Niketown Revamped
In line with the launch of the brand’s Hypervenom 3 football boot, Nike has transformed its flagship London store with a bold redesign featuring a number of innovative and unique features. Currently being modelled by some of world footballs deadliest strikers, the boot has been designed with a clear mantra – Cut. Strike. Score.
This concept has now been brought to life at Niketown in London across the ground and first floor of the space. Created by Millington Associates, the project has proved a huge hit with the public since opening at beginning of March.
Having worked with Nike for nearly 15 years on a range of retail concepts, Millington Associates know what their store designs need. Speaking to Premier Retail, Millington Associates Project Manager Hetti McArthur gave an overview of this latest collaboration:
“The original brief was based on the cut, strike, score concept created by Nike’s retail design team in Western Europe. Nike wanted to explore how they could develop that through the store. They had some visuals for the entrance of the store but not for the rest of the space.
“For this campaign, as you enter the store there is a large digital screen which covers the whole entrance wall. We covered that up with some lightning bolt imagery so you can only see the screen through the slashes in the MDF façade. You can see images of the players and the theme of the campaign playing on the screen.
“From here, the main feature you’ll see is a large graphic made to look like there is a big rift going into the floor, as if a lightning bolt has damaged it and broken apart the earth. That was one of the most complicated aspects of the work.”
To add to the rift effect, mannequins dotted around this area have been made to look like the concrete floor is breaking apart beneath them as they tackle, dribble and shoot. Hetti continued:
“We also have the Core Area, which in essence is a showcase area for campaign. In the Core Area we have some green lightning bolts going into the floor and a large orange bolt that again is meant to look like it’s breaking up the floor. There are also a couple of large sculpted concrete effect balls that are suspended in mid-air and have been made to look like they’ve broken through some netting.”
On the first floor, Niketown’s trial zone area has been overhauled to become more of a destination experience. The left hand side of the space has been turned into tiered football benches with acrylic lockers. The idea now is that you come along, speak to a member of staff and get your size Hypervenom boot out of a locker. You then go into the trial zone cage where you try and score a goal in various holes that differ in size and location.
The opportunity to measure yourself against some of the world’s best footballers has proved to be one of the revamp’s most successful features. Similarly, the faux floor damage proved realistic enough to fool a number of customers, including members of the store’s running club. Hetti concluded:
“Feedback has been really positive, especially the exploded floor effects. It’s something we’ve worked on in the past to varying degrees of success but I think Nike were really happy with this. This project was a lot looser than others and more open to interpretation. With an element like the floor we were asking Nike to trust us because there wasn’t any time to provide samples. We enjoy that degree of freedom.”
