Harry’s Café de Wheels might be a legendary part of Sydney’s DNA, but they’re also rubbing shoulders with the influencers of the next generation. The scene might have changed, but Harry’s will forever remain Harry’s.
Sydney’s a city that’s always on the cutting edge of fashionable footwear, but no emerging trend can take away the locals’ desire for a tasty bit of roadside nosh. So, it makes sense that the two worlds would collide with an event celebrating the iconic shoe label with one of Sydney’s most beloved food icons.
Photo: Life without Andy
Steve Madden’s billion dollar global empire officially celebrated their Australian launch with a top-tier media and influencers event, which featured an exclusive warehouse style party with over 300 attendees in Sydney, on Thursday March 7, 2019.
With the hashtag #whatdrivesyou, organisers had influencers, TV personalities and media in attendance asking and answering that very question. Set among the backdrop were motoring icons Ferrari, BMW, Holden Torana and El Camino, positioned alongside Sydney’s famed Harry’s Café de Wheels.
Attendees enjoyed a sneak peek at Steve Madden’s latest designs, while getting their teeth into some of Harry’s finer treats—the moreish pies and hotdogs are never too far from anyone’s mind, even when enjoying some old school arcade games.
International DJ, Tigerlily, headlined the party with local support from DJ Tori Levett.
With two Steve Madden stores presently opened in Australia (in Robina on Queensland’s Gold Coast, and one at Melbourne’s Highpoint shopping centre) an additional six store openings are scheduled in the near future. These stores will be working in tandem with the Steve Madden online store, which launched in December 2018 to tremendous success.
The joining of forces between one global fashion icon and a uniquely Australian brand is a match made in heaven, with Harry’s boasting a history dating back to when Harry “Tiger” Edwards opened his original caravan cafe, named simply Harry’s, near the gates of the Woolloomooloo Naval Yard in 1938.
Keith Warren, co-owner at Harry’s Café de Wheels, reflects on the night by saying it was “a brilliant night that we thought fit to debut our retro food cart plus our exciting new Chorizo and Kransky hotdogs. A shining silver Airstream style caravan resembling Harry Edwards’ original cart filled with new and exciting hotdogs.”
The aesthetics of the evening also mirrored a new direction for the company with Founding Director at DP Strategy Design, Callie van der Merwe, stating “In a time of uncertainty and political and economic shifts the natural human condition is to retreat and take stock. In times like these people yearn for the perceived stable past and thus brands like Harry’s Cafe de Wheels anchored in nostalgia and a rich colourful history moves into the bullseye of consumer sentiment. It’s around this backdrop that we are framing the store architecture and brand communication of Harry’s.”
Harry’s Café de Wheels now boast locations throughout Sydney and greater NSW, in Darling Harbour, Woodbine, Wetherill Park, Woolloomooloo, Burwood, Haymarket, Liverpool, Newcastle, Penrith, Tempe, Ultimo…and Shenzhen, China plus Manila, Philippines. Harry’s is known as—and has always been known as—Famously Australian, uniquely Harry’s.
