sloped scaffolding displays in tokyo showcase inclusive apparel range by new balance

atelier write showcases gender neutral apparel collection

ATELIER WRITE has completed the display installation for sports footwear and apparel brand New Balance to showcase its newest collection ‘Uni-ssentials’ in Tokyo, Japan. The store design spatially encapsulates the brand’s attempts to explore the essence of gender neutrality by presenting a dynamic series of sloping display structures that recall metal scaffolding with angles that engagingly visualize the collection’s wide range of inclusive sizes. Instead of organizing clothes in ways that emphasize their individual characteristics, the showcases follow the hemline of the jackets in an abstract slope and separates them based on color alongside shoes and other accessories for a cohesive display.

sloping scaffolding emphasizes the range’s values

New Balance’s new collection comes in only one standard size without differentiation between gender, and each item is adjusted so that it can be worn at the optimum length and width by all body shapes. Japanese studio ATELIER WRITE’s exhibition equally centers on spotlighting the vast variation between sizes by enhancing the items’ presence within sloping display structures with abstracted angles. Underneath the hung jackets, the collection’s footwear, which was originally designed for trail running along unpaved paths, also is decidedly displayed without a horizontal surface to allude to its use.

The scaffolding displays were assembled by tilting the support columns using a flexible jack base. The direction of the resulting slope further sits in harmony with the public artwork White Pulse by Kohei Nawa which is displayed at the rear of the store. The versatility of the materials used also granted the brand and design team a level of flexibility by enabling the units to be easily separated and relocated to other floors or configurations during the exhibition period.

project info:

name: Uni-ssentials 
designer: ATELIER WRITE

lead designer: Takuya Sakamoto

client: New Balance

construction: TANK

location: Tokyo, Japan

completion date: 2023

photography: Kenta Hasegawa

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