It has been two and a half years since we started Made in Lower East Side (miLES) with our prototype storefront on E 4th Street. Throughout these first couple of years, we have been humbled by the enthusiasm of our supporters, inspired by the unbound creativity of our pop-uppers, and strengthened through partnerships with like-minded businesses and institutions in New York city and beyond.
Always in beta, we continue to pursue our vision and mission of creating new possibilities in urban neighborhoods and supporting emerging entrepreneurs, creatives, and locals to dream and grow their projects through the platform of physical spaces. We strive to innovate, share, and create new structures and opportunities across neighborhoods and cities.
We particularly excited about the partnerships and collaborations that we’ve developed within the last year:
- In partnership with Square Inc., we are working on #Squarepopups, which brings small business education and support to merchants in multiple cities across the USA.
- Going beyond the borders not only of our home city, but of our country, we are thrilled to announce that we are now partnering with We Are Pop Up in the UK and This Open Space in Canada to extend our entrepreneurial and creative opportunities to new countries, and to invite international pop-uppers into our neighborhoods.
- As part of the first cohort of the Etsy.org Regenerative Entrepreneurship program, we are mindfully developing our heart-driven regenerative business model and are embracing the principle of scaling deeply with integrity.
- We are ecstatic to be working with Prime Produce to build a 21st century guild for slow entrepreneurship at their new oasis in Hells Kitchen.
- We are grateful for the support from OpenIDEO, NYU and Foossa as we cultivate an active community and process for DOing through design thinking and prototyping --our first cohort of the miLES Do Tank continues to inspire us as they actively address our Fall challenge of reducing waste in the food system.
I am happy to announce that, together with my teammates Heidi, Sally, and Tarrell, we are transitioning from Made in Lower East Side to MILES.CITY. While our roots are here and we’ll always have been “Made in the Lower East Side”, we look forward to bringing the spirit of pop-ups and neighborhood activations beyond the Lower East Side, to different neighborhoods and cities.
In addition to building new space partnerships, we are highlighting a diverse range of projects that we are passionate about and would like to bring to new places.
A vibrant city is one that is both inclusive and accessible. We continue to remind ourselves that, along with the people we cross paths with, we can create processes, infrastructure and support to enable and cultivate an environment in which everybody and every business can have the opportunity to dream, create, and grow. We want to work with you to prototype and realize your civic visions of your neighborhoods and cities, together, one storefront at a time.
Let’s dream, create, and grow together!
-Eric Ho
Founder, miLES