DC Shoes Opens N.Y. Flagship
The DC Shoes brand earned 10 percent of revenue for parent company Quiksilver Inc. last year, according to the Huntington Beach, Calif.–based activewear giant’s recently released 2005 annual report.
By mid-April, the footwear brand should achieve an even higher profile, when the brand’s first flagship store opens in New York City.
“This is a real first for DC,” said Ken Block, co-founder and chief brand officer of DC, which entered the market in 1993 by designing skateboard shoes.
The 2,500-square-foot store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood will be one of the most thorough showcases of DC products, Block said. It will replace a Quiksilver store, which moved to a 7,000-square-foot space on New York’s Broadway.
Quiksilver will open more DC Shoe stores in the next five years, said Carol Kristofferson, president of Quiksilver retail. But the company has not decided how many DC stores will be built, and the roll out will initially be limited to such fashionable capitals as London and Tokyo.
The store will have a sleek, futuristic look that Quiksilver designed with Los Angeles– based architecture firm Graft, said Steve Jones, Quiksilver’s vice president for visual display. Jones and Graft heavily consulted DC co-founders Block and Damon Way on store deacute;cor.
“Skateboarders generally have a more developed design aesthetic, so we’re appealing to that sense of refinement,” Jones said of the store’s mysterious look.
The architects strived to create a unique deacute;cor, and all of the store’s furniture, from fiberglass fixtures to benches, will hang from the ceiling. Jones said the deacute;cor was meant to give the illusion that the boutique’s furniture is floating.
The store’s color scheme of black, white and chrome will reflect a futuristic look. One side of the store will be dominated by a shoe wall that will display a wide range of the brand’s shoes, including skate shoes, snow boots, sandals and limitededition shoes created by artists who partnered with the brand.
Another section of the store will be devoted to outerwear, T-shirts and hoodies. Block said the SoHo store will offer shoes and T-shirts exclusive to the SoHo flagship for those who want something unique. —Andrew Asch
