Client: Converse
Role: Brand Strategy, Creative Direction
Converse had only recently been acquired and resuscitated by Nike and wanted to establish an experience blueprint for their plan to open several “High Street” US stores. Given the street cred of the brand, they wanted to do it right and not become a caricature of the ethos that built them.
This project looked at the people, the “Creative Rebels'" as Converse referred to them, and established a visual brief for the key moments and experiences that should be incorporated into the retail stores. This work was then delivered to a retail architect and built, with the first store on Newbury Street in Boston, MA. Many of the components of that original design are maintained today across their hundreds of mall stores.
A great synopsis of the goal of the project, expressed as a fear of selling out...
How Converse expressed its creative rebel credibitiliy
Research montage
Seeing the product as the enabler, not the focus
Concept for art studio meets shoestore
Localizing retail for Miami
Localizing retail for London
Localizing retail for New York
Concept for using polaroids to capture great looks of customers as inspiration rather than mannequins, and a way to retire the old stories captured in your old Chuck Taylors at the store.
The polaroid concept and the retired shoes in the Boston store.
Concept to bring "back of house" into the foreground.
The "back of house" concept as executed
A music jukebox that we designed and built to enable patrons to curate what was being played in the store.
Customers using the jukebox.
Coolhunting reviewed the store opening.