Nike SoHo Store, A Review - by Lois Sakany
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Nike’s five flight SoHo store opened in November 2018 and since then, it’s been a must visit for me when I’m in the neighborhood with my cadence of visits far reduced through 2020 and 2021. The first floor of Nike’s SoHo store is where all the action occurs. That’s where the brand highlights what its focus of the moment is through a combination of activations, displays and of course product.
For quite some time, the SoHo store also operated a gift shop, which is now gone, near the entrance where visitors could pick up Swoosh-adorned tchotchkes like mugs and key chains. When the store first opened it operated an amazing Air Force 1 customization station that include the opportunity to buy and customize AF1s plus a select group of apparel items.
Rather than product, during my visit in early April it felt like the store was focused on pushing its Nike Training Club (NTC) app above all else. The reason I say that is because the first floor was dominated by a circular-shaped station (above) on the first floor themed on encouraging the customer to interact with the app.
I will get into this in a bit more detail later, but I think this is a mistake. I always loved the SoHo store because it was fun, beautifully merchandised and a total celebration of what Nike does best, which is creating inspiring shoes and apparel and in-person experiences. Shooting Nike some bail, it’s possible what it’s offering at its SoHo store may still reflect pandemic-related policies, which translate to a scaling back of person-to-person interactions.
Meanwhile, back at the NTC booth, I answered the workout and meditation questions on the touch screen, which ended with me receiving a personalized plastic card with a QVC code. When you photograph the QVC card (which I blocked cuz god forbid you steal my “quick core & glutes work” out lol lol), you are directed to neverdonesohonyc.com where you’re provided a link to the NTC workout and Headspace meditation (with whom Nike is exclusively partnered) you selected on the touch screen in SoHo.
The weird thing is the booth also included a selection of NYC-themed t-shirts (above), which are not given to you for generously handing over your data, rather they are provided free only to those who have made a minimum $250 in-store purchase.
In my opinion simply put this is very lame of Nike. Here you are celebrating New York’s resilience at a booth encouraging app use, but the t-shirts are only available to the highest spending customers. And yes, I asked the very nice person at the booth and he said multiple customers have expressed disappointment that they couldn’t buy the t-shirt.
One other tech-y thing I wasn’t crazy about, during check out (the store famously doesn’t have a dedicated build out for cash registers), I pulled up my app as encouraged and I saw that I could do self check out. The nearby salesperson said he thought the system was down for self check out but I decided to try it anyway. I scanned my sweatpants and got as far as hitting buy when I was told to find a sales person. When I mentioned the conundrum of having people check themselves out, my salesperson agreed it seemed a bit messy.
Just touching on staff, Nike’s retail team has never not been superb. People who work retail in general are wonderful, but you can tell the Nike name carries clout because it’s able to pull the best of the best. Nike’s New York team has always represented the city’s racial demographics, but I was heartened on this visit to see a woman who was my age (old!) working the floor, along with a young man who was under five-feet tall. That’s a type of diversity you don’t see at top-tier retail chains and it was nice to see Nike has expanded its definition of inclusive.
Not sure if this is supply chain related, but Nike was selling a faux fur zip up jackets during my April visit, however, the real reason it caught my eye is because it’s an obvious take down of the brand’s December 2018 collab with Ambush designer Yoon Ahn.
Not to pick on Nike because literally everybody copies, but if the collab was well received, the motifs and aesthetic will be expanded to in-line items. Definitely Virgil Abloh’s industrial aesthetic was widely copied not just by Nike but many, many brands and retailers. In the case of Nike, one can say at least it cuts a check whereas Zara and co. pays no one.
That said, A-list creatives are starting to get hip to this. For example when Rihanna collaborated with Puma, it was the early days of collabs and she was paid strictly for product branded with the Fenty name even though the brand still sells creeper sneakers inspired by her designs to this day. Years later when Beyoncé collaborated with Adidas, someone from Rihanna’s team educated her on take downs and her contract was built to include payment not just for Ivy Park product but also for any product inspired by her designs.
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