Nike opened its latest retail concept, Nike Style, in Seoul Friday, with plans to open a second door in Shanghai this fall.
The Style concept will serve a “distinct sport lifestyle audience,” Nike said. Locations will feature “gender agnostic lifestyle product zones” for fleece, tops, sport lifestyle footwear, accessories and other “style-led collections,” as well as curated collections inspired by the local area.
Product zones are “gender agnostic,” allowing visitors to shop purely according to their personal fit and style preferences.
Described as a “remixed expression of sports retail culture that blurs the line between physical and digital,” Nike Style also will integrate a number of technology-driven amenities. At the Seoul shop, a “content studio” offers visitors a green-screen space where they can create and customize content for social media, while QR codes located throughout the store link to augmented reality experiences.
The store’s interactive “Content Studio” allows customers to create content for their personal social media channels with customizable backgrounds.
Nike Style Seoul will also host “unique community experiences,” including Nike By You—the company’s customization platform—workshops and SNKRS Lounge events for Nike members.
The Nike By You area encourages consumers to personalize, create and upcycle Nike products.
Nike plans to expand its Style concept both regionally and internationally. The company did not hint at any other future locations besides the Shanghai store that is slated to open in the fall, saying that the concept “will expand into other countries in the future.”
Friday’s opening was the not the first time Nike has used the Seoul market to test a new concept. The South Korean capital also served as the site of Nike’s second Rise opening in August—its first debuted in the Chinese city of Guangzhou in 2020. Like Style, Rise places a heavy emphasis on tech, including via an RFID-enabled table that lets customers compare the product benefits of two styles side by side.
Nike saw its Asia-Pacific and Latin America revenue grow 24 percent on a currency-neutral basis during the quarter ended May 31. Korea was one of several geographies called out by chief financial officer Matt Friend in June as having seen double-digit sales growth. Nike Direct grew 43 percent as the company’s SNKRS app drove its best-ever quarter in Korea, Japan and Mexico.