“What should we do for our pop-up?” is the wrong first question. The better one is: what does a pop-up in my category actually look like when it works? A skincare brand and a pickle brand are both doing retail, but they need different room sizes, different run lengths and completely different reasons for someone to walk in.
We produce more than 150 pop-ups a year and our site now carries 630 activations with published dates. We ran the numbers on all of them. The median pop-up runs six days, and 69% run a week or less — 17.5% run one to three days, 51.9% run four to seven. Only 4.6% run past a month. Whatever your industry, the default is shorter than most brands assume.
Below are the ideas that keep working in each vertical, every one of them tied to a real activation we produced, with the space and the dates. Use them to pick a format, then browse the spaces to find a room that fits it.
Beauty & skincare
Beauty is the most format-inventive category we host. The winning move is almost never a shelf of product — it's a room that behaves like something else.
- Rebuild your product as a retail format. The joke is the concept. VT Cosmetics' Skin Pharmacy at 188 Lafayette (24–31 October 2025) ran as a pharmacy; Mizz Korea's Glowcery on the same block (6–7 November 2025) ran as a grocery; Refy's Beauty Paper Shop at 213 Bowery (11–13 September 2025) ran as a stationers.
- Build one photogenic world, run it for a weekend. Summer Fridays' Sun Room at 22 Wooster ran just two days (13–14 March 2026) and did the whole job with a single set.
- Put a service at the centre. A treatment, not a transaction. Savor Beauty's FACE CAKE BAR and Oh.Bar by espressOh both did this at 251 Elizabeth.
- Hook it to a season. Clarins' Sweetheart Saloon at 262 Mott ran two days (2–3 May 2025) off a single seasonal idea.
- Or go long, if you're building a market. K-LAB 365 held 213 Bowery for a full month (14 May – 13 June 2026). K-beauty brands entering the US often want the longer runway — MEDICUBE, Naturium and Dieux Skin have all taken rooms with us.
Typical beauty booking: a small-to-mid room (250–850 sq ft) for two to seven days, unless you're doing a market-entry run. Deeper read: clean beauty brands that popped up with us.
Fashion & apparel
Fashion is the one category where longer runs genuinely pay, because you're selling inventory rather than an impression. It's also where the sample sale remains undefeated.
- The sample sale. Cheapest possible way to test a street. Barbour ran one at 21 Spring (13–22 February 2025), then came back to 262 Mott in August. Repeat bookings are the signal worth watching.
- The season-long flagship test. If you're an e-commerce brand deciding whether to sign a lease, rent the answer first. Gimaguas held 22 Wooster for 56 days (27 April – 21 June 2026); Cou Cou Intimates held 262 Mott for 45.
- The celebrity or artist line. Pleasing took 251 Elizabeth for three days (24–26 July 2025). BODY By Raven Tracy took 262 Mott for 24 days with a full custom build — you can drag the before/after slider on our production page to see the storefront transform.
- The collab drop. One or two days, one product, one queue. Shopbop x Nike at 262 Mott; MSFTSrep x New Balance at 2 Rivington ran for a single day.
- The streetwear residency. A week to ten days with an opening event. BRAIN DEAD at 21 Spring; HAVEN Apparel at 213 Bowery.
Typical fashion booking: the widest spread of any category — one day for a drop, six weeks for a flagship test. Deeper read: our fashion pop-up launch checklist.
CPG & packaged goods
CPG brands have the hardest brief: the product is cheap, small and already available online. The pop-ups that work make the packaging into the architecture.
- Build the product at room scale. Grillo's Pickles turned 2 Rivington into “The Pickle Fridge” (3–20 June 2026). They've now done a June pop-up on that corner four years running — the strongest endorsement in this article isn't a testimonial, it's a repeat booking.
- The one-day sampling stunt. Graza took 188 Lafayette for a single day (5 September 2025). If your product is consumable, one great day can outperform a quiet week.
- Nostalgia, made literal. Eggo and Goodles at 188 Lafayette, Hi-Chew at 173 Elizabeth — all three ran three to five days on a single strong visual idea.
- The pantry brand as a shop. Fishwife at 247 Elizabeth (27 September – 5 October 2024); The Brightland Holiday Shoppe at 173 Elizabeth ran 53 days through the gifting season.
- Demo the thing that can't ship. Hardware and wellness need floor time: Tonal held 188 Lafayette for 43 days (19 January – 2 March 2025); Premier Protein did the short version at 21 Spring.
Typical CPG booking: one to five days for sampling, or a full season if you're a gifting product. Deeper read: the CPG and food & beverage pop-up checklist.
Food & beverage
F&B is the shortest-running category we host and the one that most reliably draws a line. Almost everything here is a weekend.
- The QSR takeover. McDonald's took 262 Mott for three days (7–9 May 2025); DUNKIN's Human Charger at 213 Bowery ran for one; 190 × Anytime Burger ran five.
- The spirits house. A brand world with a bar in it. Dom Pérignon × Takashi Murakami at 262 Mott (23–25 October 2025); Sprinter's Vodka Soda Fruit Stand at 213 Bowery; La Maison Cointreau at 2 Rivington.
