You don’t just try on the glasses in this shop, you try them out
IN LINE with its mission of offering high-quality and high-performance gear and accessories for various outdoor activities, Rudy Project recently launched in the country its first-ever experiential store.
Located at the second floor of the Uptown Mall in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, the 184-square meter outlet boasts of interactive facilities designed to highlight some of what Rudy Project is all about as a brand.
The experiential store, which is easily recognizable thanks to its eyewear-shaped façade, features a cycling area, a putting green, and various virtual reality consoles where in customers can try out on technically cool Rudy Project gear, be it prescription eyewear, helmets, goggles, and other sports accessories, and see which products suit them best to elevate their performance in whatever activity they do.
The Uptown Mall store also has a section where customers are challenged to break Rudy Project’s most advanced unbreakable IMPACTX2 lens with a mallet, with prizes waiting for whoever manages to complete the challenge.
“The idea for this store came from our belief that for a brand like Rudy Project, putting up an ordinary store which does not say much is just not enough. With this store we aim to encourage people to try our products and see for themselves what we offer that can help their performance for a specific activity,” said Jerry Tee, chief executive officer of 88 Prestige Brands, the exclusive distributor of Rudy Project in the Philippines, in an interview with BusinessWorld at the sidelines of the store launch last week.
He went on to say that the experiential store is the first of its kind and unlike any other Rudy Project stores in the world, which speaks a lot of the market they have in the Philippines.
“Rudy Project has been here for a while now and reception to it, we’re happy to say, has been steadily rising as more Filipinos get to know and experience what our products are like,” said Mr. Tee. Rudy Project first set up shop in the country in 2005.
Founded in Treviso in 1985 by Rudy Barbazza, Rudy Project, which is now present in more than 60 countries, has continuously been developing industry-firsts as far as technology and design is concerned, which has produced sport-specific gear for golf, sailing, cycling, motocross, and shooting, among others. (To learn more about the patents and technologies of Rudy Project, follow it on Facebook and Instagram @RudyProjectPH.)
It also offers a “lifestyle” collection which is more laid-back but still technically well-thought out.
While he did not disclose any specific plans to open more experiential stores anytime in the near future, still Mr. Tee said it is the direction that they are going to take moving forward considering the type of customers they have these days.
“Maybe down the line we will open more stores like this or convert existing ones to this. But I think this is the direction that all business is going, not only Rudy Project. Customers like to experience the products and see for themselves how these function. We want to better engage them and we are giving them this,” Mr. Tee said.
Apart from the Uptown Mall shop, other Rudy Project stores are located at Alabang Town Center, TriNoma, Mall of Asia, SM Cebu, Robinsons Cebu, and D’Mall Boracay. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
