Three new boutique doors: Phenom, Pogo and Haberdash

What it is

Khounlavong covered Nike Sportswear boutiques across the upper Midwest from Chicago. He started by evaluating every marketplace for its value and its gaps, and reviewing the significance of the retailers already in it.

Three gaps came out of that review. Minneapolis had potential to grow and needed a retailer Nike could grow with. The Detroit suburbs lacked a leading door in Birmingham, Michigan. Chicago lacked a point of distribution for the consumer aged 25 to 34.

What Khounlavong did

• Settled on Minneapolis as the market to grow, repositioned the existing retailers there, and then opened new retail in the cleaned market.
• Filed the account evaluation for Phenom, a change of ownership for a two-store retailer formerly known as 6Twelve. Territory sales management approved it on February 5, 2010.
• Set Phenom's distribution at Pinnacle, the top level, once the new store was executed. The store was due to open in April 2010 next door to Familia, one of the key Nike SB locations in the city.
• Recorded the Phenom concept in his account notes. The store was built on a dry cleaner idea, with purchases delivered to the customer on a conveyor, hung and wrapped in plastic.
• Opened Pogo as a leading retailer for Birmingham, Michigan. His reason was the owner's retail skill and a following large enough to elevate the suburban Detroit marketplace.
• Began conversations with Haberdash in Chicago by January 2010 to reach a higher end customer. The retailer had two men's stores, in Old Town and River North.
• Filed the Haberdash account evaluation in July 2010 for a spring 2011 opening, as a Sport Lab Boutique. The form projects $50K in annual Nike sales.
• Placed Haberdash on his map of Chicago as a new door in the Near North zone, one of five consumer zones.

Results

• Phenom opened as a new pinnacle distribution location in Minneapolis.
• Pogo opened in Birmingham, Michigan. It appears on his fall 2010 futures report, and an added holiday 2010 order for the account is dated April 2010.
• Haberdash paperwork was submitted by July 2010. He left for Los Angeles in August 2010. The documents do not record the opening.
• His July 2010 review records that relationships with the sneaker community had been established through Phenom.
• His July 2010 letter says Minneapolis "now has retailers that deliver a clearer Nike message to the consumer and is poised to grow."
• No sales result by door is recorded.

At a glance