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Activewear brand Outdoor Voices flexes its design muscles in its latest stores

Outside In

Activewear brand Outdoor Voices flexes its design muscles in its latest stores

An Outdoor Voices storefront (Justin Clemons)

Not many retail spaces are designed with neighborhood pools, Dolly Parton, and the heyday of the Chicago Bulls in mind. But for Outdoor Voices, an Austin, Texas-based athletic-clothing company, these motifs signal its lighthearted approach to exercise, which is more about #DoingThings—the firm’s hashtag motto for getting endorphins going—than about being first to the finish line. In nine stores around the country, the brand has raised its profile in brick and mortar one blush-colored display platform at a time.

Three of Outdoor Voices’ newest stores opened in 2018 in Chicago, Dallas, and Nashville, respectively, with interiors inspired by YMCAs and other vintage cultural touchstones. Material palettes of unfinished plywood, ceramic tile, and rubberized flooring reference the retro rec centers, and custom fixtures are upholstered in Naugahyde, an imitation leather better known for dressing up classic diner banquettes. But these elements transcend nostalgia by being cast in vibrant and delicate hues, cut into crisp geometric shapes, and molded into curved forms that snake like Technicolor river rocks across the floor. Each store also gestures to the city beyond its walls, whether in the John Hughes–inspired color palette of the Chicago store or the Nashville installation that invites customers to play a golden Dance Dance Revolution console in tribute to Elvis’s footwork and baroque tastes.

Read the full article on our interiors and design website, aninteriormag.com.


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