Sporting Life: Sherway Gardens
Overview
The stunning Sporting Life store in the new wing of CF Sherway Gardens Mall set a benchmark for the brand, giving customers a high-end fashion athletics boutique experience.
Details
- Client
- Sporting Life
- Project
- Sporting Life, Cadillac Fairview, Sherway Gardens Mall
- Size
- 37,500 sq. ft.
- Scope
- Location
- Toronto, ON, CA
- Year Completed
- 2015
- Budget
- $3,500,000
The
Goal
Sporting Life is committed to creating a unique, carefully curated experience for their customers. Their storefronts are designed to deliver a sense of arrival through an immediate visual impact. Their interiors needed to enhance their brand position and create a look and feel that allows them to stand out as a luxury, active lifestyle fashion destination.
For a series of new stores and new locations for the Sporting Life brand, R&P was asked to continue to develop the design style initated in their flagship redevelopment at the Yonge Street store in central Toronto. R&P provided a strong design concept with an emphasis on high-end ambiance, continuing to elevate the brand quality and identity in the new Sherway Gardens Mall store.
The
Design
R&P used natural elements in its design, creating an outdoor experience for customers in a modern urban context. The store welcomes customers from the mall corridor with an immense two-story open entrance portal which embodies the store’s modern rustic aesthetic. A grand staircase and glass escalators draw customers into the large second floor retail space. A long glass storefront on the second level is animated with dynamic display windows, vivid backlit graphics, and an immense media wall that entertains food court patrons.
Daylight is brought into the store from the exterior atrium skylight, food court windows, and a large skylight within the store, reinforcing the outdoor connection. In-store departments and brand boutiques help to subdivide the large floorplate and enhance the customer experience. As an important destination within the store, the footwear entrance draws attention with its reclaimed wood and stainless steel surround. The interior is bright and comfortable with painted white brick walls and textured and varied slate-like porcelain tile floors, anchored by a custom oversized brown tufted leather 20-person sofa.
The second floor space is structured around the day-lit central feature area, housing the popular brand Canada Goose. Large concrete paneled columns and loft-style glazing frame the entrance. The focal point of this sky-lit space is the circular Nordic fireplace suspended from the dark wood beam framed ceiling in front of a textured stone and log end wall.
Sporting Life
The
Result
The two-storied store boasts an impressive exterior and dramatic interior presence. The design celebrates its location with exceptional design features, in keeping with both the premium location in the mall and customers’ expectations for the quality of the shopping experience. The wide range of fashion and hard goods products are displayed in a comfortable and warm ambient setting, punctuated by selected finishes like recycled wood, stone, custom-designed millwork and selected accessories. One of the most challenging aspects of the design was the semi-circular shape of the floor plan. Breaking the curve into sections allowed for an interesting mix of display techniques on the exterior and flat merchandise walls on the interior.
