NIKE unveiled its latest concept store in Seoul on Friday last week, opening South Korea’s Hongdae district to a novel immersive shopping experience for sportswear and trainers.
Known for its world-class nightlife, fashion and shopping, food, and music scenes, Hongdae has received its latest addition to the neighbourhood: Nike Style, which also features Nike Rise, an mixed reality (MR) experience with digital and physical creative content.
Shoppers can join the XR experience with a bespoke content studio for creative content producers, customers, and product designers, complete with social media channel support and immersive studio tools.
Nike explained that Nike Style also integrates QR codes, where visitors can unlock augmented reality (AR) experiences on the company’s products and art installations, as well as explore gender-neutral clothing designs across the product lineup.
The Beaverton, Oregon-based firm added its Style door offers Nike By You workshops and SNKRS Lounge events to Nike Members, and the Style programme plans to expand globally and in South Korea, with further doors opening in Shanghai later in autumn and additional countries in the future.
The news comes just months after Nike secured RTFKT to develop hyperrealistic non-fungible tokens to boost the fashion industry with immersive clothing and technologies.
The sportswear giant also unveiled its NIKELAND metaverse space which aims to connect with customers, designers, and enthusiasts to explore promotions, receive updates, share creative content, and engage with new product innovations in the ROBLOX-hosted virtual world.
Additional sportswear firms such as Timberland, Adidas, and Under Armour have also launched their own metaverse platforms to market NFTs, limited-edition product drops, and social engagement campaigns, among many others.
