ASICS POP-UP SHOP

Asics visual branding at Paris marathon

Asics puts on a big display every year during the Paris Marathon. With a gigantic pop-up shop with no less than 1650 m² of floor space, the international sports brand this year launched its new running shoes in advance of this landmark event. As it has been for the past three years Van Straaten was again, together with stand builders Dehullu and engineers Van der Veen, responsible for creating this major brand experience for Asics.

The Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Stockholm marathons are all important events where Asics can present its running shoes on a grand scale to the right target group. Dehullu, Van Straaten and Van der Veen have successfully worked together closely for a number of years now to support the brand in this way. “The success of this project is based on the close cooperation between the three of us,” explains Jaap Frerichs, project coordinator at Dehullu. “We each have our own expertise. Dehullu provides the steering and is responsible for the overall project. Together with our partners – Van der Veen, who is responsible for the truss construction, lighting and AV, and Van Straaten, who is responsible for the visual branding – we create a total experience.”

The Marathon Experience of Asics is a remarkable concept in many respects. “Essentially we set up an entire shop for just a few days,” Jaap continues. “Asics wants to really excite visitors and you can only do that if you stand out. Normally you can stand out at an exhibition or event with 600 m² but in Paris we work with a floor area of 1650 m². So this really is a mega project, a huge undertaking that also has to be set up and dismantled in no time at all. It’s great that we manage to do that every time, together with the experts from Van Straaten and Van der Veen.”

Visual branding

As Jaap Frerichs explains, it is the visual branding that makes or breaks a concept like this. “To put it simply, without Van Straaten’s banners and display systems all you would have is a bare structure. On top of which, with high quality visuals you can create real impact, certainly when they are as big as Van Straaten can print them. We have decided to work with Universal Textile for this project. This material has an open hem which makes it easy to mount using a separate stretcher.”