You Don’t Need a 911 to Enjoy the Magic of Porsche’s New Store at South Coast Plaza

You might not appreciate the sleek aesthetic of Porsche-designed goods—timepieces, writing implements, eyewear—the way its sports car fans do, but stroll through South Coast Plaza’s new Porsche Design store, where you’ll find all of these things and the iconic 911, and you’ll “get it.” The Shake Pen (starting at $125) reveals its ballpoint with a quick downward shake. Repeat, and it disappears. The bridge on the P’8478 titanium sunglasses ($500) lifts up so you can replace the lenses with another color. And imagine a speaker designed from the original exhaust of a 911 GT3 ($3,500). “It looks cool,” says Porsche marketing’s Kerstin Hamann, “but the sound quality is just as amazing.”

This concept store, which opened Nov. 15 and spotlights a centerpiece Porsche—at this writing, a red Targa 4 GTS—is the first in the U.S., a collaboration of the car and product-design divisions. If you’ve got $167,480 and want to kick some tires, the sales crew will direct you to the new Porsche dealership in Irvine. The idea is to show how Porsche applies the design philosophy of its cars to various lifestyle products. Nothing illustrates this better than the Bounce S4 sneaker with the car-inspired suspension that propels you forward ($520).

Note: The 1919 Eternity watch marks the millionth 911 produced ($4,200); only a few remain.