You Are Here – Leipzig (Prototype)
You may remember the post I shared earlier this month about an ultra-rare, never-released mug from Korea. At the time, I mentioned that the private collection being offered for sale included several mugs that appear to be pre-production samples created before the final designs went into manufacturing. One piece that particularly caught my attention is this You Are Here Leipzig (prototype) mug, which was recently sold on eBay.
What makes this mug fascinating is that it appears to be an early production sample featuring a different colour palette and a few subtle design variations compared to the version that was ultimately released in stores. Below, I’ve included photos of all sides of the prototype, alongside images of the Leipzig mug that customers could actually purchase.
The most noticeable difference is the much darker brown tone used on the prototype. In my opinion, the lighter shade chosen for the retail version gives the design a more balanced and appealing look. The same applies to the interior colour, which is considerably darker in the prototype than in the final release. Another detail worth noting is the lion positioned above the Monument to the Battle of the Nations (Völkerschlachtdenkmal). In the production version, the lion was scaled down significantly, making it a much less prominent element. Aside from these changes, the two mugs are pretty much similar.
What I find especially intriguing is that the sticker on the bottom of the prototype indicates that the design was approved for production. This suggests that an additional revision may have been made after approval, resulting in the differences seen on the retail release.
Regardless of how these changes came about, this mug represents a unique piece of Starbucks history – a snapshot of the design process that was never intended to reach the public, yet somehow found its way into a collector’s hands.
The eBay seller mentioned above has several other mugs labelled as “sample” or “prototype” that may be of interest to collectors. Among them is a Montreal mug with no text printed on the base, as well as an uncommon Lisbon mug that uses the English spelling of the city’s name rather than the more familiar Portuguese version. These pieces offer a rare glimpse into the development process behind the Starbucks mug collections we know today.
