The Vipp 270 Breadbox.
Sometime back in March as the world hunkered down to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus, a peculiar search term showed up on Google Trends: bread. Being home for hours on end allows for the five days needed to feed the starter. For Danish design company Vipp, the bread phenomenon sparked sales of its $229 breadbox. “The Vipp bread box sold out!,” said Frank Christensen Egelund, Vipp USA LLC’s vice president, who is also married to the founder’s granddaughter, Vipp USA LLC communications and concept director Sofie Christensen Egelund. “It was the oddest thing. At first, we thought it was due to a story that we may not have seen, but alas it wasn’t. This bread making thing is quite the COVID-19 phenomenon.”
The Vipp Chairmanship.
Sofie’s grandfather, Holger Nielsen, founded Vipp in 1939 with one product—a pedal bin that was sold exclusively to doctors and dentists in Denmark. Sofie’s mother Jette Egelund purchased the company in 1992 to preserve her father’s legacy and since then, Vipp has evolved into a lifestyle design company complete with modular kitchen components, a line of furniture, and a hotel. Vipp’s most recent release, the Chairmanship, is a lounge chair that was originally designed to for The Shelter, Vipp’s first hotel room, located in Lake Immeln, Sweden. The ultra comfortable Chairmanship is comprised of padded leather upholstery on the arms and a channel-seamed cushion of the same material. I spoke to Frank about Vipp, design in the time of Covid-19, and which products are ideal for social distancing.
The Vipp Kitchen in black.
Explain the ethos of Vipp to a consumer who wouldn't know.
The design ethos of the Vipp collection is taken straight of the Vipp pedal bin, which was the very first product titled Vipp. In 1939, in the small Danish town of Randers, Sofie’s grandfather, Holger, crafted this pedal bin in his metal workshop for his grandmother’s hair salon. 80 years later the same bin is still in production, and while originally intended only for the professional market, it has crossed the threshold to private homes. Our ambition is to bring industrial principles of durability and function into the private sphere. We create ‘tools for living’ and believe that function dictating form results in an innate aesthetic intelligence that transcends trend and style. We’ve been committed to a material story of powder coated steel, stainless steel, and rubber for decades. This material DNA has been translated into a Vipp Kitchen, a prefab house called The Shelter (aka “the human recharging station”) and over 150 products telling a cohesive story.
We’ve recently ventured into softer offerings. Last year we launched our first furniture collection It’s an exciting development sparked by the launch of the Vipp Hotel and an organic desire to create an immersive lifestyle experience. The pieces still retain the same essence. They are a “canvas for living” and are quietly stylish allowing every home to tell its own story.
Although we have an international following, Vipp is still a small family owned and family run entity, now in third generation. The pieces we create reflect how we live and have lived for three generations.
How have Vipp's sales been affected with the onslaught of Covid-19?
We’re connected to a number of countries and economies so the effects of COVID have varied from place-to-place and affect each customer segment differently. We are grateful that Vipp is valued in a number of markets because it minimizes the impact.
As a design company focused on home, the majority of our quarantined customers have has time to assess their personal needs and environment, which keeps sales stable. Although kitchen installations have been on hold, there are a number of people interested in moving forward with purchases once the world has reopened. In addition, the media focus on ‘working from home’ and culinary adventures has driven interest in creating more functional and efficient living spaces. These factors create a strong point of connection to the Vipp ethos.
How has the business shifted in terms of production and its headquarters?
Our HQ in Copenhagen has been closed and all employees have been working remotely. Our production was at a stand-still for about eight weeks but have just opened up and we’re running closer to normal capacity. Our wholesale partners that have an e-commerce platform have managed to keep business afloat. Although we don’t have any retailers in the US and manage these relationships directly, our e-commerce sales have been stronger in 2020 compared with the same period last year.
How has Covid affected your own personal lives?
Over the past four years our New York showroom has been a destination for connection and immersion in Vipp. It was a live/work space that we shared with our children and golden retriever. We sold our former showroom in March 2019 and embarked on an ambitious project building a new showroom which is about triple the size of our old space. We were nearing the tail end of a gut renovation when the city was shut down.
