The new look stores are defined by agility and adaptation, giving the brand the ability to tailor a store visit to individual customer requirements, by providing a canvas that can be quickly augmented in direct response to feedback. The new retail concept demonstrates the ‘expert selector’ credentials of Runners Point, whilst seamlessly connecting online retail and social landscapes.
For maximum flexibility, the store design avoids visual clutter, encouraging freedom of movement. Natural, authentic raw finishes were carefully selected, avoiding highly processed materials and complex structures that clash with product aesthetic. Display furniture is self-supporting, suggestive of a temporary installation, mobility and potential flexibility of use.
James Breaks, Head of Design for rpa:group comments, “Runners Point has an ‘inspire, analyse, activate’ brand message, and the store space had to support superior levels of engagement by staff, customer, and brand alike. Practically the concept had to be scalable to suit both flagship locations and standard high street and mall store locations. The new shops have a grounded and authentic tone, reflecting a runners ethos; promoting focus, reducing distraction and encouraging attainment of specific individual goals.”
rpa:group recognised that as modern running footwear is colourful and vividly textural, the design needed to create a framework which introduced rhythm into the space, whilst celebrating the product. The store perimeter incorporates slender, raw-metal frame profiles delineating the wall-space, bringing order to the categories and flexibility to product display. Natural faced ply back-panels are propped within the frames to form the display ‘canvas’. Semi-transparent voiles provide brand reinforcement and deliver a level of semi-privacy and demarcate area uses.
The floor is a reconstituted rubber, bringing a natural spring to the step and painted with running lanes that aid analysis in a flagship store and guide customer flow in smaller stores. Fitting rooms are tensile structures, using the universal perimeter system profile, with stretched printed canvas panels for wall and door construction. Seating blocks punctuate the space with contrasting colour, providing functional adjacencies to the shoe displays and analysis areas.
A simplified hierarchy of information, using coloured light, defines gender to either side of the store, with simple, bold category headers of ‘Live’ ‘Run’ or ‘Train’. Customer flow allows for an effective ‘unguided’ purchasing experience. Screens are provided for online selection, stock checking and ordering. The environment incorporates a full range of technology, including large-scale product selectors that merge the online offer with in-store product, extending availability and customer service. State-of-the-art gait analysis stations are positioned across the store, supported by running track and running machines, in turn creating visual theatre and defining a truly integrated experience that is enduring; flexibile and encourages multiple return visits to build a long-lasting relationship.
For more information about our work with Runners Point please click here.