Tracksmith

Tracksmith was founded in New England, USA and launched in 2014 as an independent running brand. Now with International reach, their physical stores act as clubhouses and community hubs for runners. With a New York City clubhouse strategically planned to open before London, and perhaps Berlin, we were commissioned to help grow their retail presence in the UK, which is, traditionally, a spearhead into Europe for northern American brands.

In ten years, Tracksmith has achieved iconic status as a running brand, with a huge international online-community of loyal customers; a disruptor for bigger brands. However, the brand had little knowledge of London, giving us a broad set of objectives in our brief.

We had the privilege of working directly with the CEO, COO, Head of Retail and the Creative Director, collaborating across the timelines of the USA, Europe and London within a compressed project timeframe. We knew our advisory and thought services had to be concise, rapidly working through an introduction to the UK retail real estate market and its processes, entry route to market, the corporate bureaucracy, the structure of UK leases, both modern and the traditional ‘institutional lease’, layers of costs, introducing the nuances of the London market, its locations and characteristics, associated demographics, mapping brief against locations for retail but also sites that had access to iconic city running routes and tracks whilst considering streets and buildings that could meet the brief for mass run meetings (500 runners for peak events), and offered a mix of good lifestyle neighbours.

Based on reputation and legend, Soho was Tracksmiths ‘go to’ location in London, however the insights revealed Marylebone met the brief better. The mission to find a location began, in a tight market with high demand and virtually no supply, Tracksmith needed a voice; so, we wrote a deck for their creative team to visually build on our narrative framework, guidance on how to communicate with London landlords and their agents, vital information needed, finance details, backing, projections, growth and covenant reassurance. The final deck empowered their identity immediately, heralding their arrival with intent in London; we were invited to pitch on a building in the prestigious Chiltern Street, we guided Tracksmith’s Board through the pitch to the Portman Estate, ensuring that they were the preferred brand to be selected from a group of competing bidders.
We also assisted our client with recommendations on legal representation to undertake the commercial transaction and set up the UK company, plus introduce them to a retail architect to help with the design and delivery of such an important, world class store.

We secured a rarely available double fronted flagship store in Chiltern Street, negotiated complex and layered legal discussions and commercial terms, helping deliver one of the most revered lifestyle brand spaces in London, and as it turned out, ahead of New York City.

Tenant Representation Agency, Brief, UK Real Estate Market, London Market, Creative Writing, Landlord Brand Deck, Market Search, Find & Select, Viewings & Neighbourhood Tours, Commercial Negotiations, Landlord & Tenant Law, Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork and Collaborations, Advisory on Legal, Architecture, Design, Build, Planning, Licencing, specialist Outdoor Leisure industry insights.