This is not just retailing. This is Hollywood, Broadway and the Silicon Valley all meshed together in a breathtaking, five-floor, 66,500-square-foot selling space. It is merchandising for the new millennium. While the rest of us still are toiling away in the dusk of the 20th century, Nike has jumped ahead to the 23rd or 24th.
Landlord Donald Trump said, 'I think they've built the greatest retail establishment I've ever seen!'
The newly opened NikeTown is a monument to what footwear retailing can and should be: With touches of computerization, virtual reality and sports memorabilia, as well as heavy doses of excitement and drama, it's the antithesis of the dull, everyday shopping experience.
For example, since when is getting your foot sized supposed to be fun? With Nike's revolutionary new 'NGAGE' digital sizing system, the time-worn Brannock devices have been tossed away with yesterday's newspapers.
Need to know your shoe size? Step on up to one of the cutting-edge, interactive computer measuring systems that gauge all aspects of your feet and project their outline electronically on a display screen before you. It's foot measuring, but it's also entertainment.
It makes you want to buy a new pair of shoes just to be sized again. And all the data collected daily on each consumer is fed directly into Nike's advanced research facility in Beaverton, Ore., leading to further knowledge of sizing and widths.
And when you want to take a break from shopping shoes, activewear, hats, etc., roam around the display of sports memorabilia. How about checking out the Stanley Cup, Super Bowl trophies, the array of legendary player awards and plaques? This isn't just a shoe store; this is as good as Cooperstown! And then there's Michael Jordan's uniform displayed under a protective shield and Yankee hero Derek Jeter's bat fresh from the World Series. If you want to watch video bios of some of the world's greatest athletes, just push a button.
When it comes to visual display, Nike is leading the pack. A few weeks ago in ThinkPiece, I advocated that retailers consider experimenting with CD-ROMS to graphically display pertinent information about footwear materials and components. I didn't realize Nike already was way ahead of me.
The new NikeTown features animated visual displays extolling the virtues of the various waterproof or airproof fibers and textiles featured in Nike apparel and footwear. It makes their message easy to understand and enticing as well.
And when you need personal assistance, there's a sales associate on the scene in moments. (Since when do sales clerks smile profusely and eagerly ask how you are and if you need help?)
But maybe most impressive is that the 450-person staff, gathered from across the world, gives global marketing a new meaning. Speak Italian? Chinese? German? You'll have no problem here. This is the true global village. Except its economy is based on footwear, not gold.
In fact, when I went back the morning of the New York Marathon, announcements over the public address system were in Japanese.
Want a little diversion and entertainment? Every 20 minutes the store's atrium 'morphs,' or architecturally metamorphosizes, into a colossal entertainment center. The lights dim, an enormous 36-by-22-foot screen gracefully glides down, and shoppers are treated to a pulsating, computer-generated sports and action video fed by six projectors. 'Amazing, isn't it?' whispered former British royal Princess Sarah Ferguson, after witnessing the show opening night.
For three minutes, the audience is bonded by the thrill of sports. This is retailing from a TV dream sequence -- except this time it's for real.
NikeTown also offers sports nuts the ultimate virtual-reality experience. By peering through a dual-eyed scope, the kind used at the top of the Empire State Building, one suddenly is rollerblading through traffic on the streets of Manhattan, or motor biking through ruts and hills. With the video clips of famous runners, shoppers can experience the thrill of the New York Marathon. With the array of sports memorabilia, they can smack a home run in the sixth game of the World Series.... It's the essence of sports and the ultimate American fantasy, capturing the thrill of competition and victory.
Now some competitors may critically say it's all fluff; that the hype takes away the momentum of the merchandise. But what is retailing's true obligation today? Just to sell merchandise?
Well, when I need stuff, I can buy it at home through a pile of catalogs or electronically through the Internet or TV. Retailing in the '90s is supposed to make me smile, bring me into a store, make me feel good about myself and look forward to making a purchase. And most important, make me want to come back to the store again soon. NikeTown makes you want to come back the moment you walk in the front door.
It's a visual catalog, a massive department store for the sports fanatic. Need fun kids merchandise? Take the giant escalators up to the fourth floor and turn right. Want fashion and lifestyle apparel? Head straight. Looking for hats, bags and shirts? Third floor, near the front. The store is a temple of sports merchandise and items: jackets, shirts, socks -- and shoes, shoes everywhere.
And boy, do they know how to display those shoes. The average footwear store slaps products on plain shelves or slat boards. At NikeTown, the shoes are stars in their own mini-theaters. They're exhibited in see-through, circular tubes, angled to show the sole, heel and toe. And they spin continuously, showing every detail in 360 degrees of exposure.
Stroll into NikeTown off 57th Street and you're not just a consumer -- you are suddenly a sports fan, a tourist, a participant. You see, you feel, you touch. When you view memories of the late Steve Prefontaine, one of the world's great runners who was cut down in his prime, you may even shed a tear.
What Gordon Thompson, Nike vice president of design, and John Hoke, image design creative director, have pieced together could be studied in university design and architecture classes. It's the spirits of George Jetson, Cecil DeMille and Frank Lloyd Wright all mixed together.
At NikeTown, buying footwear isn't a chore like at some stores. It's an experience -- a marriage of science, athletics and show biz.
On a personal level, NikeTown's opening was a true pleasure for me. I got to shake hands with Olympic great Carl Lewis and footwear legend Phil Knight, two of my heros, in the same evening.
The store's inscribed mission states: 'Teamwork, honor, courage, victory.' Not a bad philosophy to live by.
Whether you're a Nike fan or a competitor, NikeTown makes one proud to be in the footwear industry.