Location: Singapore, Singapore.
Architect: Ministry of Design Pte Ltd.
DURASPORT is a new retail store in Singapore that offers an immersive and futuristic environment for sports enthusiasts to try out ultra-performance sportswear and equipment before purchasing. The store features products co-curated by the designer and owner, including the world’s lightest racing bicycle, heat-moldable customized cycling shoes, wet suits that minimize stretch resistance, adjustable alpine ski boots suitable for scaling uphill slopes, and a power breather for swimmers that enhances lap times. Customers can test the products in the store using five simulators, including an indoor interactive non-motorized climbing wall, a ski simulator, and a magic mirror that allows customers to “try on” ski clothing and email photos to themselves. The store’s facade is designed to convey a sense of active, ultra-high performance sporting activities, and the interior is divided into four experiential zones for cyclists, skiers, climbers, and triathletes. The store’s retail strategy is to ‘excite, immerse and (subsequently) convince’ the customer. The store’s high-grade stainless steel display system allows for extended flexibility across the product and size range, with shelves, racks, or holders that clip in and out of notched display walls and incorporate an integrated LED lighting system. DURASPORT’s holistic brand experience includes the brand name, logo, and collaterals such as carrier bags, name cards, letterheads, envelopes, and internal signage that reflect the brand’s essential qualities: dynamism, innovation, and ultra-high sporting performance. The store is located in Moshe Safdie’s iconic Jewel Changi Airport and is Singapore’s first immersive ‘ultra-performance’ retail store.
Photo credit: CI&A Photography, Edward Hendricks.