Project Overview

It all started with Chickens feet in 1906!
In 1906 New Balance was founded after William Riley noticed in his Boston back yard how his Chickens walked with perfect balance on their three toes. From this New Balance Arch Company was founded and over 111 years later New Balance is still innovating ensuring we as human beings are moving better and faster than ever before. The New Balance BIRD Centre was founded to cultivate creativity, to provide a dynamic flexible space where we can build what we are thinking from Flagship to SIS and anything else where we need to think of the brand in 3D. The raw empty space was 11m high and approximately 32m x 56m. We built in four floors creating over approximately 6000sqm of functional space. We have fixed facilities from showers to meeting rooms as well as build spaces of numerous sizes including a three story flagship store! The BIRD Centre is not open to the public as this is where we consider the Future State of New Balance.
The New Balance BIRD Centre where new ideas take flight!

Organisation

New Balance Global Retail Design

Team

NEW BALANCE GLOBAL RETAIL DESIGN, HONG KONG AND BOSTON; Bob Neville, Elizabeth Lester, JR Victorio, Shoki Chen, Fisch Leung, Joyce Lau, Kirsten Marchand, Kim Rogers
WINTER SUN FIXTURES AND BUILD, SHANGHAI, CHINA; CEO Mr Choi

Project Brief

With the blurring of Physical and Digital and the need to create compelling immersive human experiences it is imperative we rapidly test and learn. Live spaces/retail is a very expensive place to experiment or discover a mistake with your design work.
Many Brands will build a prototype at a factory but no other Brand has the capability that we have to not only be functional, practical, pragmatic but also inspiring!
The New Balance BIRD Centre with its attached Winter Sun fixture manufacturing enables us to test and learn rapidly and cost effectively

Project Innovation/Need

The BIRD Centre inspires and enables us to make mistakes and learn away from the eyes of the public in a rapid cost effective way

Design Challenge

For us as a team the largest Design challenge and need was to create an environment where we can work rapidly AND cost effectively supporting the commercial needs of the New Balance Brand whilst at the same time being Brand accretive.

Sustainability

When we build anything we always look to reuse and keep as much as possible after each test and learn.
The rooms we use are like stages and reused time and again.
Lighting, tracks, logos, wood, props, screens etc are all kept back of house for future use, this keeps developement costs down and at the same time materials to hand.
We up cycle materials such as old 1960's operating theatre lights in our meeting room to the 1950 blast proof lights used on the walls and high bays.
Products are all old New Balance sales samples so we can give a sense of product in our spaces, again we have extensive collections of products to draw from