Store gallery: Inside Nike’s first European House of Innovation

This week, Nike unveiled its newest store in the form of its latest House of Innovation outlay in Paris.

There are only two other House of Innovation stores in the world – in New York and Shanghai − but this latest one was opened under the most unusual circumstances.

Cathy Sparks, global vice-president and general manager of Nike Direct stores, is based in Portland, US. She would normally be on the front line of any new store unveiling for the sports titan. But while she has been heavily involved in the development of the new store, being there for the opening was not possible in the current climate.

“I was in the store right before we stopped travelling, with my hard hat on, and have done many virtual tours since,” says Sparks.

“It breaks my heart I can’t be there for opening day, but I know the team will have done an excellent job.”

Opening a new store in the middle of a pandemic is a bold move by any retailer’s standards, never mind a 26,000 sq ft, four-storey mega-flagship.

But Nike has always been a brand to do things differently, and this latest flagship is no exception.

Mindful but undeterred by the new world of shopping, Nike has incorporated a range of measures to its new flagship to ensure shoppers have a safe and immersive shopping experience.

The new store is fitted out with light installations that provide a roadmap for travelling around the store while enforcing social distancing. Nike has also launched its first socially distanced bra-fitting service, which combines two measurements taken by shoppers and guided by a store associate and Nike’s algorithmic technology to suggest products across the range.

Sparks says Nike has taken lessons from store reopenings across its existing portfolio in recent months to “reinvent a safe shopping journey in this brand-new store”.

As well as tweaking the layout and services on offer, the brand has used existing in-store digital technology that allows shoppers to use the Nike App both for rapid checkout and to scan and learn about products, in order to create a ‘zero-contact’ shopping journey for those who want it.

Social distancing measures aside, Nike’s new store is packed with innovations and store experiences to lure local shoppers and tourists alike.

“The strategy for House of Innovation stores is to bring the very best of Nike, from our product innovation to our service innovation alongside digital and physical integration, to the world’s biggest stages,” says Sparks.

In this endeavour, Nike’s new Paris store has extensive offers, with a floor dedicated to menswear as well as a sneaker lab on the basement floor. 

The brand has also focused keenly on kids’ sports gear after research found that sports participation among kids in France is falling. As well as boasting what Sparks says is the largest kids’ sportswear assortment in France, the store has a digitally powered store experience inspired by parkour that kids can compete on individually or in teams.

Nike has focused on localised offers across all its House of Innovation stores, and the Paris branch is no exception. 

The sportswear brand has a range of ‘hyper-localised’ products that are exclusive to its Paris store, as well as product collaborations with local artists including Arthur Teboul and Marc Armand.