Client: Wolverine
Project: Ramparts Freestanding Fixture
►Project description
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For over 135 years, Wolverine has handcrafted work boots for comfort, purpose, and endurance. After working together on many projects in the past, Wolverine and AXIS partnered once again to bring its newest Built in America product line to market, Ramparts.
►DESIGN OBJECTIVES
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Ramparts is a work book unlike others. Built in America by the very people who wear them, the Ramparts retail launch needed a feature fixture that told its rugged, hardworking, bold story in an authentic way. With material quality and innovative comfort technology as standout differentiators, AXIS was asked to develop a freestanding fixture that showcased the “Built in America” message in both style and function.
Additionally, the Ramparts product line served to promote a larger community outreach initiative for the company, Project Bootstrap - a movement focused on raising awareness and support for those who go into the skilled trades. Whatever fixture solution was created needed to incorporate the mission and purpose of Project Bootstrap as well.
►The
process
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At first review, AXIS presented Wolverine with 10 concepts: seven freestanding fixtures and three shelf displays, all of which met the aforementioned design objectives while highlighting, expanding, and building upon one another so scalability and adaptability to a wide variety of retail channels and settings could be achieved.
Knowing how critical it was for shoppers to see the craftsmanship up close, AXIS presented Wolverine with many options for customer engagement with the product. Spinning wheels, rotating gears, removable shadow boxes, holograms, and interactive augmented reality formats were all explored to determine what would give the shopper the best (and most practical) demo experience.
►Concept sketching
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Ultimately, Wolverine selected a double-sided, durable, no fuss freestanding fixture unit allowing for stability and longevity in retail with plenty of room for graphics, branding, and product messaging. One side of the display contained interchangeable, product specific messaging with a display/ demo area and the reverse side was devoted to interchangeable messaging that highlighted Project Bootstrap. 150 units were initially produced.
►Materials
& Components
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Material selection was driven by a need to evoke a trades-oriented, industrial-minded work narrative: gears, turnbuckles, steel, metal, concrete, rebar, wood, leather, and more were explored.
The final concept utilized a variety of metal pieces to tie in the boot’s “USA/BUILT” tag. For the lower portion of the display, we direct digitally printed onto a textured, high pressure laminate and then machined the panel to achieve the look and feel of Shou Sugi Ban wood planking. This allowed us to keep per unit cost down and adhere to our Sustainable Manufacturing commitment. We developed a shelf piece that supported a corrugated “shoe box” showcasing the shoe, and stretched backlit, fabric-printed graphics into a graphic frame to provide attention grabbing messaging and branding.
“The new tower was received very, very well! Both Sales and Marketing are very excited about this, and it was the buzz among our sales reps. Thanks for the job well done. Again. You guys rock!!” - Colette Potter, Retail Experience Marketing Director, Wolverine Worldwide
