have a huge fan base here in Calgary,” said store manager Claudette Pitre.

Sorry girls, the chart-topping band – which includes Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – are not expected to show up for the Calgary opening on Saturday or any other time before the Pop-Up pops down on April 7. But they will gladly take your money for a range of items, including hats, hoodies, T-shirts, calendars, posters and something the news release refers to as “infamous onesies.”

“It really creates a space where the girls really feel like they are part of the whole One Direction thing,” Pitre said.

The boys are reportedly quite involved in the stores and choosing the merchandise, Pitre says. Even if they don’t show up, they make a video to welcome fans to each location. In Edmonton, 500 fans lined up hours before it opened.

Pitre says the stores maintain a festive mood through the two-week run, with staff often leading sing-a-longs and dancing.

“We have the music playing, we have the video playing,” says Pitre. “The staff does some singing and dancing and we have little contests. They can participate in either a dance contest and singing and we give away little gifts. It’s the whole atmosphere. Plus they are surrounded by 1D stuff.”
“The girls come in screaming, they are so excited. We have girls come in crying.”

Patrons will get a chance to win two tickets to One Direction’s July 27 show in Vancouver.

One Direction formed in 2010 for the seventh season of the British reality show, The X Factor.

They are signed to Simon Cowell’s Syco Records and Columbia Records in North America.

1D World Pop-Up Store Calgary opens March 23 at 9 a.m. and closes April 7. Follow #IDWorld-Calgary on Twitter.