BTS Monochrome Pop-Up

BTS might be in the military, but their brand sure isn’t. Just this year alone, I’ve been to three birthday events, and two pop-up events. The most recent of which was Monochrome and let me tell you… I’ve never experienced such highs and lows in a single event.

Waiting (Hours) in Line

In order to get into the event, attendees enter their phone number into a kiosk that acts as a digital queue. It gives you an estimated waiting time and updates you in real-time to your place in line. Online, the Monochrome pop-up states that their digital kiosk opens at 11 AM but that’s actually wrong. The kiosk opens at sometime between 5:15 AM and 5:30 AM. Keep in mind, the pop-up opens at 11 AM.

So, to keep my position as my mom’s favorite, I woke up at 3 AM, took at taxi at 4 AM and arrived at 4:30 AM grab the 19th slot in line. Eventually, I made it back home at 6:30 AM so I could nap before heading back for opening.

Unlike the digital kiosk, the pop-up opens exactly at 11 AM and the first 50 people in “line” enter the pop-up in order. And even then… there was drama (more on that later). But the first 50 of us who supposedly lined up at 4 AM slowly made our way into the pop-up.

Inside The Pop-Up

While there are a few photos on display and some exhibits that I’ve never seen before, Monochrome is very much a pop-up store. There’s a catalogue up front of all the merch available in the store along with stickers if anything is sold out. To make it “fair”, the store is restocked daily so that visitors each day have a chance to get the merch they’re looking for.

Although the monochrome theme has been unanimously underwhelming for most ARMY, the pop-up itself did look pretty cool. It’s not an exhibit, but there are some cute spots for photo ops and each member had his individual picture on the wall, so you could snap a quick pic with your bias.

Of all the merch, I’d have to say I was most impressed with the t-shirt and crewneck. They looked way better in person than in the pictures. All the details are textured and the quality of the fabrics are really soft and comfy. You can also find BTS’s debut date 20130613 and ARMY day 20130709 written on them, along with the cypher for Eternal Youth (45 54 45 52 4E 41 40 20 59 4F 55 54 48). All of which I though were really thoughtful details for ARMY. And if you get the crewneck it comes with two photo cards. Score!

Of course a pop-up wouldn’t be complete with out freebies. When you enter each visitor is given a baggage tag at random. I got Jimin! Then if you spend over ₩70,000 (which isn’t hard to do) you get a BTS Island photo card and code for in-game items plus a special custom visitor card and lanyard. I though the visitor’s card was such a unique and special keepsake from this event. It really made waking up at 3 AM worth it.

The Drama

I actually tried to visit the pop-up on opening day and failed miserably. The recent J-Hope pop-up taught me that the digital queue (typically) opens 30 minutes before the pop-up’s opening time so I arrived at 10:30 AM. Of course, what I didn’t know was that the queue had actually opened sometime after midnight. And as word spread online, 832 hardcore fans arrived at Monochrome way before I did. I did get called into the pop-up around 4:30 PM, but most of the merch had already sold out by noon, so I thought I’d just try to visit on another day.

Of course, the drama doesn’t end there. On my most recent trip (when I actually got in), I arrived at the pop-up and took up my place in line at 10:40 AM. That’s when I (and others in line) realized that there were new faces in line with us. It actually started at 5:15 AM when the first person in line put in her phone number in and was given the number 2. And the next person after her? He got 4. So by the time we arrived in the morning… we realized that some of the people physically in line weren’t there with us in the morning. No idea how this happened, but it was super shady.

Global Schedule

If you weren’t in Seoul for the Monochrome Pop-up, hopefully it will be coming to a location near you instead! Here are the details: