Sun & Sand Sports has opened a concept store in Dubai Mall that allows customers to challenge each other to interactive trials.

Dubai-based retailer Sun & Sand Sports has just opened a new, digitally led concept store in the Dubai Mall with a name that serves to remind shoppers of the desert reality beyond the shopping centre.

The store itself, designed by Birmingham consultancy Green Room, covers 18,000 sq ft and includes three ‘interactive trial zones’ – for running, football and basketball.

These enable shoppers to compete with each other through challenges in each sport and for the results to be posted online via social media.

But the standout feature is a central event space, in the heart of the store, where an LED floor, screen and ‘digital pelmets’ can be linked to content provided in-store by an iPad and where a live feed provides views of the action in the trial zones.

A category-led approach to the display of the store’s various sports has been adopted and as a fusing of digital and physical, this is an interesting example of what is possible with thought and imagination.