New store openings keep coming to Bangkok. Japan lifestyle retailer Loft launched its third unit in Bangkok in the third quarter, this one at Siam Paragon, while two athleisure brands also launched new stores: Jaspal Group’s Ori women’s athleisure brand announced itself in Siam Center, and Brazilian brand Live! introduced itself to Southeast Asia at the recently opened Central Park.
Loft at Siam Paragon
Japan-based lifestyle retailer Loft has opened its third franchised store in Bangkok, 28 years after launching its first in Siam Discovery. The new store is on the fourth floor of Siam Paragon, like Siam Discovery, a Siam Piwat-developed and operated mall, but for those who have savoured the delights of the Siam Discovery flagship opened way back in 1997 and the more recently opened unit at Icon Siam, this one may disappoint. The assortment is more heavily edited, and the store doesn’t provide the ‘treasure hunt’ feel of the other two. For a new store from such an outstanding retailer in a vibrant category, it seems low on energy, and the merchandise assortment feels like a football team with some individual stars that haven’t quite gelled. To extend the metaphor, Loft at Siam Paragon might need some thoughtful coaching to get the team functioning at its best.
There are actually two adjacent Loft spaces: a conventional in-line shop and a circular pop-up-style unit just outside in the common area that offers a selection of stationery items and accessories. It also has Monchhichi dolls, plush toys shaped like monkeys that originated in Japan in 1974 and have suddenly undergone a massive revival across Asia.
In the centre of the in-line store are toys: Loftoy Show and Sloths Life Art Toys. Arranged around the perimeter of the floor are displays for instant cameras, Nekomaruke cat-themed accessories and toys and other assorted items.
Although this is only the third store in Thailand, operated by a subsidiary of Siam Piwat, the parent company in Japan operates 177 Loft stores there, so it is a chain with extensive experience in operating lifestyle stores. The company generated approximately $800 million in sales in its fiscal year ending February 2025.
The Loft store in Shibuya, Tokyo, has seven levels. Hence, the concepts at Icon Siam and Siam Discovery are already very pared down, and making the assortment even leaner at Siam Paragon may have been a step too far. However, the store still has potential by winnowing down a few categories and adding depth to those that are found to be working. This may take a few months of testing to figure out.
Ori (Siam Center)
Ori is a women’s activewear brand owned by Thailand’s Jaspal Group that just opened its first store in Bangkok’s Siam Center, which is right next to Siam Paragon. Like Loft, Ori opened in the third quarter.
Bangkok-headquartered Jaspal Group has a portfolio of Thai apparel brands, established in 1947 by the Singhsachathet family, which originally imported mattresses from Japan. It has 12 in-house brands and seven imported from overseas, including Diesel, Asics and Ipanema. Ori is its first foray into women’s athleisure. It is in good company in a Siam Center ground-floor sportswear precinct that includes Saucony, Adidas and Under Armour. A large Hoka store is also opening soon in the vicinity, so collectively, the mall’s ground floor will offer a very substantive sports apparel menu.
The flagship Ori store, whose interior is configured in a kind of figure 8 (two loops that have open access to each other in the middle), is light, spacious and airy with clean wood panel floors and uncluttered displays, the centrepiece of which are three mannequins in yoga/pilates postures wearing pastel-coloured sportswear.
The brand’s merchandising focuses on indoor activities like pilates and yoga. To complement this, the assortment also includes a range of jackets, trousers, bags, shoes and socks that can be worn with the active apparel to make a complete athleisure outfit. Accessories such as water bottles and wrist bands are also part of the mix.
Ori claims innovative fabric technologies, dubbed ‘Ori-firm’, a stretch fabric for strength training, ‘Ori-fly’, for yoga and pilates, ‘Ori-feel’, a softer fabric for light activity, ‘Ori-force’, a compression fabric, and ‘Ori-Luxe’ for leisure and travel.
Live! (Dusit Central Park)
Like Ori, an athleisure brand, Live! has its origins not in Thailand but in Brazil. Outside of its own country, it has stores only in Dubai, Miami, and now Bangkok. Since the Central Park Mall itself only opened in September, the buzz around Live! has been muted: when everything else is new too, it’s harder to stand out. That may change as the brand gains more traction with its merchandising, which, well, isn’t too different from Ori’s. Indeed, the central feature of the Live! store is remarkably like Ori’s: there are four female mannequins, three standing and one sitting, with three of them adopting different yoga/pilates positions. Although this kind of visual merchandising is common enough, for a moment, it is possible that a visitor to both Live! and Ori might think they have the same ownership.
The Live! store, unlike Ori’s, is a conventional rectangle, but shares the same calm lighting and construction palette.
The brand has been brought to Thailand by Tanachira Group, a brand management company that also manages the Marimekko, Pandora and Cath Kidston brands in Thailand, among others. Tanachira sees athleisure as one of the leading global apparel trends, and Thailand is a good place to ride the wave with its swelling urban professional class.
A little underwhelming?
All in all, the three openings might be slightly underwhelming to those who already have exposure to Thailand’s booming retail market for lifestyle products and athleisure, since it is hard to identify a clear point of difference from what already exists. All three operate in a fiercely competitive market for their products, and fine-tuning will be essential.
Further reading: Tourist trap: The risks of becoming over-reliant on overseas shoppers
The post Inside 3 Bangkok openings: Loft, Ori and Live! appeared first on Inside Retail Australia.
