Ever wondered who London Kpop Street is and where we sprang from? Wonder no more and scroll down to read our story and how we came into being!
We are dynamic Londoners with postgraduate degrees in Science whose K-journeys started with K-drama and BTS! As newly-certified (or perhaps certifiable?) ARMY, we took the express train on all things Bangtan and we haven't looked back.
We love everything that the boys stand for and the inspirational messages they impart through their words. Although we may not have had the privilege of being with BTS from the start of their journey, we have loved catching up and getting to know fellow ARMY. So how did our love for BTS transpire into the existence of London Kpop Street, we hear you cry. Read on!
We were ready and excited for our first BTS London concert scheduled for July 2020. The energy that came with that excitement led us to come up with a highly original design that we envisaged printing onto T-shirts to wear at the concert. This flagship design will soon be unveiled - watch this space ARMY!
We then wondered, why limit the joy of donning this design to just us? We wanted fellow ARMY to enjoy wearing artwork that was bespoke to BTS, their positive messages, and London. Sadly, the concert was postponed for reasons we don't need to relive here, but our enthusiasm wasn't dampened! Indeed, we have many designs yet to be revealed for cities around the world.
Knowing how the current situation is adversely affecting ARMY, we wanted to create artwork never seen before, which ARMY could cherish, and which could evoke feelings of nostalgia and comfort through BTS' positivity.
These 'LKS original' designs blossomed through our own imagination (we were happy to see coincidental similarities with BTS music artwork - psychic connection at play?).
We also knew immediately the themes we wanted to work with; Connect and Carry on.
These notions were beautifully coined by BTS and we knew that they were giving us essential survival tools for the current situation.
Bearing this in mind, dear friends, you will now be able to spot these themes in our designs, to name but a few.....
#Connect - Jigsaw ¦ Cube ¦ Compounds ¦ What They Mean To Me ¦ Crosswords ¦ Bangtanagrams (yes, our very own literary invention).
#Carryon - Keep Calm and Carry On B...T...S... ¦ Stamps
We have a range of greetings cards, including Christmas cards and bundles - these will reach you in time for Christmas if you order soon! Also, have you seen the recent #To_BTS postcards? We hope you will love these as much as we do!
With the eventual launch of all of our designs, you will see that they are perfect for ARMY to write actual postcards to BTS to show them what they mean to us.
Why not visit us on Instagram or drop us a line here? We'd love to hear from you and any ideas you have for future designs! Maybe you'd like us to create something just for you!
The LKS Vision
What's our vision? It definitely goes beyond offering a range of official and LKS designed merchandise with affordable delivery fees. LKS may have been born in London, but we are all united by awesome fans worldwide so we happily ship everywhere!
As ARMY we believe in giving back to the community, just as BTS do, and, as such, we will donate percentages of our profits to charities close to our hearts and causes that we know BTS would approve of. These centre around education, the environment, and amazing national key workers, to name but a few.
The K-community is wonderful and vibrant and we want to show you all the amazing things that this community has to offer. As such, this blog will feature guest writers from time to time, who will share their experience, wisdom, expertise and thought-provoking insights.
Hailing from educational backgrounds also, we love supporting students and so we have partnered with K-Pop and Korean University Societies in the UK to bring them their own merch!
So dear friends, now you know our story. It started with one wonderful idea and diffracted (sorry, snuck in science) into a spectrum (another science sneak-in) of designs that are available just for you on our beloved LKS store.
The Future with LKS
Will we stop there? Certainly not! As BTS constantly evolves and grows, so will we! We will continually endeavour to bring you positivity, inspiration, new designs, new merch (including albums, BT21 and TinyTan!), cultural and community kinship, all to keep making you smile!
Hang out with us and see where we can take you!