THIS WAY OUT, a new adventure sports and bicycle store in Cape Town, has been named the winner of the 2016 Retail Design & Development Award for stores occupying less than 1000 square metres of floor space.
The awards, which consider five different retail categories, were made on the first day of the 20thannual South African Council of Shopping Centres in Sandton.
The awards celebrate exceptional designs of retail development projects within the South African property industry, together with their economic success. They include new shopping centres, the redevelopment and refurbishment of existing centres, as well as the design of retail stores and restaurants.
“The development and design of shopping centres and stores is a multidimensional and sophisticated discipline. It’s a creative, technical and commercial discipline that brings architecture, interior design, retail principles, consumer dynamics, environmental innovation and technology together in the conception and construction of retail space,” said Amanda Stops, CEO of SACSC.
The awards consider the entire development package, including excellent design resolution, achieving a clear overall development objective, responding positively to the market and surroundings, adopting innovative design and construction solutions, and embracing environmental techniques.
“We are thrilled with the award! We were up against some very established retail chains as well as many stores in new state-of-the art centres like Mall of Africa,” said Robyn Self of Plan It Design, the company tasked with the design and fitting of THIS WAY OUT.
The brief was to create an ‘inside space for outside beings’, showcasing lifestyle sports products, apparel and accessories with the focus on mountain biking, trail running, yachting and climbing.
“An old heritage building used as a coffee-grinding factory in down town
Cape Town was found. We had one month to develop and design this new store concept before the grand opening scheduled to take place just before the launch of the Maserati Yacht Week. So we had time pressure too,” said Self.
“Working with the main product of mountain bikes, our personal experience of browsing in bike shops led us to creating custom-made swivelling bicycle display frames that not only create a series of room dividers between coffee bar, apparel, accessories and point-of-sale area, but frame the high-end bikes as ‘art’. These frames also replicate the main THIS WAY OUT logo with its square detail.
“THIS WAY OUT store represents a high quality and innovative retail experience. In its simplest form, it is a bike shop; however, in offering maintenance services, a coffee bar, nutritional supplements and specialist gear and clothing, THIS WAY OUT has delivered a lifestyle experience that has become a destination store for the cycling community seeking out the latest high-end products available,” said the judges summary.
In addition to other brands, THIS WAY OUT is the primary Cape Town stockist of Rocky Mountain bicycles and Helly Hansen all-weather performance gear, both premium global brands. It also has a highly respected bicycle workshop facility and employs a full-time barista to create high quality coffee-bar fare.
“It’s quite an honour to win this award. THIS WAY OUT is by no means an established retailer. In fact, This Way Out is our first real step into the retail sector as a company. It’s a homegrown retail store catering for very South African outdoor and sports customer needs,” said Abrie Botma, founder and director of Hullabaloo, the company that owns THIS WAY OUT.
“To be given this award in our first year is a wonderful stamp of approval and we’re looking forward to growing our THIS WAY OUT store brand beyond the Western Cape in the future,”
THIS WAY OUT is located at 16 Buiten Street, Cape Town. It is one of three THIS WAY OUT stores currently, the other two being satellite shops at the popular mountain biking/trail running venues of Meerendal and Contermanskloof in the Durbanville area. For more, visit www.thiswayout.co.za
Source: Inside Lie