- Borrow a local institution. The fastest route to a New York audience is a New York partner. Baileys x Ess-a-Bagel at 251 Elizabeth; Craft Sportswear x Lucia Pizza at 21 Spring.
- Make the flavour a mystery. What The Fanta — Taste the Unknown ran twelve days at 247 Elizabeth on exactly that premise.
- The holiday counter. Petee's Pie took 2 Rivington for the three days before Thanksgiving 2025. Pick the week your product already owns.
- Sampling plus a reason to gather. Coconut Cult's Collab Lab ran eleven days at 188 Lafayette.
Typical F&B booking: one to five days, small-to-mid room, heavy event programming. Note that alcohol service and any real crowd bring permitting into scope — raise it on the first call, not the last.
If you're none of the above
Four verticals don't cover it, so briefly:
- Jewelry. Our Elizabeth Street rooms — 173, 247 and 251 — run dense with jewelry brands and cluster hard around NYC Jewelry Week in November. Small rooms, high value density, walkable block.
- Art and galleries. 213 Bowery sits on the NoHo gallery corridor and hosts a steady run of exhibitions and openings.
- Tech and hardware. Anything that needs demonstrating wants a big front window. KOID Shop billed itself as New York's first general-purpose robot store from 188 Lafayette.
- Sport and run clubs. A start line is a great excuse for a store. New Balance × Endorphins Running and Brooks Running both used 188 Lafayette for exactly that.
Matching your format to a room — and a rate
Once you know your format, size and budget follow quickly. These are the published weekly rates on our live availability calendar at the time of writing. They move with the season — Fashion Week in September and the December gifting weeks are the peaks, and midsummer is the floor — so always check the space page for your dates.
| Space | Neighborhood | Size | Published weekly rate | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 173 Elizabeth | Nolita | 250 sq ft | $2,400–$8,100 | Jewelry, single-product launches |
| 251 Elizabeth | Nolita | 450 sq ft | $3,100–$11,400 | Beauty service bars, collab drops |
| 2 Rivington | Nolita | 550 sq ft | $3,300–$10,950 | CPG concept builds, corner visibility |
| 213 Bowery | NoHo | 750 sq ft | $3,700–$12,300 | Art, streetwear, F&B with a queue |
| 21 Spring | Nolita | 850 sq ft | $4,800–$16,850 | Sample sales, streetwear residencies |
| 262 Mott | Nolita | 1,600 sq ft | $8,500–$28,250 | Full custom builds, QSR takeovers |
| 188 Lafayette | SoHo | 1,600 sq ft | $13,250–$28,269 | High-traffic launches, demo-led retail |
| 22 Wooster | SoHo | 2,100 sq ft | $10,400–$34,615 | Flagship tests, large brand worlds |
Two more rooms sit outside that table: 247 Elizabeth (375 sq ft, Nolita) and our Wynwood space at 319 NW 25th Street in Miami — inquire for current weeks and rates on both.
The rate above is the room. The build is separate: painting, fixtures, signage, fabrication and install. We break the real numbers down in how much it costs to build a pop-up shop in NYC. On timing, we ask for at least three to four weeks before your start date for a standard setup with rental fixtures, and eight to twelve weeks if you want custom fabrication — the full sequence is on the production page.
The takeaway
Pick the format before the space. Beauty wants a room that pretends to be something else, for a weekend. Fashion wants either one loud day or a real season. CPG wants its packaging built at architectural scale. F&B wants three days and a line down the block. Then size the room to the format and check the week — the same storefront can swing threefold between July and Fashion Week.
If you know your category but not your format, that's a fifteen-minute conversation. Consultations are free, and we'll tell you if a shorter run or a smaller room would do the job better.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a pop-up shop run?
Shorter than most brands expect. Across the 630 activations with published dates on our site, the median run is six days and 69% run a week or less. Fewer than 5% run longer than a month. One to three days works well for food, beverage and sampling; a week to ten days suits apparel and beauty; only a genuine flagship test justifies a month or more.
What size pop-up space does my industry need?
Jewelry and single-product launches work in 250 to 450 sq ft. Beauty, streetwear and collab drops usually want 450 to 850 sq ft. Full custom builds, QSR takeovers and flagship tests need 1,600 to 2,100 sq ft. The most common mistake is renting more room than the concept can fill.
How much does a pop-up shop cost by industry?
The space cost is driven by size and season rather than by industry. Published weekly rates across our downtown Manhattan rooms currently run from $2,400 for 250 sq ft in Nolita to $34,615 for 2,100 sq ft in SoHo during peak weeks. Build costs sit on top of that and depend on how much fabrication your concept needs.
Which NYC neighborhood suits my industry best?
SoHo, meaning 188 Lafayette and 22 Wooster, carries the heaviest foot traffic and suits demo-led and flagship-scale activations. Nolita's Elizabeth, Mott, Spring and Rivington rooms are boutique and design-led, and are where most jewelry, beauty and CPG concepts land. NoHo's 213 Bowery sits on the gallery corridor and suits art, streetwear and press-driven moments.
How far in advance do I need to book pop-up production?
At least three to four weeks before your start date for a standard setup using rental fixtures, and eight to twelve weeks if your concept needs custom fabrication or a complex installation. Popular weeks, notably September Fashion Week and the December gifting run, book out well before that, so secure the room first and design into it.