Victorinox looks sharp on Bond Street

Swiss army knife brand Victorinox has opened a new European flagship store on London's Bond Street - and the three floor lifestyle concept space features an in-store forest and touch-screen consumer test to make customers feel at home among the knives.

Swiss retail design specialist Retail Partners created a completely new look store design for the Swiss knife specialist, which it interpreted by creating a design with a strong product focus. There are six product categories for sale over the three floors. The ground floor is dedicated to mens sportswear, timepieces and fragrances, the first floor is for seasonal womenswear and the lower ground floor sells travel gear, chef's knives and Swiss army knives.

The prize for store highlight is a toss up between the 10m-high case containing pen knives running through the stairwell, and stretching through three floors of the building, which occupies 4,500 sq ft of retail space. Or alternatively we loved the second floor forest chill out area. Very mountain like. And adding some fun and customer interaction are the touch-screen 'lifestyle identity' games which serve to bring web activity - such as choosing the right product for the right customer - to life, on-screen. Enjoy deciding which knife goes with which jacket while sampling fresh fruit cocktails served from the ice-bar!



Retail Partners commented: "We wanted to create a much more authentic brand identity through three dimensional forms and work with a smaller colour palette." Victorinox plans to roll out the new design to the Tokyo and New York stores.


Last week saw the opening launch party with vertical "runway" in the glass stairwell and Swiss chef knife displays plus various Swiss DJ sets to rock the fashionable crowd.