12 W-21
Retail Environment
An experimental footwear store by ECCO Shoes
SCOPE
A new store openend on Thursday, November 17th called simply “W-21”. The name is derived directly from the shop’s address in Amsterdam’s unique 9-streets neighbourhood where it is situated at Wolvenstraat #21. The new space was opened by ECCO Sko A/S as an experimental retail concept and testing environment.
ILE’s international team of industrial designers, researchers, engineers and futurists have been tasked with the research and development of new modes of product design and production as well as a broader remit relating to the overall customer journey, retail experience and service-proposition.
JOURNEY
Given this charter it was natural for the team to undertake the creation of a dedicated retail lab. W-21 was conceived as an environment where a wide range of alternative retail techniques and standards could be tested for possible future integration within the official ECCO retail network. It represents a place where the brand is both “free to succeed” and “free to fail” in keeping with the scientific principle of trial-and-error that remains at the heart of R&D.
ILE worked in partnership with longtime ECCO collaborators, Energy Plan Creative to develop the shop’s inaugural narrative and merchandising strategies. Considerable effort went into to narrowing the overall focus and anchoring each element of storytelling and merchandising directly to the brand’s essential DNA; premium raw materials animated by high-tech direct injection production platforms with an eye to achieving shameless comfort. This more single-minded creative ethos is manifested throughout the store.
DESIGN
Tannery Hacks
The team created a small collection for the store made up of both current and formerly out-of-production styles which have been re-specified and re-issued in bespoke leather and trim combinations. Each variation was developed with an emphasis on simplicity, quality and modernity. The Tannery Hacks range is only available at W-21 but directly reflects the same essential attributes as the mainline ECCO range. All Tannery Hack editions were created in monochrome.
Styles from the current ECCO ranges for both men and women have been carefully curated by the team with an emphasis on the simple fusion of premium raw materials with high-tech direct injection production platforms. For W-21’s first seasonal rotation this assortment also celebrates monochrome variations in black, white and shades of grey.
The ILE team has also integrated state-of-the-art data capture systems throughout the store which will allow management, merchandising and service approaches the benefit of automated real-time analysis. ILE sees this stable fact-based platform as a way of providing the means to nurture a culture of ongoing service improvement.
Beyond developing a better understanding of customer attitudes and shopping preferences, the shop will also expand the parameters of data-capture and assessment to include product feedback and the possibility of custom comfort-engineering innovations rooted directly in individual customer biometrics. This includes conventional metrics like foot size and shape, but can also reflect weight, stride, posture, gait, balance and other aspects of customer anatomy that naturally impact the fit, feel and long-term comfort of premium footwear.