Foot Locker to play up in-store experience
NEW YORK — Start with the shoes and move on from there. That’s the plan at Foot Locker Inc., long known for its sneakers, which is reorganizing its stores to further highlight top brands, designating areas to showcase trends, and adding more displays of full sports gear to encourage broader shopping.
At the chain’s redesigned midtown Manhattan flagship, set to open Tuesday, large digital signs display images of the shoes as well as social feeds like Twitter that mention the brand. Larger areas are devoted to big brands like Puma and Under Armour. A section is devoted to showcasing emerging fashions for women. And next to the store, there’s an experiential area called NYC33 with a separate entrance that will host fashion shows and showcase other events and launches.
“Sneakers drive the apparel that goes with it,” says Foot Locker CEO and president Dick Johnson. Even with all the other areas, the 10,000-square-foot store near Macy’s stocks about 50,000 sneakers for men, women and kids at any given time.
The New York-based chain, which operates more than 3,400 stores under its own name as well as FootAction, Champs Sports, Lady Foot Locker and the new women’s SIX-02 among others, has benefited from the popularity of athletic sportswear for life beyond the gym. It’s aiming to push annual sales to $10 billion through 2020 from last year’s $7.4 billion — in part by catering better to female customers. That all starts with sneakers, which represent about 80 per cent of men’s sales and 75 per cent of the women’s business.
The field is competitive. Traditional rivals remain, while Lululemon is expanding to new areas like swimwear and menswear, and its own suppliers like Under Armour and Nike are opening more standalone stores. Nike’s store at The Grove in Los Angeles features a Michael Jordan experience area where customers can test products through a digitally interactive dribbling drill that lasts 23 seconds, a nod to the athlete’s numbers. Under Armour is set to open a big store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on the site of the former FAO Schwarz store.
“This is not a fad,” says NPD analyst Matt Powell, who says the athletic sportswear and footwear industry enjoyed one of its best years in 2015. It’s about a $70billion market, divided evenly between footwear and clothes. Athletic footwear sales increased by a midteen percentage last year.
Johnson says the newly-designed store is important to separate itself from the competition and get its message out in New York, the epicentre of sneaker culture.
Among some of the hot sneakers: Adidas Pure Boost, the Stephen Curry shoe by Under Armor, and Nike Air’s Huararaches.
The intent of the NYC33 area is not to sell stuff but to excite the customer.
From Sept. 6 to Sept. 25, Foot Locker will stage fashion shows in that space highlighting singer Rihanna’s new Fenty collection for Puma, which includes $600 capes and $200 sweatshirts.
The store also marks the debut of an area called SIX-02-Collection that serves as a kind of lab that showcases emerging fashions for women.