New Balance Lifestyle Roppongi
Fashion & Apparel
Creating a Lifestyle Concept for Tokyo
Creating a Lifestyle Concept for Tokyo
New Balance commissioned Greater Group to create its first Lifestyle concept store in Japan, located in Roppongi. While the brand was already well established in Tokyo through its performance heritage, the new format needed to shift the conversation from how New Balance products perform to how they are worn, styled and experienced.
In one of the world’s most discerning retail markets, the ambition was not to import an existing global concept, but to create something distinctly relevant to Tokyo while remaining unmistakably New Balance. The store also needed to move seamlessly between everyday retail and product launches, bringing flexibility into the concept from the outset.
Designing From a Japanese Idea
Rather than applying Japanese references to an existing retail language, Greater Group developed the concept around Ma, the Japanese idea of giving meaning to the space between elements. This principle shaped the architecture itself: lighting separates ceiling from walls to create a sense of floating planes, while warm timber contrasts with raw concrete to balance lifestyle expression with New Balance’s performance heritage.
Flexibility was designed into the same system. Mobile timber podiums and fixtures that integrate back into the walls allow the retail floor to be cleared and transformed for launches and events, with the point of sale and supporting elements concealed when required. Integrated lighting and a large-format digital screen then shift the focus from everyday merchandising to a single product or moment.
Developed by Greater Group’s Asia creative team across Hong Kong, Shanghai and Jakarta, the concept moved from brief to design in approximately two months.
A Concept Created for Its Market
New Balance Lifestyle Roppongi established a distinctly local expression of the brand, one informed by Japanese spatial thinking rather than simply adapted to Japanese aesthetics. The flexible environment moved effortlessly between retail and events, giving New Balance a lifestyle platform that could continually change without rebuilding the store around each activation.
The project received the Retail Innovation Award at the 2017 Hong Kong Business Awards and Silver for Interior Design – Retail at the 2017 Hong Kong Design Awards. Beyond the recognition, Roppongi demonstrated that a global brand could create something deeply relevant to its market without losing its identity, with the transformable fixture principles developed for the store informing subsequent lifestyle work.
