Reaching the Green

Retail venues at major sporting events have been pioneers in pop-up retail: limited amounts of specialized merchandise sold in temporary stands, tents, counters and booths, up for a few days, then taken down and moved to the next event.

But as traditional retailers adopt the principles of pop-up retailing, the pop-up merchandisers at sports events are exploring traditional concepts for their temporary offerings.

At its major championship tournament this August at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., the PGA of America rolled out its largest merchandise “tent” yet, a 38,000-square-foot mini-department store.

Filling the open space was an array of brand concept shops, the biggest names in sports apparel: Nike, Under Armour, New Era, Adidas and Cutter & Buck, plus Polo Ralph Lauren, which has been designing uniforms for the U.S. Ryder Cup team since 2012.

Organizers placed the tent next to the course’s signature hole, the picturesque thirteenth green, a prime viewing spot where they expected 90 percent of the 250,000 attendees to pass by several times a day.

The tent was designed by Mike Quirk, the PGA of America’s senior director of merchandising, who started his career in store development at Abercrombie & Fitch and knows a thing or two about fixture heights, sightlines, in-store graphics and shopper behavior.

“It’s the first time retail principles have been brought to an event tent,” Quirk says. “All the brands have their own identities – fixtures, signage and areas color-demarcated on the carpet pad – to help people shop the space more easily.”

When the tournament was over, the tent, fixtures and signage were broken down for reuse at other PGA events. It can be compressed to 10,000 square feet or less for smaller tournaments and will be expanded to 45,000 square feet for the 2016 Ryder Cup tournament at Hazeltine National Golf Club (Chaska, Minn.), the PGA’s biggest golf – and retail – show.