.GapInc's new Athleta, The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores at its SF HQ offer testbed, plus creative lab spaces.
— is also something more. These locations are a testing environment for the company, where it can try new products, merchandising approaches and other experiences.On opening day, the Athleta store featured styles in colors that are unavailable anywhere else. Old Navy experimented with mixing vignettes and categories. The Gap showcased historic outfits from the brand’s archives, as worn onscreen by Sharon Stone, Missy Elliott and Kim Basinger, with all digital in-store displays.
For Holme, the Co-Lab was built to encourage a spirit of “messy play,” and so “if you’re curious and want to engage in creativity, you should come and join the Gap,” she said. Recruitment would be a fascinating upshot of this project.The tour of the space revealed another clear window — this time situated between the lab and The Gap store on the other side.