Nike has returned to Riverdale with the opening of a 5,000-square-foot pop-up shop on Broadway, across from Van Cortlandt Park’s Parade Ground.
Unlike last year, this year’s facility is outdoors. It has returned to its previous location, in the parking lot connected to The Riverdale Press, at 6155 Broadway, because of what Nike spokeswoman Cindy Hamilton called Van Cortlandt Park’s “tremendous heritage.”
An edgy black-and-white theme inspired by the Tortoise and Hare — a fable and a famed cross-country course in Van Cortlandt Park — is incorporated throughout the cordoned-off area, which is complete with picnic tables and a non-functioning bus with black and neon-yellow illustrations.
A translucent black tarp with a map of the Tortoise and Hare trail hangs across the lot from a black wall with inspirational words to runners. There, passersby can read Nike’s Van Cortlandt Cross Country motto: “Victory is eternal. You can taste it.”
Runners can relax inside the bus’s lounge-like area, where popular music booms through the speakers. A modern trailer-like structure displaying Nike merchandise is located adjacent to the bus, and picnic tables offer a place to rest before and after runs.
The shop will be open to the public through the beginning of winter.
“The focus of what we’re doing is to really connect with high school athletes,” Ms. Hamilton said. “We really just want to give them a cool and special cross-country experience.”
Nike’s plan is to engage young athletes by inviting distinguished runners to speak and by giving away everything from colored shoelaces to metallic spikes for running shoes.
Nike has been building temporary pop-up shops everywhere from Chicago to California for several years to promote different sports. But Ms. Hamilton said the term “pop-up shop” for Nike’s Riverdale establishment is misleading because it isn’t intended primarily as a retail location but rather as a place for runners to relax, rejuvenate and catch their breaths.
