adidas Home of Originals
What: a new adidas concept store in London, just a year after the opening of the Oxford street's flagship.
Why it is important: the store focuses on Gen Zs and picks up on all the codes dear to the heart of the next generation of consumers.
The latest venture of the sports retailer, dubbed "Home of Originals", has opened on Carnaby Street in London's Soho neighbourhood. The store carries adidas' Originals, the lifestyle brand it launched in reference to the vintage styles that made the reputation of the brand in the 80s-90s and which is supported by the famous Trefoil logo. The agile location features interchangeable spaces that can evolve with the city and brand stories.
The concept store is aimed at the 18 to 24-year-old, or Gen Z, customers and for that it gathers the various tendencies driven by this category of consumers: exclusivity, community, sustainability, and gender-fluidity. The store also emphasizes creativity.
Exclusivity
The store doesn't carry the full line of adidas' products, only the most in-demand items from the Originals brand and exclusive collections from the adidas x Ivy Park collaboration, and from Yeezy ̶ the fashion collaboration between adidas and American rapper Kanye West.
There is an area dedicated to the Spezial collection, where a custom-designed Spezial pool table is available for anybody to use; and a limited-edition adidas Spezial pool set will be available later this year, to be purchased only at the Carnaby store.
If the Soho space stocks hype products and exclusives that are usually meant for online dropping, it is to create an IRL experience of the sneaker culture and to keep on building its community.
Community
The brand called on local artists to create art installations exhibited throughout the store, to reflect on the cultural aesthetic and design of the Soho neighbourhood.
A DJ set up and vintage-encased speaker system is available for any customer to use and play music. The concept store hosts live and digital events, including broadcasts and digital workshops in compliance with the latest COVID-19 guidelines.
Sustainability
To support the brand's commitment to sustainability, the store features reclaimed wooden flooring and upcycled furniture, and was created with BREEAM certified materials (world's leading sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings). The store's also includes an eye-catching Stan Smith 3D printed trefoil mural containing living plants, a nod to the brand's ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050. Not to mention the fact that the Originals line is associated with Better Cotton Initiative to advocate ethical and sustainable production patterns.
The brand recently placed its first sustainability bonds on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Proceeds from the offering will be used in accordance with adidas sustainability bond framework.
Gender-fluidity
The store follows a gender-inclusive pattern, where women and men collections are seamlessly positioned next to one another. Mixing merchandise organised by theme rather than by gender allows for "cross-buys" (buying an item outside of the customer's gender range) and eventually reaches out to a larger consumer range. This is a growing criteria for Gen Z, who are more open and more willing to explore their options when it comes to gender neutrality than Boomers or Millennials.
Originals yes, but unique?
adidas has competition in the Carnaby Street area as Urban Outfitter just opened a store dedicated to its loungewear line Iets Frans. This is the first brick-and-mortar location for the unisex lifestyle brand, offering elevated sportswear basics and technical fabrics. The store also features a free embroidery personalisation service and exclusive Iets Frans product drops. Word is that the label is exploring wholesale relationships as a way to reach out to a more global audience.
Citadium, the youth chain owned by Printemps in Paris, is rethinking the layout of its Haussmann flagship in order to offer a gender-fluid environment with neutral brand corners instead of women's floor and men's floor. The retailer also recently opened a corner in the Printemps du Louvre store, noting that younger customers were coming a lot to the museum in the absence of tourists and that the corner was performing well since opening.
Not to mention Galeries Lafayette Champs Elysées concept, which targets a younger audience and where assortment is organised by brand and not by gender.
Could, and should, department stores start implementing brands and spaces that cater to Gen Z and gather all the thing they respond to such as exclusivity and gender-fluidity?
The turnaround Printemps is operating with Citadium is an example of how department stores can be agile, and respond quickly to new needs. UK-based Selfridges dipped a toe in the gender-fluid fashion in 2015 with its Agender pop-up store. Now could be the time for department stores to start betting on Gen Zs through assortment and immersive in-store spaces conceived especially for them.
(Article credits: Louise Ancora)