Exclusive Look at Cole Haan’s First U.S. Grandshop

The footwear brand’s high-tech store opened at the Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday.

Cole Haan is so in love with its impossibly light ZeroGrand shoes that it dedicated more than a dozen global stores to them. Now the brand is bringing its Grandshop retail experience to the U.S. in a Silicon Valley store with, naturally, a techie twist.

Opening Thursday, the 940-square-foot retail location — set within the renovated Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, Calif. — is not only the company’s first Grandshop in its home country, it’s the first to feature Near Field Communication.