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The 5 Coolest Features Inside Nike’s New Paris Flagship

Nike’s newest flagship, Nike Paris House of Innovation, launched today on the French capital’s Avenue des Champs-Élysées. This week, FN took an exclusive tour ahead of the official public opening.

In what is the latest of only three Nike flagship experiences in the world — the others are in New York and Shanghai — interconnectivity, digitization and personalization are all watchwords. But enough with the theory, here’s how it all plays out in practice.

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Read on to see our 5 coolest takeaways from Nike’s new Paris flagship with 3D foot scanning, self-checkout via customers’ own smartphones and more.

1. The Perfect Fit 2.0

In the subterranean level SneakerLab, you can have your feet 3D scanned via a nifty hand-held device and the resulting data attached to your member profile on your Nike app. But don’t think you’ll just be told you’re a US7. This isn’t called the House of Innovation 2.0 for nothing. We all know that sizing can vary according to a particular style so Nike Fit’s propriety machine learning and advanced algorithms will determine your recommended size in whatever Nike model you choose going forward. This doesn’t just facilitate online ordering, it also helps to lower one’s overall carbon footprint as it cuts out exchanges due to sizing issues.

2. No More Qualms About Bra Size

On the women’s apparel floor, the bra get’s similar treatment. It’s not quite as advanced as the shoe version because it involves ladies wielding tape measures as opposed to body scanners but the principle stands. They’ll help you take your own measurements properly (not just around the bust but also shoulder to breast) and show you how to input the results into your member profile. The Nike algorithms do the rest. And from now on, you’ll you’ll know exactly what size to order in the sports bra of your choice.

3. Get the Kids Moving, Too

The Nike Paris kids’ section features a cool interactive gaming and trial station. But it doesn’t involve sitting in front of a computer screen. Instead, kids can benefit from a full body work out with a 360 virtual runners experience inspired by Parkour and a whole lot more.

4. Your Daily Grind

While this is the first ever brick-and-mortar store to offer Nike’s sustainable shoe collection, the Space Hippie — that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The fabric of the store itself is constructed from 85,000 kilos of sustainable material. Much of this is Nike Grind, which is a base material fashioned from pulverized components of recycled sneakers. You see it everywhere from the specks in the flooring to the hangers used to display the garments.

5. Self-Checkout is the New Normal

As one might expect this is only available for certain low price, high turnover product categories but the customer can self-scan said products using the Nike app on their own smartphone, save the receipt to their account, bag up their item (in a recycled carrier bag, obviously) and head off on their way. Think about it: No germ-harboring touch screens or scanner guns necessary. Sorry no images available for that one but while we’re on the subject of safety, take a look at the photograph below. Bet you didn’t see the cross section of transparent screens separating the the footwear trail station in the Sneaker Lab. Which is the whole point. Just like the tech, the pandemic related precautions are seamless.

Nike Paris, House of Innovation 002, is located at 79 Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It’s open Sunday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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