First Sonos Retail Store Opens In New York City

Sonos' opened their first store last week (July 19) at 101 Greene Street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. To celebrate the opening, artists and special guests joined music producer, composer and Sonos Sound Experience Leader Giles Martin for the "first listens” inside the store’s tiny-home-shaped Listening Rooms. Guests include El-P, Rakim, Miss Info, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem), Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), Walter Schreifels (Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand) and more.

Inside the store is absolutely stunning, giving visitors an unique listening experience within each room they go into. The 4,200-square-foot retail store has seven, state-of-the-art Sonos Listening Rooms. The place felt like you were visiting a friend's home, with each room providing a level of comfortability and sound that will make any customer happy. The store features original artwork and décor from artist like London-based French illustrator Thibaud Herem, New York-based decorative painter Mark Chamberlain and New York cartoonist Mark Stamaty.  XXL Was there at the opening and spoke to the Dmitri Siegel, Sonos VP of Global Brand.

XXL: What type of customer experience did you want to establish when making the store?
Dmitri Siegel: “We tried to approximate what it’s like when you go to a friend’s house who has Sonos. We make products for the home and we know that the best place to experience them is in someone's home. So the whole store experience is based on that feeling of being in a really comfortable and inspiring environment, listening to music you love, but hearing it in a way you never have before. Your home is where you share time with the people you love, where you can be most creative and free. This store is meant to remind you that music and sound can really enrich all that.”

What does the store mean to Sonos?
Siegel: When your mission is to fill every home with music and the best way to experience your products is in the privacy of someone’s home, you need think differently about how you bring that outside the walls of a home. The Sonos store gives us the opportunity to recreate the intimate home experience and really hear what Sonos can do.

How will this add to the brand?
Siegel: We want to show people that the way you bring music to your home, and how it sounds, is just as important as the perfect piece of furniture or considered lighting. Now we have a public place to do that and also connect with creators and music fans in a way that feels like home. You’ll see this come through in the entire experience of the store from interacting with the staff to the design details and ongoing programming.

What's next for Sonos?
Siegel: Right now we are focused on opening our flagship Sonos Store here in SoHo. We hope it becomes a place for New York to come together and celebrate listening. Guests will be invited to come hang out for artist listening sessions, live broadcasts, and collaborations with New York-based creators.