Work History / Lip Loi Creative
IconicThe brief that gave a sneaker boutique its first mall door
A sneaker boutique was about to take its first mall location and needed to know what it stood for. In two days Jimmy gave it a position, a customer, an assortment and a store format it could take to landlords and backers.
Brand · 2022
| Project type | Retail positioning and brand deck |
|---|---|
| Industry | Sneaker and streetwear retail |
| Seat | Principal, Lip Loi Creative |
| Ran through | Lip Loi Creative |
| Dates | 2021 to 2022. The deck itself is dated January 2022 |
What it is
Iconic was a luxury streetwear and sneaker boutique concept built on the secondary market, where coveted product is bought and resold. The deck planned a first location in a mall for April 2022 and a second location for October 2022.
The request came through No Caller ID, where Matthew Fine was helping the store open in a mall and wanted a positioning deck. It was paid work. The studio's own site lists the project in its portfolio as "Iconic Sneaker Boutique".
What Jimmy did
- Built the deck in four saved versions over two days, January 23 and 24, 2022.
- Set it out in three sections: overview, marketplace opportunity and growth strategy.
- Wrote the concept line. Iconic would challenge the status quo in luxury and sneakers by "elevating the customer experience".
- Defined the customer in three tiers. The primary customer was the Aficionado, aged 25 to 36. The secondary was the Collector, aged 18 to 24. The tertiary was the Trader, aged 12 to 17.
- Set the assortment mix by category: half footwear, 35% apparel, 10% collectibles and 5% equipment. By gender the mix was 55% men's, 35% women's and 10% kids'.
- Drew a 2,000 square foot store format, with 1,300 square feet of retail area and 700 square feet of backroom and receiving.
- Made the market case from published sources cited in the deck, including a projection that the global sneaker market would exceed $120B by 2026.
- Closed on a forecast by location and year.
What it delivered
- An 18-page brief, completed as version 5 on January 24, 2022, two days after the first draft.
- One document that answered the questions a landlord or a backer asks first: who the store is for, what it sells, how big it is and what it can earn.
- Jimmy's work ended at the brief. Opening the store was the owner's job.