This is the interior of Nike's 1948 pop-up store in London. It's one of five aroud the world that will exist for the next couple of months. Hidden away in a side street far from the regular retail haunts, it is fiendishly difficult to find and relies solely on word of mouth for traffic. So it's no surprise that it was empty when I arrived mid-afternoon on a weekday. There, however, the similarities with Nokia's flagship store ended.
Physically interesting, it's a mix of footwear gallery and specialist retailer, but the thing that really marked it out were the staff. All of them interested and interesting. Excited by the design and technology that surrounded them. Keen to inform, explain and opine.
I was sorry to have to leave. I will return. The whole thing made me think about Nike more than ever before and in different ways than perhaps was intended. But that's what retail spaces should do. Isn't it?
