teenage engineering opens first dedicated store as founder plans to stop making synths
Jesper Kouthoofd says the value lies in the company as a whole rather than “obvious end products”
teenage engineering is planning to stop making synthesizers, including the OP-1, according to founder Jesper Kouthoofd.
In an interview with Highsnobiety published on October 7, Kouthoofd said that he announced the plan to his team during a reorganisation last fall.
Kouthoofd founded the Stockholm company in 2005, and the OP-1, launched in 2011, has been central to its success since.
He describes the company’s approach as an extension of childhood: “What you do when you’re 10 is what you should be doing when you’re grown up.”
He states in the interview that the team initially met the decision with confusion, and he explained his reasoning in terms of the company itself. “We shouldn’t make profits out of the products,” adding “The real value lies in the company as a whole.”
Kouthoofd no longer wants ideas to take the form of “obvious end products”, such as another synthesizer. He wants Teenage Engineering to be a place where people do not get bored: “What’s the point of going to work if it isn’t fun?”
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Shortly after the interview appeared, the company opened its first dedicated retail store at 216 Lafayette Street in SoHo, New York, on October 9.
The 6,000-square-foot space, which teenage engineering calls a department store, was designed and built by the company, and every element is custom-made.
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Visitors can try the gear, and the upper-level hosts workshops, launches and community get-togethers.
At the opening, guests assembled their own EP-133 K.O. II sampler on a production line installed by the company’s staff.
Lykke Li also performed a set made with teenage engineering gear and recorded directly to vinyl on the APC-2.
Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.
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