Vans Releases New Store Concept In London

The Vans company unveiled its new store concept in the city center of the English capital. Together with the Milanese architecture firm Andrea Caputo Studio, the renovation of the location on Oxford Street is intended to focus primarily on skateboarders and celebrate the London community through art and music.

The “pulsating heart of the store” is a new, 200 square meter skate ramp that runs through the entire store. The ramp was designed as a single block of stone and laid entirely on site. In the future, it will be used for skate lessons, demos and events by the Vans skate team and local skate schools. Plywood elements in the store combine the look into an overall design.

The aim of the new space is to implement a radical approach for Vans: in the modern retail design, the store’s storage requirements should be reduced by more than 50% and thus the commercial space should be significantly increased. The company is also introducing third-party partners for the first time in Europe with brands such as The Great Frog, Gomi and Loveskate. A modular design should enable curated spaces and new possibilities for visual merchandising.

“When I returned to Vans just over a year ago, we developed a clear strategy to evolve as a brand through the lens of skateboarding,” says current Vice President and General Manager Vans EMEA, Andreas Olsson. “We had to course-correct and make sure we were listening to what youth culture wanted from us – both in terms of products and experiences. Now, after just over a year, we have made great progress in setting new standards for the direction of the brand and this goal is an important step on that journey.”