Sportsgirl's New Flagship Store

The new Sportsgirl Flagship store opened on Saturday on Bourke Street here in Melbourne. The bicycle above is part of the viral marketing campaign for the store which I saw on the street. If you were one of the 1st 50 through the doors on opening day you got a free $50 voucher. I didn't bother doing this though because I thought people would have camped out or something. I did head down in the afternoon though to check it out. Sportsgirl isn't exactly my favourite brand, I don't think I have bought anything there for more than 5 years or so, but I do have an interest in retail design and branding having studied it. I wasn't able to take any photos myself so these are what I found on the website.

I do find it weird that they no longer have a front display window. Windows are really important in retail. If you put an unpopular top in the window it will sell out really fast, basically windows are a giant billboard for the store and brand so I really don't know why they decided not to have one.

Thay also must have been to Tokyo because some elements of the interior were obviously inspired by stores there. For example they had these scrolling LED signs everywhere which is what the UT Flagship store in Harajuku has. They also had all these diamond shapes which were very similar to Herzog De Meuron's Prada building in Harajuku.


The "vintage" section. Who buys vintage at Sportsgirl?

I like the way they have displayed the shoes on pulled out drawers. I feel like I have seen this somewhere else but I'm not sure where. (Now I remember the Urban Outfitters stores in New York do sorta similar displays with seemingly old furniture)

The change room area is cool, very glamorous.

The dj booth is so lame....I did see Streetparty's Hugh dj'ing when I was there. I used to go to his parties way back in 2003 but Streetparty is dead now (was kinda like the boombox/misshapes of Melbourne at one stage...well at least it wanted to be)

Chip Chop have done a collection for Sportsgirl. I do love Chip Chop but these bags are basically the same price as the regular Chip Chop stuff so I don't see the point of getting it at Sportsgirl, everyone is going to have it.

The store also has makeup counters so you can get your makeup done, a VIP styling service and hot boys taking your photo at the front of the store with polaroid cameras. I'm not sure how long these services will stay but they are fun if you have the time. I do realise that they have basically copied Topshop with all of these ideas but at least they are trying. Retail in this country is so tame compared to New York, Tokyo and London so we really needed this. However I'm not sure if it will succeed. The store is very messy and chopped up with too many ideas going on in a small space. Just across the road is the Supre flagship store which I would say is 100 million times better because it has the 1 theme, the nightclub, and it sticks with it. Maybe Sportsgirl is unsure of where it sits in the market and as a brand? I don't know, but I do know that I'll be going back to the store when they have a sale, some of the dresses weren't too bad.