San Francisco Retail Tour

We recently returned from a great few days with the Tank team at their San Francisco office. They powered us through the first round of web site creative in a presentation that had Sulli and me really fired up. Eight concepts — 4 solid-but-safe, 1 editorial-style, 2 a little bit out there, and 1 right in our sweet spot. Will adhere nicely to ecommerce best practices (yes, we do have to sell a few pieces this fall) as well as make a bit of a splash in terms of brand message and visual design. Nothing like feeling content after a design presentation — the boys knocked the cover off the ball!

But as well as that went, the real fun came in a Tank-hosted tour of retail in the city. While we like to think Jackson is coming along culturally and has a decent retail play or two, it obviously doesn’t hold a candle to San Francisco. What better place for some recon / competitive analysis as we jump headlong into construction and design on our own store in downtown Jackson. A few highlights:

Evolution of the jean at Levi’s; super simple, clean display construction:

Fedje and Sulli debate the finer points of plywood as a retail finish:

Sewing shop downstairs at Levi’s; they’ll alter any piece you bring in:

Swooshed catwalk at Nike. Far from a Niketown experience, but still doing some good things:

Nice brand consistency from Icebreaker…one of the “bigger” wall displays we saw:

Fedje and Sulli basking in natural light at Patagonia. Incredible, historical building in line with their brand ethos — maybe one light on in the whole place:

(Could Fedje pass for Noah’s older brother or what?)

Local marketing / community involvement on display at Lululemon:

This place rocks; Union Made window displays:

Build-you-own-boot, from Rancourt in Maine for Taylor Stitch:

Mission Workshop’s retail space, office and loading dock:

Bottom line: a productive few days…Creative concept is very much off to good start, and we’ll see what nuggets of retail tour insight manifest on the town square in Jackson. Thanks to Scott and Ed and the rest of the Tank crew!