It is big, but is it good?

Finally unveiled, the new Nike Orchard Roadw

Typical of large, multi-product-category stores, the women’s offerings are on the first floor

There is a retail giant in town. And it’s three stories of merchandise in a gleaming space that is creative, artistic, and, to be expected, theatrical, and all for the pursuit of one thing—sports. Or, style sportif but, more likely, a semblance of it. Nike’s largest store here is called Nike Orchard Road to identify the retail belt they are in, as other brands do in, say, London’s Oxford Street, a major concentration of flagships of brands such as Adidas and New Balance, including the Swoosh’s own stunning Niketown—right at Oxford Circus. To be sure, our Nike flagship, sited at 268 Orchard Road, is no Niketown and it is not even operated by Nike themselves. Rather, this store is the show piece of GMG, the Dubai-based retailer and distributor, and now the main franchisee of the Oregon brand here since 2022 (directly-managed Nike units are only the two outlets stores in Changi City Square and IMM).

Outside the store, Nike Orchard Road is handsome, if not traffic-stopping impressive. It is exactly what “A Great Street” (the Orchard Road Business Association’s battle cry) needs: a flagship with scale to impress. To be sure, with more of us travelling, post-COVID, there are fewer shoppers who have not seen or experienced a gleaming retail behemoth, designed to wow. Still, Nike has created a pleasing (but could be more engaging) configuration of glass, steel, and concrete in possibly the smallest retail podium on Orchard Road. Very few names can allow a frontage with a mere logo to denote what brand compels within. The Swoosh conspicuously takes up the top-centre of the store front, like one big tick to mark all the boxes of what makes Nike appealing and the biggest sporting goods brand in the world.

The main atrium of 268 is now dominated by a runway display unit and a rear wall of women’s shoes

The women’s department (and children’s) dominate the first storey

Nike Orchard Road is—at “exactly 28,000 sqm”, according to a staffer (although we sense that it is more likely in sq ft)—the biggest store here, and, early media chatter, called it “Asia’s biggest”. We tend to get Southeast Asia’s biggest, rarely Asia’s biggest when it comes to brand flagships. Nike Orchard Road has changed that. But, before we get carried away and jubilantly wave the Singapore flag, we should note that Nike’s VP/GM for Southeast Asia Sanjay Gangopadhyay, in an interview broadcast on CNA, qualified that assertion by adding, “outside of China”. Host Daniel Martin has, in his introduction, described 268 Orchard Road “as a building that’s been there a while in Orchard Road, but you probably like never noticed it; it’s empty for the longest time.” The last tenants of 268’s retail space on level one—that included the multi-label store Surrender, and the Off-White Christian Dada, and Marcelo Burlon County of Milan flagships—vacated during the COVID pandemic.

With Nike occupying this much space at 268 and taking considerable real estate for the Swoosh on the exterior of the glass walls, the building will, no doubt, be more noticeable. When we took a walk through the flagship this morning, we had the feeling that we were in a bigger Nike Jewel. This is a retail project and it looked it. As theatrical as the set up is (at least in the context of the retail scene here), it is not quite—if we look at Nike stores in the region—the Wonderwall-designed Tokyo flagship in Harajuku or Nike Rise now opened in many cities in Asia, such as in Guangzhou, Seoul, and Tokyo. All are visually arresting, with interplays of textures between the fixtures/decor and the visual merchandising. In fact, they are, despite the considerable distances between them, similar in their design engagement and mesmeric pull. A big store is not their only selling point.

Massive video wall that stretches over nearly two stories of the store

Nike’s sub-brand ACG (All Conditions Gear) finally gets their own space

“We actually don’t think of this as a store,” Nike’s VP/GM Sanjay Gangopadhyay told CNA. “We believe this is actually a sports hub”. Cliché aside, Nike Orchard Road is, therefore, less of a lifestyle outlet. You won’t find for example, the fashion line produced in collaboration with Martin Rose or even Nike’s own iSPA collection. “We [are] trying to create an environment here,” Mr Gangopadhyay said, in full retail speak,“where we are bringing the best of of innovation through products and technology, but matching it with inspiration and enablement so that consumers can come in, and not just be restricted to the transaction of business, but actually fall in love with sport, and we’re trying to enable them to get inspired, and actually help them in moving more and playing more sports.” And there we were, hopeful there could be the ‘sports style’ component that could be tethered to a more fashion-centric merchandise offering.

At most Nike stores, it is hard to get those sneakers in less common colours. We were hoping to find the ACG Mountain Fly 2 Low in ‘Midnight Navy’, after spotting a black pair on a mannequin. When we asked a staffer if the colour we desired was available, he said firmly—in a difficult to understand accent—that there wasn’t, without attempting to check if our chromatic preference was in fact not in stock. He then continued to point to a wall of shoes, and said that whatever we saw there were what they had in stock. We did, but the Mountain Fly 2 Low was not there. We were, in fact, delighted to see a dedicated ACG section, but was rather disappointed that it did not look more different than say the area dedicated to running. We would have preferred a Nikelab zone (even if Nike has closed many of their concept store in many cities), but it was not there. We were not, we had to remind ourselves, in the wrong store, we were in the wrong country.

Photos: Chin Boh Kay