With the stores of Adidas, On, and Wilson opening in the coming months, apart from other sports retailers already in place, is Changi Airport’s world-famous shopping centre where sports brands head to be visible?

The “opening soon” Adidas flagship at Jewel

Earlier today, at the two-level Nike store at Jewel, a sale sign in alarm-bell red was placed right in the middle of the entrance. It was not beckoning. And beyond that, it was quiet. Three women were seen shopping. We walked in and, admittedly, enjoyed the quiet. It also allowed us to take in the age of the store. It opened in the same year Jewel first welcomed shoppers and tourists—in 2019, and, regrettably, it showed its age. Going up the stairs, we noticed a shockingly high stack of brown boxes between the railing and the decorative panel infront. Did Nike give up too much storage space for retail capacity? On the mezzanine floor, it was quiet, too. The business this afternoon seemed slack, just as the service was sluggish. We wondered if the opening of Nike Orchard Road last year has impacted the traffic.

The lull at Nike was surprising. On its left, the Chinese label Urban Revivo has vacated the space, which it, too, occupied for some six years. The hording unambiguously announcing the next tenant was up: the Swiss running shoe brand On. Four doors away, at the former Hands unit, another hoarding was erected too. On it, the unmistakable Adidas mountain logo accompanied by the message: “We’re coming.” Several doors down, another hoarding gave notice of the arrival of the now-Finnish-owned Wilson, also “opening soon”. It is not known when these three freestanding stores will actually welcome shoppers. We suspect it’ll be in Q3. Nike, looking the way they did this afternoon, did not appear to be polishing up to take on the increased competition.

Nike’s soon-to-be neighbour On

These up-coming sports stores quickening their steps into Jewel do not include the already-opened sports shoe retailers. There is the newly-relocated Fila store (now at where Naiise Iconic used to be until it shuttered amid embarrassing payment default allegations), dubbed Fila Flagship S.E.A. A few doors away from the new Adidas unit are Asics, Converse, New Balance, and Onitsuka Tiger, as well as Jewel first-timers, Japanese technical sportswear brand Descente and the Annency-headquartered French sports equipment manufacturer Salomon, now enjoying considerable prestige with their edgy collaborations, including those with Maison Margiela and Comme des Garçons. If you add the multi-brand store Foot Locker and the football-themed Weston Corp, you can see a strangely crowded space for sports-and-performance wear at a mall so preciously—and campily—named Jewel.

Almost all the stores of the sports brands are located on level 2 (in fact, as we observed, only Onitsuka Tiger is on level 1). It is not clear why Jewel sought to drive the intensity of competition to just one floor. Level 2 is seen as ‘the main level’ of the mall, as the duplex shop units, with their imprssive facades, are situated here. Most visitors will use various points on this storey to photograph the “iconic” Rain Vortex. With such a concentration (we counted 12 on this level alone*), the immediate impression is that Jewel is a sports-brand hub. The major upper-Orchard Road malls—ION Orchard. Wisma Atria, Paragon, Takashimaya Shopping Centre—do not have such a retail floor plan. While Jewel is branded as part of Changi Airport and could be easily thought of as attracting travellers, it is, in fact, targetting a broader audience. But it is not yet clear why Jewel, which the Wall Street Journal recently called a “luxury mall”, is positioning itself as a significant destination for sports retail.

Fila’s new striking two-floor store

That Jewel could be sending a clear message that their mall is a place for sports enthusiasts and those embracing an active lifestyle also appears at odds with its moniker. A visibly heavy concentration of sports stores, even with excellent design, doesn’t typically evoke the same sense of ‘swankiness’ associated with the main floor of a premier mall or one whose name strongly connotes preciousness, high value, and a certain level of sophistication. To be sure, Jewel was never an upmarket mall from the day it opened. It is less so now when one of its anchors is Don Donki. While varied product categories are still its draw, it is increasingly looking to replace Queenstown Shopping Centre as the go-to for your desired kicks, or even the not-too-far Changi City Point, home of the major sports brands’ discount outlets. But even a sports theme mall, such as Velocity@Novena Square, is finding it hard to retain the key sports tenants that opened when Novena Square Shopping Mall rebranded itself in 2006.

Fashion, as we have been told, is a hard sell on our island. Its presence is diminishing dramatically in Jewel. Urban Revivo held the mall in good stead with its handsome store, so did our own In Good Company, but both have left. Fashion has traditionally been the style-defining face of a mall, but Jewel looks to be dispensing with that. Even their masstige brands such as Coach, Kate Spade, Polo Rakph Lauren are in the less impactful areas of Level 1 (to the right if you are entering from the arrival floor of Terminal 1). Jewel then appears to be making a conscious decision to de-emphasise traditional fashion retail as a defining characteristic. Its core appeal lies in its attractions, such as the Rain Vortex and the Forest Valley. Or the fun and social media-friendly possibilities.

The newly-opened Salomon store

Sports retailing these days tend to incorporate experiential elements, such as testing zones and interactive displays. Jewel’s retail mix now appears to support these immersive components and to cater to visitors drawn primarily by these attractions. Giving sports brands the visibility that the mall has suggests Jewel is diversifying its retail offerings beyond the traditional focus on apparel and accessories, and acknowledges the growing athleisure and wellness trend. It cannot help but be the lifestyle destination that encompasses dining, entertainment, and experiences related to hobbies and interests, rather than appealing to the aesthetical preferences that could be part of the traveler experience or expectations of the locals who go the distance to visit the mall. For the latter, it is possible that Jewel has kept to its suburban-mall positioning.

This is, to us, the critical vulnerability in Jewel’s current trajectory. What is unique about Jewel as a shopping destination if the Rain Vortex and its attendant attractions are taken away? Some retail observers told us that Jewel can only choose one: “luxe or not”. But that is curious a choice to have to make. Take Bangkok’s Icon Siam, a mall popular with both tourists and locals. It has successfully woven a strong cultural narrative with a significant luxury retail offering and high-end experiences to maintain its upmarket branding despite its wide product and brand mix. Jewel, conversely, lacks a compelling narrative that can elevate its overall brand beyond an airport mall-as-tourist-attraction. It has not effectively leveraged its unique location and design to curate a truly distinctive and upmarket retail experience that would consistently draw discerning shoppers, whether from our island or afar. Or perhaps what has been said is true: We just don’t have what it takes.

*The tally does not include outdoor brands such as Columbia, Teva, and Timberland, or shoe labels that make athletic footwear such as Ecco

Photos: Chin Boh Kay