The man behind the leading brand of smartphone cases is out to promote French values and artisanship.
Michael Massat was a product manager at PPR (now Kering), with his roots in Saint-Tropez. Then one day, 15 years ago, he decided to take on the cellphone-case market. “I saw 3G coming and that it would mean many more screens with the need to protect them.” A simple idea that just required the right positioning. “There was no benchmark brand in mobile-phone protection, such as Ray-Ban for sunglasses, Hermès for bags or Montblanc for pens. So the aim was to conceive an attention-grabbing lifestyle brand that would channel Saint-Tropez but without the bling, just authentic, top-quality products.” So Norève was born. Since then the Saint-Tropez brand has greatly expanded its smartphone-case range and added a line of luxury bags and some very Saint-Tropez accessories – bags, belts, bracelets, polo shirts, caps... –, all drawing on French artisanship. What’s more, Michael Massat hopes to set up a production centre in Saint-Tropez, intended for Compagnons du Devoir guild artisans only. In the meantime, his latest news is next December’s opening of Norève’s first concept store. Where? “Right here, at 55 Rue Gambetta. But my ambition is to then take my concept to New York, Singapore, Hong Kong…”
Par Alexandre Benoist
Côteweb 2021, création de site Internet sur Nice