retail news : Under Armour in China, Exhilarating Retail Theatre

American sportswear retailer Under Armour has centred its new Shanghai flagship store, opened earlier this month, on a dramatic multi-sensory experience. Shoppers access the store, which was created by New York design agency Hush, only after passing through two experiential spaces.

The entrance to the store consists of a 30-foot tunnel of light, serving as a kind of sensory decompression chamber, priming shoppers’ retinas for the second space – a 270-degree panoramic film theatre showing a constant stream of intense, strobe-filled sports visuals including running and weightlifting.

The designers at Hush say: “In order to take the Chinese market by storm, we designed the sensory-challenging space specifically to transcend cultural and language barriers, translating the Under Armour brand into pure sight, sound and form.”

The high-energy visual montage, coupled with surround-sound audio, aims to completely immerse consumers in the brand’s universe – before unleashing them into the rest of the experience. After viewing a six-minute film, shoppers move to a small darkened retail space to browse a curated selection of products.

For more on the growing value of setting the scene to recalibrate the consumer experience, see the Store Entrances Reset the Scene section of Future Store Environments: Layout, Mood & Ambience (a report within our Future of the Store Industry Trend).

The benefits of immersive and sensorial experiences are explored further in Experiential Museum Design and Beyond the Comfort Zone: Edgier Store Designs Disturb to Thrill.
See also Tech-Fuelled Retail Spaces and Sports Futures: Concepts Breaking New Ground.

 

 

Source stylus.com

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