225 Forest Opens In Laguna Beach
by rob campbell | Jul 06, 2009 |
Aaron Levant from Agenda kind of showed me up on this one. Not only did he get invited to the super exclusive party at 225 Forest last Thursday night (I came in on the more serious and sober tour Friday morning at 9:00 am), but he also posted his coverage before me. Anyway, it’s still definitely worthwhile to add a few more photos from the new Hurley/Nike 6.0/Converse retail space in Laguna Beach.
The Hurley heavies: President Bob Hurley, VP of Branding/Marketing Adrian Nyman , and CEO Roger Wyett. It's hard not to look happy when you're posing in front of that two-story Dalek piece that centers the store.
If you’ve got four minutes, check out the time lapse video of Dalek’s piece being created.
The 225 Forest Crew
The Brands you’ll find at 225 Forest in downtown Laguna Beach include Hurley, Nike 6.0, Converse, and even a little Nike SB. One of the big focuses of this new concept store is on customization. A large part of the upstairs is dedicated to Nike iD, with stations where shoppers can pair with “Maestros” to create custom Nike iD shoes. You still use a computer to pick custom options, but with a Maestro on hand, you can get some expert consultation and check out materials in different colors to see what they’ll look like in real life. And you also have someone to look at you disapprovingly and say stuff like “well, you COULD do that, but have you considered this…” just in case you’re really blowing it.
Here's a more traditional shoe wall, for those who still prefer to have their footwear designed by professionals.
Two fl0ors of fun. The customization wing is toward the back of the second floor.
Art piece or laborious intern project? This Converse display includes three chairs completely wrapped in shoelaces.
This high-tech printer can spit out the custom design of your choice in about 30 seconds. It's pretty much your typical office printer, but for shirts instead of paper.
And this is where it really gets good. A shoe printer to customize Converse All Stars. Right now they can only print on white shoes, but there is already one machine in the world that can print on black. It probably won't be long before some flustered Tween is huffing about how she's already late to the party and now her "damn home shoe printer is out of ink."
The Nike iD station. Where the customer's custom shoe experience begins (by appointment).
Some choice custom designs. That's Bob Hurley's shoe under the elephant on the left.
Hurley's Evan Slater shows off some custom trunks with Nike's Kevin Imamura.
Mike Cuneo is a "Maestro" at 225 Forest and a junior at Laguna College of Art and Design. There are a lot of collaborations going on between the shop and the school.
Here’s a link to Mike’s website.
Here's Mike again, along with Mike Voeghtlin, the GM of 225 Forest, holding up my new trunks that he helped walk me through the design of. These trunks went from stock white to custom delight in less than ten minutes. Just pick some patterns, decide how you want things placed, then let heat and pressure take over (or technically sublimation, I guess). I didn't even have to wear goggles.
There’s even more coverage and photos from Thursday night’s party on the Hurley site.
July 7th, 2009 on 1:34 pm
[...] TW Business Publisher Rob Campbell was on the scene at 225 Forest on Friday, talking with Hurley President Bob Hurley, CEO Roger Wyett and VP of Branding/Marketing Adrian Nyman. He also got a first hand demonstration of the custom sublimation process from Mike Voeghtlin, the GM of 225 Forest. Take a look: [...]