First look: Superdry has opened the doors to its new Athletic Essentials concept store

We visited the Athletic Essentials store on opening day at Westfield shopping centre, White City, and had a first look at Superdry’s newest venture amid its bid to become “cool again”.

Dad brand no more

Superdry chief executive Julian Dunkerton wasn’t going to miss the opening of his new store, in fact he was leading from the front with suggestions for product placement, making it clear he’s passionate about showcasing the very best of the Athletic Essentials range for passers by.

Retail Week revealed earlier this week that the store is targeting a younger, female customer – a venture Dunkerton is confident will be successful.

“If you look at what this generation [Gen Z] is looking for, they are looking for vintage, preppy, Hamptons style fashion again. It’s back and we’re ready for it,” he said.

“We are absolutely the perfect brand to take advantage of this next trend and it’s a massive shift away from athleisure and the kind of sportswear that the generation before adopted.”

Casting an eye proudly at some of the Athletic Essentials products available in-store, he’s keen to point out that his product is both trendy and offers an affordable price point. 

“If you think about the super skinny jeans trend and era, that’s the customer that rejected Superdry. Whereas this lot are saying that they get it, which is why on TikTok you’re seeing a massive surge in activity of really heavily branded products and great preppy styles.”

Dunkerton showed Retail Week Superdry’s latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) report of the year, showing that the fashion retailer is soaring above the 3% benchmark at 22%, which the chief executive says reflects the freedom he has enjoyed since the business has delisted.

“Not being a public company allows me to get on and do things, it’s a huge gamechanger.”

He adds that the business knows who it is today and that Athetic Essentials marks a vital point in its targeting of the younger generation and shifting the business away from being seen as a “dad brand”.

Walking outside of the store Dunkerton looks at the front of neighbouring stores in the Westfield shopping centre and says it’s Superdry that’s bringing life and soul to this party.

“Malls have become generic and boring, they’ve been taken over by a few big players and actually what you need is some life, soul, excitement and something new. We are in the position now to offer it.

“If you go to a chain store you will find that the quality is nowhere near as good. There is love in every product.”

Store secrets

The new 1,200 sq ft store, which has taken over the former Scotch & Soda premises, has a white timber frontage to create an “inviting” look and feel for shoppers.

Unrecognisable from a traditional Superdry store, Athletic Essentials is here to turn heads.

Superdry head of store development Tom Wilson joined Dunkerton at the opening. In a tour of the new store he showed Retail Week how it reflects a shift in the way Superdry is doing things.

“We’re going for big densities and doing lots of front face dressings to show our customer ways to build outfits,” Wilson said.

“We’ve got some cool product across Athletic Essentials and we’ve also got some product that isn’t from the Athletic Essentials range but that fits into the same age of customer and styling.

“We’ve also added some menswear in and have put single shoes out as part of the outfit building concept.

“We want to introduce some more flags into the store as we’ve got it on our signage, it’s all about legacy. This store has product at varying heights and it’s been about getting as much stock in here as we can and offer as much choice as possible. We’ve really focused on colour palettes and there is something for everyone.

“The store offers a journey as we’ve laid out the fixtures to encourage customers to walk all the way around the shop.”