b'THE STATE OF THE THE JEWELRY THE COLOREDMAJORS DIAMOND DESIGN STONE MARKETINDUSTRYAnd so National Jeweler did just that, with a bona fide award-win- think about having little things they can switch up all the time. Its a ning jeweler in tow. smaller-scale version of the famed retail store Story, which complete-This reporter ducked out of the convention one day with Calhounly transforms on a regular basis. Jewelers owner Cathy Calhoun, who had just been inducted into Na- Calhoun liked the idea of changeable seating for her new store in tional Jewelers Retailer Hall of Fame (and who has been a pioneer inCarmel-by-the-Sea, California. experiential retailing in the jewelry industry). We headed across townA big key is this seating set-up, she said as we stood off to the side in a cab, to Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street. in the Sneakerlab, out of the crowd scrambling for shoes. You can just There, opposite the venerable old Cartier mansion, which was thesit and hang. height of experiential retailing a century ago and was recently reno- Its comfortable, she added, before keying in on an even better word, vated, sits the Nike House of Innovation 000, a 68,000-square-foot,one the jewelry industry has had a difficult time embracingcasual.six-level space that Nike described as the pinnacle expression of mod- Jewelry store seating, Calhoun noted, always looks formal. Maybe ern retail when it opened in November 2018 and that FRCH Nelsonswere doing it all wrong.Roberts says is a really important space in the history of retail.On the fourth floor with the Sneakerlab was a digital coming Calhoun and I spent a couple hourssoon board displaying yet-to-be-released Nike exploring the store, walking the rampsshoes. Why not have that feature in a jewelry from the first level to the fifth, withstore showing new pieces and when theyll be the jeweler finding elements she couldavailable, Calhoun wondered? incorporate in her stores all the way up.On the top floor, Nike featured gear and a There was the seating in the bright- training program for runners who are participat-white Sneakerlab, which was so busy iting in an upcoming local event, the 2019 New looked like LaGuardia Airport in theYork City Marathon. This is something else a midst of a throng of flight delaysbutjeweler could do, she observed: tie their prod-more fun. It was comfortable anducts into relevant local events. featured changeable modules, which hitContinued on page 14on a point Nisch had emphasized during his talk at the JA convention. When retailers ask him how often they should renovate, he said: Every morning. He didnt mean a full-scale store over-haul but, rather, that retailers should These shots from inside the Nike House of Innovation 000 show (clockwise from top) the dizzying array of customization options available in the makers space, the Sneaker Bar and the Sneakerlab explored by this reporter. (Photos courtesy of Nike) 12 STATE OF THE MAJORS 2019'