Last week, I visited with Lesley Hawkins, the Head of Retail for Adidas Canada. We did a walk through of the Adidas store at The Well here in Toronto.

The Well is a new shopping/residential district at the corner of a growing area in the city. For reference, it’s close to Rogers Center where Taylor Swift brought her Eras Tour to town. Further, there is office space located at The Well and companies like Shopify have a presence.

Of course, since people suffer from some type of life-rage, there has been some criticism about The Well’s location and open concept. It’s not easily accessible by subway, but there is a streetcar stop right beside it. Also, traffic can be a nightmare being so close to one of the exits to the highway….but this has been an issue for some time now.

However, with the right store mix, The Well seems to be….doing well!

Crumble Cookies opened a few days ago and hundreds were lined up to get a taste. Sephora and other stores had Swifties engaged with glitter, silver and bead making. The Christmas spirit was in the air with activations throughout the shopping center.

Adidas sits on the corner entrance of The Well. This is the busiest corner and entrance to The Well. High ceilings could have made visual merchandising a challenge but the concept of the store is to embrace local and that’s exactly what they’ve done.

Lesley was excited to stress this store’s location being connected to the local community. Surrounded by condos and offices, the customer lives and works in the area. The Adidas Originals collection and archive is featured in this store and the product assortment is refreshed weekly. The local customer who may come in 3 to 4 times a month will see something new every time they visit.

As I walked into the store, a few things stood out to me:

• Marketing was localized and connected to the Toronto community
• Empowered store leaders that communicate with each other on product opportunities
• Visual merchandising focused on outfitting with destinations throughout the store

From an assortment strategy perspective, many of the products in the store can’t be found in the flagship or online. The store has limited editions and gives a reason for the customer to frequent the location often.

The below photos showcase the city of Toronto and the relevance of the Samba. Local artists, vintage posters and polaroid’s of customers are highlighted in sections throughout the store.

Mike, the store manager, is local to the city and a sneakerhead. He has a connection to both the customer and the community. He has the authority to make assortment decisions when the customer is looking for something that isn’t in the product mix.

Store managers are given autonomy to work with stores in their network to swap out products as needed. This avoids time wasted in sending product back to the DC or asking allocation teams for a different assortment.

Mike is empowered to treat the store as if he owns it. He works with the other managers to collaborate and work through assortment challenges and gaps.

Outfitting and styling options are part of every highlighted collection on display. It’s easy for the customer to put together an outfit and layer on products accordingly. There are assortment destinations throughout the store. Meaning, every part of the store’s real estate is used to highlight various collections and assortment clusters.

The store associates understand the assignment and are product obsessed. It is very evident that they enjoy selling and connecting to the customer.

Footwear and collaborations are the heart of this Adidas store. The Adidas Originals x KoRN collab is one of the top sellers and stock was refreshed, never looking empty even with a high sell through. Stockouts can be a deterrent for many customers but I didn’t see any.

The footwear wall is a feature wall and is visible from the street. It changes twice a week and new footwear is displayed below a digital screen which broadcasts the relevant campaign.

Signage is also utilized in a simple and non-invasive way. Sale products are kept together and merchandised throughout the store. There is no need to have an obtrusive and ugly sale rack. The signage is small and in red so the customer knows if products are on promotion.

Shoe boxes are part of visual displays. Notice the lid on the Stan Smith Freizeit in the display case is slightly lifted. This gives depth to the display and makes the box part of the visual merchandising strategy.

Dynamic visual merchandising, genuine and enthusiastic brand ambassadors and an always evolving product mix will keep the customer coming back. This is evident in this Adidas location.

Thank you Lesley and Mike for showing me around. You are not only product-obsessed but also customer-obsessed.

I’ll be back for my limited edition sneakers soon!