Experiential Retail Design Trends

EXPERIENTIAL RETAIL capitalizing on your brand’s culture Chipman Design Architecture joined the Retail Design Institute for a Holiday Retail Tour of Downtown Chicago on December 16 2016 featuring stops at RH Gallery, the Burton and Barbour flagship stores and Under Armour’s Brand House.

Lauren Chipman Chipman Design Architecture

Adrenaline pumping, fists in the air - we yell “Go Tim! Jump higher!”

Our shouts echoed through the space; not an arena, but Under Armour’s 30,000 sf ‘Brand House’ on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Testing his athletic prowess, Tim was experiencing UA’s interactive sports endeavor amongst the traditional retail offerings of jerseys, shoes and equipment. The theme of the night was Experiential Retail, hosted by the Retail Design Institute and led by chapter President Heather Dietrichson, who took us on a whirlwind tour of some of the most creative Brick and Mortar retail locations in downtown Chicago.

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In that moment, your customer becomes your authentic brand ambassador.

The past decade has brought on cries declaring ‘The Death of Retail’ as on-line purchasing habits

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RDI : Holiday Retail Tour

have soared. In reaction, Brick and Mortar retail design is constantly evolving to engage the customer and provide something the Internet lacks: experience. Customers are searching for Instagram-worthy moments that can be shared across Social Networks. In that moment, the customer becomes an authentic cultural brand ambassador, which can only occur in the physical store.

Our first tour stop was RH Gallery, a 70,000 sf flagship store in Chicago’s upscale Gold Coast neighborhood.

Covering six floors with an indoor/ outdoor roof de ck and patio, RH introduced a dining element into the retail experience with their highly-regarded Three Arts Club Cafe. RH gives the customer the ability to experience the company’s furniture, hardware and textile

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RH Gallery

offerings in a completely residential setting - you can admire galleryworthy works of fine art on their RH Modern floor while enjoying a glass of wine or sunning yourself on the roof deck on the company’s outdoor furniture. It is a perfect combination of aspirational living paired with attainable design, every detail true to Restoration Hardware’s brand.

After RH, we made our way down the Magnificent Mile to visit two very different stores: Burton Snowboards and Barbour.

Burton Snowboards, started in 1977, is the largest snowboard brand in the world. With 25 global locations, the Chicago Flagship is creatively housed in an 1880’s residential brownstone home. Encompassing 8,000 sf of retail space over four floors, the store prides itself on community engagement, while selling coldweather gear, snowboards, equipment and lifestyle elements.

The fourth floor is home to the store’s “Rider’s Lounge” with a Hospitality Station serving hot

CHICAGO RETAIL :

growth by the numbers

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Rents on North Michigan Avenue are the eighth most expensive in the country.

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Retail spending in the City of Chicago is up 5.4% in 2016 for a total of $28.1 billion.

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Tourist traffic is continually increasing with 51 million visitors in 2014 and a goal of 55 million visitors by 2020.

cocoa and tasty treats. A myriad of events are held in this space, from open mic nights to yoga events to college snowboard club parties! By intrinsically understanding their customer base, Burton imbues their company culture in the store design by providing a slope-side atmosphere in the middle of a bustling Midwestern city.

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Physical design and culture must work hand-in-hand. … The physical design is easy, understanding the culture is the hard part.

- Paco Underhill, Envirosell

Next door to Burton is Barbour, an English fashion brand founded in 1894. Home of the iconic waxed cotton jacket, this Chicago store pays homage to the company’s motorcycle history in 1960’s Britain. This 7,000 sf store not only hosts historical photographs, but has vignettes placed throughout the two-floor space to tell the brand’s story and create interaction points with the customer.

No tour in the Chicago retail scene would be complete without a stop at Michigan Avenue’s Under Armour Brand House. Featuring 30,000 sf of wall-to-wall active lifestyle gear, the Under Armour store’s Main Floor features a largerthan-life chiseled torso wearing a UA-branded compression tee.

This monolithic figure is used to connect the brand to the community by featuring different shirts emblazoned with local sports teams’ logos: the Chicago Cubs, Northwestern University and a host of others. Additionally, the Main Floor features the ‘Wearable Bar,’ a red tech center that displays the many connective athletic devices available. These devices capitalize on the athletic-apparel’s recent acquisition of the popular fitness tracking app, “My Fitness Pal.”

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Barbour

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The second floor is home to the store’s many customer experiences.

We started our journey in the shoe department, which spotlights custom-designed wood and leather fitting chairs with real turf on the ground for testing cleats.

The feature of the second floor is the ‘Optojump’ - an optical measurement system embedded in a mat that assesses a customer’s physical condition by putting them through a series of jumping and running tests. The customer can then compare themselves to previous clientele or see how they stack up against professional athletes. With the ability to save their physical achievement information, customers can return to the store to check their training progress (and perhaps pick up some new merchandise).

Experiential retail’s connection between customer and brand culture is a point of great invigoration for Brick and Mortar stores. Thoughtful and breathtaking retail design is the gateway to this next era of shopping, customer connection and brand loyalty.

Chipman Design Architecture www.chipman-design.com Lauren Chipman, CEO

Retail Design Institute Chicago | Great Lakes Chapter www.retaildesigninstitute.org Heather Dietrichson, President

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With the ability to save their physical achievement information, customers can return to the store to check their training progress (and perhaps pickup some new merchandise).

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Under Armour