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April 21, 2005
NikeWomen store arriving Summer 2005
There is a lot of retail development going on at Old Orchard right now, more than we've seen over the past year, in my opinion. Pretty much anywhere you walk through the center you'll be greeted by construction walls proclaiming something is "Coming Soon". One such addition to this North Shore shopping mecca is NikeWomen (officially Nike spells it as "nikewomen"... go figure).
Old Orchard's store is slated to open "Summer 2005," so that leaves a pretty broad timeframe (though the construction wall states "July 2005"). Interestingly, this is only the 8th standalone NikeWomen store in the country. All but one are in California (with the oddball in Georgia), so I would imagine this will be some sort of tentpole for the region. You'll find the others at Fashion Island (Newport Beach, CA), The Grove (Los Angeles, CA), South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, CA), The Shops at Mission Viejo (Mission Viejo, CA), Stanford Shopping Center (Palo Alto, CA), Fashion Valley (San Diego, CA), and Lenox Square (Atlanta, GA).
Unlike a NikeTown store, which we have in downtown Chicago, NikeWomen stores are "designed to strengthen Nike's relationship with female customers through a lifestyle approach rather than the sports imagery themes found in other Nike stores." Um, OK. Apparently rather than looking like a Foot Locker, with footwear on one wall, apparel somewhere else, NikeWomen stores integrate all that stuff. For example, they display products on tables, next to coordinated outfits. There are no hard benches or locker-room decorations. Nike says that "walking into a NikeWomen store will feel like coming into someone's home." Except that this person will try to sell you stuff.
Apparently, the chain used to be called NIKEgoddess, but was renamed recently. Gee, don't know why that first name didn't work out!
Posted by Tannerman at April 21, 2005 07:33 PM | Categories: Pear Lane