There are clients who hand you a project and clients who teach you a craft. Nike belongs to the second kind. Our collaboration has lasted more than twelve years and has left a mark that goes far beyond the individual jobs, because it shaped the way we understand retail design.
The first client of a studio that did not exist yet
It all began in November 2013, when we were asked to send a retail portfolio to an address ending in @nike.com. VANDA at that moment was only just taking shape, we were at the very beginning and still building our structure. Nike became our first client, before the studio truly existed. A debut that set the tone for everything that followed.
What we designed for Nike
Over the years we worked on corners, shop in shops, launch campaigns and window displays, and we also designed a logo. We conceived and produced the Nike Goddess, a prop so beautifully made that stores fitted it with a security tag, because it was too good to risk losing. These projects came to life inside retailers such as AW Lab, Cisalfa and Rinascente. With Cisalfa in particular the relationship continued and grew into a direct collaboration.
AW Lab on via Torino: the competition that marked the turning point
The project that changed our pace was the AW Lab corner on via Torino in Milan. It was a competition, and we won it. The idea arrived at once, clear and complete: we thought of girls’ wardrobes, full of clothes, colours, secrets and memories, and the space grew from there. The result spoke for itself, because that corner converted more than half again compared to the previous configuration. For us it was a double victory, of vision and of numbers, the proof that a strong idea produces concrete results.
The Nike school: retail as a narrative device
With Nike we learned the power of the retail project as a narrative device. A sales space tells a story, and to do so it needs rhythm: zones of breathing and zones of storytelling, a path built around the consumer journey. We understood that designing a store means guiding an experience, carrying people through emotions and messages, well beyond arranging products on a shelf. It was a school in every sense, and those principles still guide our work with every client today.
An attitude that makes the difference
Beyond the technical side, Nike opened a window onto a way of being at work that you rarely encounter. Nike people always say please, they thank you, they praise the work done. They hold a clear sense of the value of everyone’s contribution and they never miss a chance to say it. It sounds like a detail, and instead it is company culture in its purest form. Collaborative, understanding, proactive and kind, those people showed us that the quality of a project also grows from the quality of the relationships that build it.
Twelve years on
The most precious part is that those human relationships continue today, more than twelve years later. Working with Nike made us grow in retail design and in understanding the strategies behind selling, buying and experience itself, and at the same time it left us real bonds. It is this double legacy, expertise and people, that we carry into every new project.