Tasked with presenting two Nike collections, COO played on apparel’s visual identity to create a uniquely immersive shopping experience at Nike Flagship Store on Huaihai Middle Road. By juxtaposing each series’ defining identities, customers are reminded of Nike’s range and expertise in a way that is nothing if not visually striking. NSW is an altogether edgier edit of classic Nike Sportswear, complete with a disruptive new logo; while the brand’s innovative Tech Pack collection fuses form and function to create an expressive connection to sport. The resulting interiors juxtapose these identities to not just contrasting, but clashing effect.
Both inside and out, the design creates a clear distinction between two collections. The strategy includes striking window displays, playing on the unique visual identity of each series. For Tech Pack, this includes a muted palette of blues, greys and blacks, inspired by the garments themselves. Video installations and screens mirror the collection’s spirit of expression and movement, presenting the clothing in its intended state: motion. Taking inspiration from the environmental data at its core, window displays feature sketch graphs, formulae and other technical imagery. In contrast, displays for Nike NSW centre on a palpable urban theme. Linking stores to their locale, presentations incorporate playful street-side references, framing cities as both track and playground for Nike fans to push their limits. They include neon-wheeled bicycles, concrete barriers, and to-scale road signs, seamlessly extending street to store.
These distinct identities continue throughout the space. For Nike NSW, that translates to an entrance display featuring yet more bicycles, and a central island evocative of China’s iconic elevated highways. Punctuating these areas is the collection’s altered Nike emblem: comprising a block-colour rectangle hovering above the now familiar swoosh, its inherent disruption is articulated through camouflage print.
Reinforcing Tech Pack’s data-based inspiration, dynamic audio-visual backdrops are used to offset clothes racks. Elsewhere, mannequins are housed behind semi‑transparent LED screens, outlining the human body and underpinning the series’ physiological precision.
These two distinct design identities converge in a central tower. Spanning ground floor and atrium levels, the split structure physically juxtaposes the precision and data-informed integrity of Tech Pack, with the playful, street‑inspired nature of NSW. In stark contrast, NSW dazzles in signature pink, blue and yellow. With irregular geometry to resemble scaffolding, and flanked by camo‑print traffic cones, bench-like slats serve as platforms for white coloured mannequins.
A design of two halves, the resulting interiors wilfully clash two distinctive collections to striking effect. Dynamic, engaging and memorable, it amplifies Nike’s flair for sportswear engineered for motion, and inspires visitors to take to the streets, and get active.
Type:
Retail
Location:
Huaihai Flagship Store
717 Huaihai Middle Road,
Huangpu District, Shanghai, China
Assignment:
Concept Design
Detail Design
Excl. Digital Content
Extent:
Approx. 500 m2 (on two floors)
Year of Completion:
2018
Team:
Tilman ThĂĽrmer
Manuela Mappa
Vega Li
Dora Latkoczy
Yu Yin
Client:
Nike Sports (China) Co., Ltd
Photos:
COO
Charlie Xia