As I’ve reported, Foot Locker is thinking carefully about how to avoid the retail apocalypse. For one thing, it has developed an in-house consulting company focused on understanding youth culture, which will inform its own strategies while also providing counsel to outside brands looking to better target sneakerheads.
But it’s also investing in creating stores you’ll actually want to visit. According to CNBC, Foot Locker has been working on a new kind of retail store together with Nike that is designed to supercharge your sneaker shopping experience. These “Power” stores are several times bigger than the Foot Locker you’ve come to expect at malls across the country. Right now, three of them are open, one in Detroit and two in Philadelphia. A fourth opens in Washington Heights in Manhattan this weekend. Foot Locker says it plans to open 50 more of these stores in the next three years.
These stores will be chock-full of interactive experiences. For instance, Nike is loading up the store with its proprietary technology that will allow members of its loyalty club to scan barcodes in their Nike app to get a chance to buy in-demand or exclusive products in-store.
Many retailers have pared down their stores, or gone entirely online, after seeing declines in foot traffic over the last few years. Foot Locker is taking a radically different approach. By creating massive, entertaining stores that showcase the hottest new products, they’re betting they’ll lure customers back in.
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