Excerpt from design:retail magazine
Buying luggage is now as glamorous as the vacations you need it for at TUMI’s new store located at the Oculus at the World Trade Center in New York.
The in-house design team partnered with Ridgewood, N.J.-based Hambrecht Oleson Design Inc. to create a space that reflects the best of luxury travel.
“We searched a lot of these first-class lounges that are all around the world now,” says Karen Oleson, creative principle, Hambrecht Oleson Design. “[For] the TUMI customer, this is what they experience when they travel, so we wanted to have an environment that reflected that higher-end [experience].”
The store’s high ceilings feature custom-designed, criss-crossing LED light slots that were inspired by the longitudinal and latitudinal lines on a map bursting from a “compass star” at the front of the store. Shawmut Design and Construction, a long-time partner of TUMI, installed the lighting system, as well as the custom LumiSheet LED light panels and proprietary wallcoverings throughout the store.
The new store is the first TUMI location that features leather lounge seating and phone charging stations, so customers can relax and get a little work done while waiting to get their new bag monogrammed. There also are interactive kiosks for online ordering of TUMI goods.
“TUMI has been really evolving their designs,” says Greg Skalaski, vice president of retail at Shawmut Design and Construction. “I think they are trying to evolve their store brand into the luxury lifestyle brand that they are, and this store really does feed into that.”