The store, sited on a 2,400 square-foot (approximately 220 square-meter) parcel, has a spacious layout and a full lineup of various products.
Source: 【NEW STORE INFORMATION】New Store Opens on America’s West Coast, in Beverly Hills
ASICS and Onitsuka Tiger has been doing amazing work on the tech and start-up side of the industry. I was asked a question this morning about the brand that could begin to step up as Nike closes accounts. I’ve written that the opportunity lies in the all white sneaker alternatives from every brand, but I haven’t really given a deep consideration towards who is next up as the hottest brand. Yeezy mania has leveled off and adidas has yet to introduce a new flagship to inspire interest like it did from 2014-2017. New Balance most definitely has the momentum and they are adding on to their successful two year run with smart hires and endorsements.
No one has really captured that hype + actual sales that adidas had during their run. New Balance’s momentum has arrived primarily through collaborative efforts, but I walked into the local New Balance store here in Memphis with my daughter to look for track spikes and flats, and the customer service was subpar and the store functioned exactly the way I expect a store to operate with a President who catered to the previous administration. In other words, all of the great acquisition and marketing, with collabs that New Balance is doing runs completely counter to the fact that they remain a White, conservative company. That duality has to weigh on the brand internally.
What exactly do the previous paragraphs have to do with the discussion on who is up next and the new store opened in Beverly Hills by Onitsuka Tiger? Everything. Brand owned doors will always capture the intent and flavor the brand is attempting to exude. In those doors the sales lead and teams will be more knowledgeable than a mainstream retail outlet that functions as a showroom for brands. Take a look at the merchandising and layout of this store via these pictures. The Beverly Hills location is an Instagram moment captured at retail. Every section of the store allows for a shareable moment. That is incredibly important as ASICS Onitsuka Tiger encounters a similar issue to every brand not named Nike at retail.
When a retail outlet simply hangs shoes on a display wall, brands can be lost in the shuffle. Even when the merchandising grants each brand a small amount of real estate, the fact that the eye can be drawn towards Reebok, CROCS, Birkenstock, adidas, and New Balance, means that the brand not only has to work to capture your attention, without additional merchandising or visual cues, the brand has to keep your attention and traditional retail does this with hanging sales tags. The promotional environment can hurt a brand for one simple reason. Why would a person pay retail for a Tiger if a comparable brand is on sale with a 79.99 hangtag in bright red?
Tiger has two of these boutique locations. One in Beverly Hills and one in NYC (Soho). This is for obvious reasons as both locations are in the heart of elevated fashion districts. These small store formats will be informative. As data begins to inform the locations, they will be able to adjust and look into smaller versions of these doors that could see Onitsuka as the next “it” brand.