The future of retail, three projects, ten ideas
We were recently invited to talk about the 'future of retail' at the Running Conference. We called our presentation The Future of Retail Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Present.
We took this as an opportunity to talk about not knowing anything about retail in 2022, through to having completed three running stores by 2024 - all of which were very different. The narrative of our presentation was to say that we weren’t experts, and that a broad range of experience and completing some initial projects had helped us define an approach or way of thinking about retail. We also talked about the joy of learning and solving problems. We even managed to get a Kubrik reference and a nod to The Mighty Boosh in there.
We presented three projects as the basis of our journey:
Tracksmith Marathon pop-up - November 2022.
Tracksmith London Trackhouse - April 2023.
Interval, Edinburgh - July 2024.
Following this we offered up ten ideas for now and how we use these in our work:
Nothing great is made alone
Layout & plan
Thresholds
Serendipity & change
Get out more
Community
Authenticity
Keep it simple
Sensory kindness
Human interaction
The titles alone aren’t enough and I think we might record the presentation on YouTube soon. If you’d like to hear more or want to talk about your views on retail (and the future), get in touch.
Thanks to Running Industry Alliance (RIA) & The Running Conference (TRC) for the invite and Outside Of Ordinary for curating the event. Shout out to MJ Jackson for the introduction and encouragement.
Images 1 & 2 © Sportgraf.
