Made In Cookware expands in brick-and-mortar

Made In Cookware (Made In) is bringing its premium ware directly to consumers.

The brand, which makes restaurant-quality cookware for home cooks and professional chefs alike, has opened its second store to date, a pop-up in the luxury corridor of The Domain in Austin, Texas.

Made In made its brick-and-mortar debut in December 2022, with a pop-up in Austin's South Congress shopping district.  (The lease terms for both location are about a year.) The company is actively looking for more sites, and hopes to open additional stores this year.

For the buildout of the 1,400-sq.-ft. space at The Domain, Made In partnered with Happylucky, a creative agency that works with retail brands across the country. The design pays homage to Made In's roots in the kitchen supply industry. It features materials commonly found in industrial kitchens, which are coupled with timeless aesthetic elements.

The store includes a services center that offers knife sharpening, product engraving and gift wrapping. Additionally, Made In is piloting a program that allows customers to build personalized sets of product bundles at a discounted price.

"Made In is a hospitality-first company, and our stores enable us to live out that value in a concrete way,” said co-founder and CEO Chip Malt. “In these spaces, we can offer perks that are more difficult (or sometimes impossible) to execute in an online environment.”

Some of the extras offered at the brand’s first store include sip-and-shop events on weekends, mimosa and coffee bars, wine tastings, book signings and chef events.

“We are excited to bring this unique and fun shopping experience to home and professional chefs at both our new location and across the U.S. in the coming years,” he said.

Founded in 2017 but born of a 4th-generation, family-owned kitchen supply business, Made In creates best-in-class cookware developed in partnership with the world's finest chefs and foremost craftsmen.

“Cookware preferences can be very personal, from how a pan fits in your hand to the texture of your dinner plates,” noted Malt. "Often a customer's purchase from us is their first time investing in quality kitchenware, so it really helps them to see and feel the quality difference before buying. At our first retail location, we are seeing customers shop both directly and also online, treating the store as more of a showroom. We are excited to carry that momentum into a second location in our hometown of Austin, Texas."