Nike Community Store Opens Downtown

Hundreds of people lined up on a super hot Thursday morning for the super hot opening of the Nike Community Store in downtown Detroit. Should a Nike store be this big of a deal? When a city needs as much retail as Detroit does, yes.

It even brought out famed MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo and Sparty to celebrate with the city.

Michelle & Chris Gerard

Located in downtown’s historic F.W. Woolworth Co. building, at 1261 Woodward Avenue, the space is right across from the old Hudson's site, which will also bring more retail in a few years. Many are hoping Woodward will become a retail corridor in the upcoming years. We shall see.

As with other Nike Community Stores, the new space operates with four key goals in mind.

• The first is the aim to hire at least 80% of its team from within a five-mile radius of the location.
• The second goal is to capture the spirit of the city with the store’s local design and product offerings. In the Detroit store, the walls feature photography of local sport courts and landmarks. The store also carries Detroit-specific apparel from the Lions, the Tigers and Michigan State University for men, women and kids.
• Third, its associates, or "store athletes," are allocated time to volunteer in the community.
• Last, the store will offer $40,000 in annual grants of $5,000 each to eight local non-profit groups via the expanded Nike Community Impact Fund.

The store isn't as big as we thought it would be, but has two floors. The upstairs has apparel and shoes for men and kids, while downstairs has the same for women.

Grid View

We can't wait for the day when we bring you pictures from a Target or big grocery store opening in the city.

• Confirmed: Detroit Needs More Retail [Curbed Detroit]
• Hudson's Site Development Storystream [Curbed Detroit]