From Suburban Center to Urban Edge

Portland, Hayden Meadows
Hayden Meadows, the largest of GI Joe's stores, has a new look and will serve as a flagship for new store design. In a longstanding business relationship with GI Joe's, CDS has come to provide design, signage, décor, cabinetry and fixturing. CDS is also working with GI Joe's to help them move further from the big box image by departmentalizing the product sections with strong graphic elements and fixturing that more closely matches the image of the brands represented within those departments

The remodel of the Hayden Meadows store, the original in the chain, helps GI Joe's to further distinguish itself as a specialty retailer of sports and auto. Hayden Meadows features new ideas including an espresso bar, accent lighting on fixtures, and a 3,000 square foot concept store for water sports. The elite shoe shop and sleeping bag shop are concept areas that have also been used in multiple stores because of their merchandising success. All in all, the Hayden Meadows store is an effort to move beyond its blue-collar perception to capture market share of younger sports enthusiasts.

The new store design not only is more playful and dynamic, it's also easier to shop. By setting off men's clothes from footwear, for instance, it's easier to find what you want in the store. Rows of fishing rods are displayed against the back wall of lightwood, lit from above and below to clearly showcase one of the traditional core product offerings. The store's palette of warm colors represents the Northwest while boutique elements and graphics are aimed to appeal to the adventurer in all of us.

From Suburban Center to Urban Edge

Seattle, Northgate
With limited space for retail development close in to Seattle, GI Joe's decided to take on a different kind of store and re-develop an existing structure in the downtown, urban core. CDS played a lead role in the new design, which helps illustrate GI Joe's efforts to reach a beyond its middle class male customer to a younger, more urban and female customer.

The visual merchandising strategies introduced at previous stores are pushed to new levels at Northgate. Key elements include stronger department concepts to create boutiques for younger shoppers, and wider use of materials with an urban, industrial look. In place of banks of fluorescent lights on acoustic tile ceiling, halogen lights with large glass shades hang like streetlights from the ceiling of exposed iron supports. The signage for specific departments is large, ceiling-mounted and composed of contrasting materials and shapes with accent lighting that brings the structures to life. The Northgate store is a clear departure from the safe big box design to a new market that expects more style and drama in their retail environments. As GI Joe's image evolves, CDS will continue to look for new ways to update their look, while maintaining enough of the character of the brand to distinguish it from competitors.