We are really pleased to announce our involvement in the opening of the new Sports Direct store in the second city, Birmingham.
This is a project that has come to fruition over three calendar years which commenced in December 2020 and completed in April 2022 as we continue working with Frasers Group in assisting to elevate their brand to be the leading destination for sports and lifestyle.
A vast retail space spanning 60,000 sq. ft. across four floors housing USC, Game, Belong and Evans Cycles brands and is the second flagship store to open after the launch of Sports Direct on Oxford Street, London and is however, biggest Sports Direct store to date.
The store also features some of the biggest sports brands too including Nike, Adidas, Asics, Puma, Under Armour and many more with individual sections showcasing the best in brand personalisation.
For the Nike Footwear wall and Men’s apparel section, a local graffiti artist created the artwork to enhance the personalisation of the section. We assisted in offering brand personalisation for Under Armour and Puma with the manufacture and install of elevated brand headers.
The store’s front window includes the message ‘Sports starts here’ and the façade included 15 tonnes of new glass and over 40 separate panels which were installed with the larger panels weighing over 450kg each. 1100m of structural mastic was also applied to the new façade as well.
The construction of the store changed quite dramatically with four existing escalators being removed from the lower ground and ground floors. In turn, six new escalators were installed at night weighing a total of 45 tonnes.
*Fun fact – did you know each escalator measures 15m in length, weighs 7.5 tonnes and was installed in one section?
Other features in the store include a permanent golf putting green, running gait analysis and a Jordan Basketball performance challenge which certainly adds to the overall experience of the store.
eb designs worked with many companies on this project to achieve the finished result and there was a lot of effort that went into the internal fit out and decoration. Approximately 6,000 litres of paint and 95kg of filler were purchased and applied. Did you know 4,750 of new sheets of plasterboard have been incorporated within the works … that’s enough to cover 2 football pitches or 3.5 acres of land. If all of the metal studwork was laid end to end, it would stretch for approximately 11 miles too!
The flooring was certainly a big feature and we have supplied and laid 2,240 sheets of floor protection throughout the store. Mechanical & Electrical was also significant and 3,100 light fittings feature in its totality.
Sloane Curtis who were the main contractors on the project spent a total of 29 weeks on site installing meaning a lot of health and safety took place with full site inductions for 615 different people! We also had family connections working on the project with five Father and Son’s teaming up.
Since the start of the project, we have seen many changes in the city from the UK’s largest German Market coming to town for two months in November & December 2021. The city clean air levy was introduced aiming to reduce pollution but equally the construction of the HS2 infrastructure started in the heart of the city. Birmingham has also been preparing to host the Commonwealth Games this year too, so we have certainly seen some developments!
Frasers Group CEO Michael Murray said:
“As Sports Direct continues to evolve and expand, we’re excited to be opening our second flagship store in Birmingham, “As one of the largest cities in the UK, Birmingham follows our first flagship in London and brings with it a significant investment into the city, alongside an unrivalled offering of sports and fashion under one roof.”
We are proud to have been involved in this project in collaboration with Frasers Group, The One Off, Brinkworth, SmithBrewer, Pinnacle Architecture, Sloane Curtis, Inurface Media and MC Displays.
Thanks to all the teams for their hard work and dedication to getting this store opened, it looks great!