Client Brief

The store’s design problem turns on an issue of legibility: Surefoot sells a fitting process that is unique to the industry, but the store is stocked with rows of intensively patterned and colored boots from immediately recognizable global brands. How can an intangible process supersede or visually insinuate itself into the slick glamour of an industrial design object? The diffusion of the custom-fitting process compounds this design problem; it occurs in a series of small episodes that are not immediately legible as having anything to do with skiing or footwear. In order to fit a boot, Surefoot uses a digital scanner to create a topographic map of the customer’s foot, which is in sent to a computer numerically controlled mill to fabricate an orthotic insert. The process is completed by injecting rapid-hardening foam into the liner of a boot while the customer stands on a canted platform designed to simulate the position and resultant stresses of the foot and ankle against the ski boot while skiing. Uninitiated customers can’t understand what the staff technicians are doing without a spatial system to indicate that each episode in the custom fitting process scattered throughout the store is part of a coherent whole and a recognizable brand.

Local Response

Surefoot Aspen is part of a class of at-mountain stores handling high volume sales and traffic. It is located at the base of Aspen Mountain in the middle of the Après Ski glitz of the town of Aspen. Like the store, the town of Aspen acts as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, masquerading as a small mining town which houses a buffet of high-fashion boutiques catering to billionaire boys club of clientele. Surefoot Aspen attempts to capitalize on local site conditions by utilizing structural obstacles to organize vertical display and slow down the stream moneyed vacations and convert them to shoppers and browsers. Throughout the store, display casework hangs on an existing column grid, fattening the structural elements to channel customers into a “map” of the ski boot fitting process and forcing engagement with the displayed product.