When La Marzocco invited me to Out of the Box (OOTB), I wasn’t excited. I didn’t have high hopes. These kinds of events usually feel like sales pitches wrapped in creative packaging. You show up, listen to brand people say things they don’t believe, and leave wondering why you bothered.
But this time, I was wrong.
I arrived at Superstudio Più around three in the afternoon. The doors had opened at eleven. The place was full of people talking, laughing, connecting. The smell of espresso was everywhere, the good kind that lingers in your clothes. Nothing about it felt staged.
The theme this year was Roots and Wings. It felt right. Out of the Box had been gone for years, and its return came at the perfect moment. Coffee’s been through so much noise lately that seeing a brand pull people together for something honest felt overdue.
How it came back
When Out of the Box began back in 2009, it was never meant to be a typical industry event. It was small, creative, and built around people who cared about coffee, not profit margins. Then it disappeared for a while. The world changed, the industry shifted, and the idea of genuine connection started to fade.
Yesterday, it came back quietly and confidently. No hard sell. No posturing. Just a full day of things that reminded you why this community exists in the first place. You could walk through tastings, installations, and product displays that actually had a point. Even the Irish Coffee collaboration with NEIT Whiskey felt thoughtful. It didn’t feel like a sponsorship. It felt like people doing something they enjoyed.
A talk that actually made me care
I usually hate presentations. Most of them exist so speakers can virtue signal. And justify the travel expense. They talk in circles, fill the air with big words, and by the end, you realize they haven’t said anything at all.
This talk was different.
It was called Collaboration and Design, hosted by Remo Morretta, Brand Partnerships Director at Highsnobiety. The guests were Stefano Della Pietra, Product Design and Innovation Manager at La Marzocco; Deniz Keskin, Director of Brand Management and Partnerships at Porsche; and Denisse Riner, Lead Designer at Victorinox.
You could tell right away this wasn’t going to be another round of scripted answers. They talked about design and partnership like it was something personal. Because it was. How real collaboration comes from trust. How design is at its best when it feels shared rather than owned. They spoke like people who actually believe what they make matters.
It was smart, but never self-congratulatory. And for once, I didn’t want it to end.
Craft and collaboration everywhere
Officine Fratelli Bambi had a corner filled with machines that looked more like sculptures than tools. You could see how much pride went into each detail. Porsche and Aimé Leon Dore had their Linea Micra editions on display, while Victorinox and NEIT Whiskey added their own touch to the mix. None of it felt like advertising. It felt like a room full of ideas finding common ground.
That’s what made the event work. Every part of it seemed to exist for a reason.
The evening that followed
I left early. Before sunset. A friend who stayed until the early hours of the following morning told me how the espresso bars turned into cocktail bars. The music became more present. People stayed. Nobody seemed in a hurry to go anywhere. Conversations carried on between people who’d only just met, and yet somehow it felt like everyone knew each other.
Walking out, I realized how much I’d missed this side of the coffee world. The human side. The part where you forget about algorithms and market trends, and just enjoy being surrounded by people who care about the same strange, beautiful thing you do.
OOTB is a reminder that coffee doesn’t have to be serious to feel meaningful.
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