Mark’s Work Wearhouse, a Canadian retailer with roots in industrial footwear and apparel, was looking for a way to show off some of its technologies: anti-slip boots, insulated clothing and the like. They found their answer by converting a walk-in freezer into a weather lab inside one of its apparel stores.

“Typical refrigeration suppliers thought we were nuts,” says Tom Ranieri, associate vp, store design, for Mark’s Work Wearhouse. But the store’s designers, working with Ruscio Studio (Montreal), did find a supplier to bring their Below Zero Winter Simulator to life, complete with windchill fans, icy bar handles and frozen walking surfaces.

The innovative fixture was an immediate standout for the judges in this year’s A.R.E. Design Awards, who crowned the unit Fixture of the Year. (See the rest of the fixture winners on the following pages.) The simulator was installed in Mark’s Edmonton Outlet store, which, Ranieri says, “was built around this notion of innovation. We installed displays like this to allow our customers to interactively experience and test our products in the store.” Cameras and TV monitors inside and outside the freezer create a fun, looky-loo experience, “so other customers can watch you wince from the cold!” Ranieri says.

“It was a big job to coordinate audiovisual media, millwork, metal, graphics, electricians, plumbers and all the other parties involved,” says Robert Ruscio, principal, Ruscio Studio. “All for a single floor unit.”
But, adds Ranieri, “the results have been spectacular. This store’s sales have been tracking 40 to 50 percent above other stores in the region. We’re also attracting a younger demographic, another stated goal for this concept.”

The simulator is one of seven interactive fixtures developed for this new experiential concept. And Mark’s is currently building six more Below Zero Winter Simulators for other stores in the chain. “We’re in the process of rolling out this concept into 30 stores this year, with expectations of a wider rollout to the rest of our 380-store chain in the future.”