This issue of Sports News looks at concept stores. There are relatively few of them, but they demonstrate what can be done when sports retailing is linked with entertainment. Said Michael Rubin, a Philadelphia-based entertainment retail consultant, the goal of concept retailing is ''to immerse people in the product itself and how it relates to values and lifestyle.'' (1)
According to Stanley Eichelbaum, president of Marketing Developments, a Cincinnati retail consulting firm, a concept store can generate 60% more merchandise sales per square foot than a traditional store of the same size. (2)
But not all retailers have felt threatened. Said Ralph Parks, president of Footaction, a shoe store chain, "I was as adamant as anyone that Nike should not be into retail. But if you look at when they started exploding again, it was when they opened these Nike Towns and made themselves bigger than life ... and that has helped my stores all around the country." (4)
Nike currently has nine stores--Portland (OR), Chicago, Orange County (CA), Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Charlie Baker, vice president of retail for Nike, said, "We look for cities with great sports heritage, influential markets with strong local, national and international visitor populations." Each store has its own exhibits. "The customized displays you'll see as you walk through the store will be unique to this store. Our customized displays rotate on a regular basis, so every time the consumer comes in they'll see newness in the store." (5)
The Chicago store, opened in 1992, is the city's top tourist site and attracts over one million visitors a year.
"These aren't so much stores as Nike museums," noted Kathleen Seiders, a marketing professor at Babson College. "Niketown is not about profitability. This is about brand image. Nike invests in stores the same way they invest in advertising." (6)
Said Gordon Thompson, Nike vice president of research, design and development (and the person who developed the NikeTown concept), "If the customer buys a product at the NikeTown store or goes down the street to buy it at Foot Locker, either way, we win.'' (7)
NikeTowns don't offer merchandise at the lowest possible price, but they do offer a wide selection. Said Lee Weinstein, a Nike spokesperson, "No retailer can show the breadth of our products. When you walk into (another retailer), you may not see our outdoor line or our women's apparel." (8)
Of all the NikeTowns, the one in New York is the largest and most elaborate. It is five stories tall and covers 66,000 square feet. Part of the store is designed to look like a 1930s city high school gym (turnstile entrance, basketball court with aged wood floors, bleachers, brick walls, safety mats on doors and columns, wire-mesh covered windows). The school name, P.S. 6453, spells NIKE on the telephone dial. The school team nickname is the Knights (Nike founder and CEO is Phil Knight).
The rest of the store is a high tech showcase featuring a 36-foot screen which descends every 20 minutes, showing one of five three-minute sports videos. (They are produced by an in-house production team which does nothing but create videos for the stores).
Only half of the store's retail space features for-sale items. The rest houses exhibits: A Michael Jordan wall combining Air Jordan shoes with video highlights of his career. A trophy case with Carl Lewis's Olympic gold medals. Displays of Nike shoe technology. View cameras allowing shoppers to look at videos of inline skaters on the streets of New York or cyclists riding down mountains. TVs showing live broadcasts of sports events.
The first floor features shoes, the second team sports, the third tennis, the fourth women's sports, the fifth outdoor activities.
The store gets an average of 7,000 visitors a day, who spend an average of 45 minutes touring the store. It displays 1,200 different Nike products (including 360 different shoe styles). It has 400 employees. (9) Sales are estimated to be 60% apparel, 35% footwear, and 5% accessories. (10)
The goal is to allow shoppers to test out products. "We want to get the gear into people's hands so they can make smart purchasing decisions," said Christopher Doyle, REI's public relations administrator. (11)
"For REI, interactivity is education-based rather than entertainment-based. We tend to carry some pretty technical equipment which we try to demystify," noted Jerry Chevassus, REI's retail director. (12)
"We tried to figure out which products were scary for people. Camping stoves were a high-return item. So were water filters. Most of the time, there was nothing wrong with the product. People just needed more knowledge about which one to buy and how to use it," said Chevassus. (13)
The Seattle store, opened in 1996, is 80,000 square feet and has 450 employees. The building covers a city block. There is a landscaped courtyard featuring a garden (with 54 native Northwest plant species), a walking trail, a bike trail, a pond, and a waterfall. Other features: A 65-foot simulated rock face (the world's largest indoor climbing wall) which can handle up to 15 climbers at a time. A 470-foot outdoor mountain bike test track with water hazards and a 22-foot elevation gradient. A 25-foot indoor footwear test trail with signs indicating different slopes. A rain room to test rainwear in a simulated rain shower. A vented fireplace to test camp stoves. A pool with brackish water to test water filters. A 100-seat deli/cafe. A 250-seat meeting room. A trip planning room, a 400-volume lending library, computers to view CDs and internet sites, and a book store.
The store stocks 60,000 different items. The bike section displays 350 bikes and has a repair and assembly shop, and an enclosed station to test lighting systems.
The store was constructed using environmentally friendly building materials.
Sponsors underwrote the cost of approximately 50 sections of the store. For example, Swiss Army Brands provided 13 clocks showing the time around the world. JanSports helped to pay for a Kids' Camp.
During the store's first year, it had 1.5 million visitors.
The Bloomington store is 67,000 square feet and has a 55-foot climbing wall. It has a 1,200-foot trail to test mountain bikes and cross-country skis, along with a simulated trail and creek bed to test footwear, and areas to test water filters and camp stoves. Surrounding the store are trees and plants native to Minnesota. When it opened in late 1997, the store had 20,000 visitors during the first two days.
It has a four-story waterfall with a 64,000-gallon reflecting pool full of fish; a trout pond with ducks and turtles; a huge aquarium with two of the largest black bass in captivity; a two-story log cabin with waterwheel; a seafood restaurant and a McDonalds; shooting ranges for rifles, handguns, and bows; a taxidermy studio; a barbershop; a 250-seat auditorium; a bookstore; an art gallery; and a boat exhibit. Adjacent to the store is the Wildlife Museum featuring a collection of animal dioramas.
A second store was established in Gurnee, Illinois (halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee). The location was picked because the Chicago area generated the most mail order sales for the company. It is expected to draw 3 to 5 million visitors a year.
- The store looks like a hunting lodge and features a three-story fireplace and moose chandeliers. It has a 2 1/2 story waterfall flowing into a 32,000-gallon pool stocked with Great Lakes fish. Much of the rest of the 133,000-square-foot space looks like a wilderness with pines, coyotes, owls, and other wildlife. There is also a golf pro shop with putting area, a fly shop featuring demonstrations, a gunshop with a gunsmith, a pistol range, an archery range, and a restaurant. The store stocks 3,500 fishing rods, 100,000 fishing baits and lures, and 60 styles of tackle boxes. Said Jeff Baars, the store's general manager, "You can't take it all in at one time. It takes two, three trips to take it in. And we have people out picking up more antiques. That's the way we want it. You'll probably see something new almost every time you come in." (14) Planned are an outdoor fishing stream, golf driving range, and hiking trails.