New Lifestyle Products in Corona Times

The Playground Becomes a Think Tank

The Corona lockdown unleashed creativity! Acapulco Design founder Benjamin Caja, who manufactures the iconic Acapulco Chair in Mexico since 2015, and Andreas Klingseisen, co-founder of the VOR Shoes sneaker label, combine fashion and interior to create joint Lifestyle Products. Their children’s playground became a think tank: in one of the few places where social exchange was possible during the pandemic, the brand cooperation of the two Munich-based designers was born — creating a joint Memphis edition: “We wanted to design the lounge chair and sneaker in such a way that they convey colourful and energetic joie de vivre in monotonous times,” says Benjamin Caja about the collaboration.

Inspiration for the new product collection: the Memphis design

The two Munich Lifestyle labels share the same values: “Acapulco Design and VOR Shoes stand for handmade products that convince with an authentic design and manufacturing under fair conditions,” adds Andreas Klingseisen. The joyful aesthetics and eclectic design language of the Memphis movement inspired them to develop a new Lifestyle Product design. “Memphis” was founded in Milan in 1980 as an association of postmodern furniture, textile and ceramic designers. The design movement broke with the prevailing rules of functionalism and aimed to shake up the design industry — a frontal attack on the doctrines of “form follows function” and “less is more”.

The shrill and playful creations became the design model for a joint product collection. Caja and Klingseisen chose the colour combination of grey-blue and lilac, which can be found in the iconic lounge chair as well as in the sneaker design. As such, Lifestyle Products from different product sectors, which make the monotonous everyday life during Lockdown a little more colourful, have been created. “Sessel und Sohle” (Armchair and Sole) was the title of the Süddeutsche Zeitung‘s article on the “interesting and unusual cooperation”, which would probably not have come about if it hadn’t been for the long Corona afternoons at the playground. “In a time of social distance, creative synergies have emerged there”, says Caja.

Creating lifestyle products in Corona times: Benjamin Caja and Andreas Klingseisen. Photo © Julian Henzler

Charity with Lifestyle Products: cooperation supports Munich leisure facility

Just as the cooperation partners used the public space for their project development, it was important to them to “give something” back to the urban environment through their Lifestyle Products. They used the models to support Tim Yilmaz’s training centre on the Sugar Mountain site in Munich-Sendling. Under the motto “Motivate, Train, Integrate”, Yilmaz has been offering women with a migration background a platform for sporting activity at the Mariposa Boxing Club since 2018. “We want to support projects that bring very different people in our city together”, says Caja about the motivation for the donation. And perhaps the creative ideas of tomorrow will soon be born there — turbulent times can always provide a breath of fresh air — not only in the Lifestyle sector.