When you walk into SUPERMARKET™ by SUPERBASE®, it doesn’t feel like a typical retail shop. There is no cash register and there are no isles. You’ll likely be greeted with a friendly “hello” by one of the designers working in the studio that day, but there is no sense that you’re being guided to buy something. In fact, the experience looks and feels more like a skate shop or a streetwear boutique than a design agency.
Every item in the space carries a story, every corner holds a visual statement, and every product seems to belong to a creative world that stretches far beyond commerce. What started as a side project inside a Boise design studio is slowly starting to expand into something more like a lifestyle brand for those in the know.
The Origin
SUPERMARKET™ wasn’t born out of a business plan. It began as a creative outlet for Superbase and its creative team. Superbase had long been working on campaigns, product designs, and branding projects for clients around the world, but they wanted a physical space to explore ideas that didn’t need client approval. The story of SUPERMARKET™ begins as merely a small boutique inside the Superbase studio. Part gallery, part concept store, and part playground for the team’s imagination.
Kelly Dee Williams, Superbase’s founder and creative director, describes it as an experiment. “We wanted to build a space where we could test ideas in real life. Not just on screens or in decks, but in a way that people could touch, feel, and take home.” The name SUPERMARKET™ conveys a tongue-in-cheek wit that matches the Superbase philosophy of thinking big but staying small. It plays with the idea of accessibility while still celebrating artistry and culture. By 2024, the brand had grown beyond the walls of the studio and launched an online store, allowing design enthusiasts from around the world to experience what had started as a local secret.
When Design Studio Meets Retail
SUPERMARKET™ sits at the intersection of design culture and everyday life. It’s a place where creative ideas turn into physical artifacts. The store offers everything from apparel and accessories to limited-edition zines and design books. Each carefully curated item feels like part of an ongoing creative dialogue.
Superbase has always seen design as something that should move through culture, not just sit in portfolios. Their collaborations reflect that mindset. When Williams worked with Nike, it wasn’t just about co-branding. It was about making something that expresses and documents that expression. The same philosophy drove their partnership with Homeboy Sandman, where a zine collaboration led to a hidden audio track that fans could unlock a modern take on blending physical and digital storytelling.
Other collaborations, like featuring zines by Mark Gonzales, brought together art, design, and subculture in a way that blurred the lines between commerce and creative expression. SUPERMARKET™ became less about selling products and more about building a conversation around what design can be when it leaves the confines of client briefs.
The space provides a location to host collaborative events, zine release parties, film screenings, and other celebrations of creative culture.
Brick and Click Experience
The Boise retail space is more like a kiosk; small but dense with personality. Visitors might find a handcrafted poster next to a collectible vinyl, or a limited-run T-shirt designed by a local artist displayed beside a global collaboration. The layout feels more like a mini-exhibit than a store.
That sense of curation carried over when Superbase expanded SUPERMARKET™ into an online platform in 2024. The website was designed to feel like an extension of the physical space rather than a replacement for it. Every product page provides some context. There are stories, process notes, and photography that invite visitors to engage, not just click and leave. By combining the physical and digital, Superbase has created something that reflects the future of creative commerce. For those unable to visit Boise, the webstore offers a window into a world that feels both intimate and mysteriously global at the same time.
Philosophy in Practice
SUPERMARKET™ is, in many ways, Superbase’s philosophy brought to the physical. The agency has always believed in treating design as more than a service. It’s a contribution to culture; an archive of style.
At a time when design is often seen as digital-only and most designers work remotely, SUPERMARKET™ by SUPERBASE® brings it back into the real world. It makes creativity something you can hold, wear, or collect. The few shelves packed with wares tell the story of a studio that values meaning over mass production. It is a place where commercial design meets independent spirit, where the creative process becomes tangible.
The key is balance. Superbase has found a way to make design approachable without diluting its artistic intent. The products aren’t just souvenirs. They are expressions of thought, humor, and cultural awareness. Each one captures the energy of the studio that made it.
The Bigger Idea
SUPERMARKET™ shows what happens when a creative studio stops thinking of itself only as a service provider and starts behaving more like a brand itself. It proves that design can live in multiple dimensions, strategy, storytelling, and now retail–even if only a small gift shop.
For Superbase, the evolution from studio to storefront wasn’t about expanding into a new market. It was about doing what they already know, while deepening their relationship with the creative community. It’s a space where clients, collaborators, and fans can connect beyond the screen and see the studio’s ideas come to life. In many ways, SUPERMARKET™ captures what the next generation of agencies may look like. Not just firms producing work for others, but dynamic creative studios that build their own ecosystems—where design, culture, and commerce intersect naturally.
Superbase has always built brands that endure. With SUPERMARKET™, they’ve built one of their own. It’s not just a store. It’s a statement. One that says creativity belongs to everyone willing to step inside and experience it.
