Oxford Circus flagship becomes Nike’s biggest store
Nike has officially reopened its flagship Niketown store on Oxford Circus, London, following extensive redevelopment which makes it the largest Nike store in the world.
Niketown London now covers approximately 42,000 square-feet over four floors.
It contains a two-floor NIKEiD studio and football boot-specific iD studio which allows consumers to go online to design and customise their own footwear, clothing and equipment. It also offers a football boot fitting machine, allowing players the chance to steam mould boots to their feet and a boot embroidery service, allowing names, flags and numbers to be stitched onto football boots. The store features an online kit-builder tool for football teams to customise their own kits, along with a shirt printing and numbering service. It also uses video gait analysis and trained staff to help runners to work out exactly what type of shoe suits their running style.
The third floor is dedicated to women's apparel and footwear as well as action sports, including Nike 6.0 which has gained additional merchandising space. Other sections include specific areas dedicated to running, tennis, rugby, basketball, football, training and sportswear.
The reopening is part of a series of planned new store openings across the UK. In addition to the Oxford Circus store and existing Nike stores in London Westfield, London Bluewater and Liverpool, the company plans to launch another multi-category location in Glasgow in 2011. The company is also opening several single-category stores including the Nike running store in Covent Garden which opened in October, a new football-only store set to open in Manchester in mid-November and another running-specific store in Cardiff, which will open on November 17.
Marc van Pappelendam, general manager, Nike UK commented: "Nike is committed to offering consumers access to engaging, exciting and innovative retail spaces. The relaunch of our flagship Niketown London store demonstrates our drive to continue to raise our game and offer our consumers world-class shopping experiences in line with our long-term category strategy."
Nike plans to open 250 to 300 new Nike-branded stores worldwide over the next five years.
