Design Consultancy
JudgeGill
Kevin Gill
0161 228 3066
kevin.gill@judgegill.co.uk
www.judgegill.co.uk
The Challenge
adidas-Salomon AG has 300 adidas Sports Performance Stores across the world. Distinct from the adidas leisurewear offer, the stores are dedicated to meeting the specific needs of both elite and everyday sports men and women. A pilot store was launched in 2003 with the objective of better reflecting the Sports Performance brand values. However, there were elements of its design that both staff and customers found challenging.
The Brief
adidas’ philosophy at its own retail stores is to showcase the breadth and depth of adidas product while creating a unique and stimulating adidas brand experience. With a limited budget and short timeline, the design challenge put forth to JudgeGill was to refine the original Sport Performance Store’s minimalistic design concept in order to enhance the consumer in-store experience, while maintaining the brand look and feel of other stores for consistency.
Information & Guidance on:
The Design
JudgeGill’s Sport Performance Stores retail design focuses on the adidas brand, using a sports stadium as inspiration. The adidas iconic three stripes are used to visually define the store’s entrance and extend the full length of the space, highlighting the new collective display of footwear. Customers are drawn into the store through a mock athlete’s tunnel. Once inside, in-store displays, signage and large plasma screens direct consumers to specific sports categories with highlighted product. The display areas are divided with different playing surfaces, each showcasing different sports categories, such as basketball, football and women’s tennis.
The dressing rooms are designed with terrace-like wooden seating, adding to the sports-like atmosphere. Overall, it was important that the merchandising system, including fixtures and colors, was designed to be flexible enough to implement across different sports categories and to work throughout the store.
The Results
The adidas Sport Performance stores that implemented the re-energised design, including Berlin and Hamburg, exceeded initial sales targets by over 40%. The updated store in Hamburg continues to outperform the previous design by over 100% in net sales per square metre. In addition to the numbers proving success, external research and data collected from consumers showed that every single consumer measure improved with the new store format, including brand recognition, ease of shopping, ease of store navigation and overall brand perception.
Judges’ Comments
The judges were impressed with the refined store design and Gabrielle Teague, Joint Director, National Patient Safety Agency, commended it for its ‘stronger adidas consumer retail experience with impressive improved results in sales and customer perception’. She also praised the attention to detail in ‘the way it carries the visual identity of the brand through, even to the lighting’ and commended adidas for ‘listening to their customers’.
