Nike’s newest retail concept is a high-tech, experiential showcase on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
The six-level, 68,000-sq.-ft. Nike NYC, dubbed a “House of Innovation,” combines innovative physical services and digital features via the Nike app to provide a personalized and futuristic shopping experience.
Nike is debuting several new tech features in New York, including “shop the look.” By scanning a QR code on a mannequin, shoppers can browse every single item on the display, check to see if their size is available in-store or online and see available colors. Then with just a tap, they can request for select products to be sent to a fitting room of their choice or receive the items from a store athlete at a designated pick-up spot.
Also, NikePlus members can skip the checkout line and pay for their purchases from within their Nike App using stored or new payment methods. Members can scan the item(s) of their choice, check out like a traditional Nike App purchase and receive the payment receipt within the app. Special “instant checkout” stations are positioned throughout the store so that shoppers bag products if they choose before leaving. And if shoppers don’t want to haul their bags around the city, they can request to have their in-store purchases delivered to their home, hotel, office or any location of their choice in Manhattan, within the same day.
“Nike NYC is designed to be a dynamic store environment, that is just as personal and responsive as digital,” said Heidi O’Neill, president, Nike Direct. “This premium destination gives consumers an authentic, immersive and human connection to the Nike Brand.”
The ground floor is home to the Nike Speed Shop which, similar to Nike by Melrose, uses Nike’s digital commerce data to provide a localized assortment that features the most loved products by local members of Nike’s loyalty program, NikePlus, along with curated seasonal picks.
The Speed Shop is also home to the Nike Sneaker Bar, which provides easy and fast access to Nike footwear and customization opportunities. In addition, NikePlus members can reserve items via the Nike App and pick them up in lockers located in the Speed Shop.
Other store features include the Nike Expert Studio, the company’s first-ever dedicated floor for NikePlus members. It offers a range of services, from bookable one-on-one sessions with Nike experts to access to seasonally exclusive products to cut-and-sew customization of Nike’s latest apparel launches and other personalization options.
The store exterior utilizes both slumped and carved glass designed to reflect and create motion that mirrors the movement of athletes, elevates the Nike Swoosh and represents the iconic aesthetic of Nike Air. The area just inside the entrance – called the Nike Arena — showcases immersive seasonal and sport-inspired storytelling moments from the brand. It also features a custom-designed installation, called the Sport Beacon, inspired by the non-stop visual and sonic clash in New York City.
The interior has product floors dedicate to men, women, kids, and the footwear-obsessed. The Sneaker Lab, on the fourth floor, has the largest concentration of seasonally current Nike footwear anywhere in the globe, according to the company.