Vans and Levi’s provide two brand experiences that show what retailers could do if they want goodwill and additional sales.

Two things in London on Saturday involved retail brands and free stuff. The first was that skate shoes and apparel brand Vans opened an indoor skate park just round the back of Waterloo station. The place is enormous and fills many of the cavernous brick arches that underpin the bridge taking trains out of the station and off towards Surrey.

Within, for those who like such things, there were large rooms where skateboarders could test their mettle at differing levels, bars, music zones and places where visitors could inspect street art. Of the shoes that Vans is best known for there was almost no sign, but for those of an acquisitive nature, branded baseball caps, lapel pins, wrist bands and similar were all on offer and everything was free.

Across town in fashionable Shoreditch, in an equally ‘in the know’ location, Levi’s was running a bikeshop where you could get your machine ‘tuned’, have a flat tyre repaired or just sit around in reach-me-down chic surroundings. All of this too was free and if you happened to look carefully, you’d have noticed several graphics extolling the virtues of Levi’s commuter jeans – aimed at the cyclist who doesn’t care for Lycra. Unlike the House of Vans, the Levi’s space is a pop-up and will close on the 17th of this month, following a 10-day run.  

The point about both however is that while they are certainly branded, they are not about selling things, at least not ostensibly. Instead they are about creating an experience associated with the brand that might mean that shoppers will look fondly on the articles that are on offer when passing a Vans or Levi’s shop.

There is an old cliché about retailers and brands wanting to ‘give something back’ when they do this kind of thing. But at the risk of sounding jaded, this is not what all of this is about. These ‘experiences’ are about fostering the appropriate branded climate of acceptability and making a label top of mind when you think, perhaps, jeans, bicycles or casual footwear.

And it works. There was nothing but smiles in both locations and visitors were not feeling manipulated, but instead were well disposed towards the brands. Retailers, particularly those associated with youth culture of any kind, should look at this and wonder how it might be replicated in-store. These are simple ideas, they don’t cost a great deal but they yield a deep fund of goodwill.