We’ve been living in a furnished rental apartment for the last nine months during the renovation which has amplified our appreciation of our past living situations. Despite the close quarters, we’re used to living with well-made furniture …...it is definitely not home and has made me miss living in a space with high quality products that are made to last.
Vipp has never been the type of design company that chased the latest trend, and during a time like this, it makes even more sense. We believe in making timeless, long-lasting products, and the pandemic has only strengthened out raison d’etre – living better with less that lasts. Other than that, we’re used to flying back and forth to Copenhagen and, at this stage, miss our older kids, close family, and friends. At the same time, we love New York and are grieving for and with the city; there is just so much loss.
What sort of products are consumers gravitating towards?
We have two types of customers, the kitchen customer and the small goods customer. Our kitchen customer is like an art collector commissioning a piece. The kitchen is modular and like furniture. If you move, it can go with you or someone could inherit it. Vipp kitchen clients generally have embraced Vipp in its entirety and also have lighting, small goods, bathroom modules, and more. Then there is the Vipp trash can customer, who starts with the iconic bin and then collects small goods over time – some end up becoming Vipp kitchen clients too.
What are your clients demanding in terms of office design and home design?
At this time we are seeing strong sales in lighting, the wall spots and especially the freestanding lighting like the desk lamp and reading lamp spawned by necessity because so many people are working from home.
In the past we have enjoyed a strong office/commercial program outfitting offices from Aesop to Brand New School headquarters in New York to architecture firms, design offices, co-work spaces, and galleries in the United States, Europe and Asia. We typically install programs that include Vipp kitchens (and corresponding small goods), bathroom modules, and lighting.
How do you plan to change your hotels—which are already ideal for social distancing—post-Covid?
Our hotel concept is about immersion, not just in our product stories but also in the locations in which the ‘rooms’ reside. The Vipp Hotel is a deconstructed hotel concept where each destination is a room. We only have three rooms so far. Once you check in it's fully booked. One could say it is the ultimate in social distancing. We’re already rigorous when it comes to cleanliness, so we’ll probably just add additional Vipp soap dispensers with hand sanitizer and restrict shoes in the rooms.
How has the coronavirus shifted Vipp's perspective on design?
We haven’t shifted at all. I think our perspective is amplified. Because of coronavirus, the world and life itself has become more vivid and precious for people. This may encourage a different approach to living.
Vipp’s designs are simple with high tactility and designed to last a lifetime. We encourage fewer but better products. The pieces are meant to be cared for and respected. We design with life in mind. We try to avoid trends, as these fast become unfashionable. We love timeless – look at the Vipp bin created 80 years ago – and it doesn’t look dated. We have clients who take good care of their Vipp bin, and they last more than 25 years. The goal is and will always be to make tools for living.
Which Vipp products are ideal in the time of Covid-19?
All of them. Our material DNA isn’t porous. The stainless steel, powder coated surfaces, and rubber allows for sanitary maintenance. When we think about pieces like our placemats, which are made of machine washable silicone, they are perfectly suited for sanitary conditions. The pieces we make are designed to be easily cleaned. The first 60 years of our business story our bins were primary used in hospitals, doctor’s offices and kindergartens.
Why is a minimal lifestyle more important now than ever?
For many Covid-19 is creating a greater awareness of our responsibility to each other and to the planet. The United States has the second largest carbon footprint in the world. It is very important to consider how each and every one of us uses the world’s resources. Less for us as individuals is more for the planet, more for our children, more for those in need, and creates a different kind of satisfaction and happiness for our global community.
What is next for you?
When the time is right, hopefully in early summer, we will finish our new home and showroom in Tribeca. We are excited about having a destination for the stateside design community to see our work. We’ve always had a ‘by appointment only’ program in New York since we’re also managing our family, so we’ll continue along those lines. We honestly just can’t wait to be home.
