Design — CASEY LORENZEN

Retail Design

Fjällräven Denver Flagship

Worked closely with our VP of Brand, designer and Tres Birds architects to create a new look and feel for our brand stores in North America. Created an airy, open concept by utilizing Colorado beetle-kill pine posts to hold displays, allowing light to spill through, much like a forest. Instilled local elements with the beetle-kill pine ceiling and Colorado Black Granite rocks throughout the space. A huge project, right in the heart of downtown Denver, my hometown, so this one held a special place for me. Then we opened the week of Covid lockdowns…so that was cool.

Fjällräven Seattle Store

The first in a line of new design concepts for our stores, the Seattle store sits right up the street from the famous Pike Place Market, so we had to get this one right. We created a monster Kånken wall that dominates the space as well as a new-fangled “pant-land” that highlighted our best-selling category. With huge windows lining both sides of the corner store, we had a ton of opportunity for storytelling, that is until rioters smashed most of them. Cost of doing business, I guess.

Fjällräven NYC Meatpacking

This one was an interesting one to work on. To begin, it started in the old Quiksilver spot that I previously trained new store staff in, but the build-out provided some cool opportunities - but also some wild challenges. We hired a muralist to hand paint a huge original piece on plywood attached to the brick, but the 100 year old walls crumbled under the weight of the structure, wiping out a full days work. Then, the custom built tailor hut had some structural issues, the wood walls were stained the wrong shade, etc, etc. It was an extremely stressful operation, which was only elevated by time restrictions and the nature of New York. In the end, we pushed through and created a beautiful store with a ton of character.

Brand Activations

Fjäll Hus Mobile Showroom

Here’s one that evolved from an idea I had to create a branded event vehicle. We shot for the moon and found a tiny home maker to build this monstrosity of a trailer. It ended up not being as “mobile” as we had hoped for but it sure as hell got a lot of attention and notice. Fully designed with a modern Swedish aesthetic, it was complete with a walk-up coffee window, full kitchen, fold-down deck and branded showroom. The Fjäll Hus made it’s way to Madison Park in NY, Seaport in Boston and other events on it’s way to Colorado.

Colorado Rockies Partnership

I went to the first ever Rockies game in Colorado in 1993 (where Eric Young hit a home run in the first at-bat in Denver, but more on that later). So when the Rockies reached out about a potential brand partnership with the team and Coors Field, I was the first to push for it. Luckily our CEO is also a baseball fan and we got the green-light. This was a super fun build, from the physical components to the brand activations. We rebranded the nature area in center field as the “Fjällräven Forest” and for every home run hit into the forest, we donated $1000 to Leave No Trace. The partnership also included in-game takeovers, bullpen signage, a drive to store program, charity golf outing and autograph wall physical build. Hell, even Dinger’s handler wore a purple Kånken.

Nordstrom NYC Center Stage

The brand was invited by one of our biggest retailers, Nordstrom, to be the featured brand in their exclusive capsule, Center Stage, housed in their Manhattan flagship store. We went big and created a pop-up that resembled a ‘stuga village,’ which were Swedish houses designed to remind customers of life in nature. The in-store experience was underpinned by a selection of key nature activations, events, speakers and take-down versions of the build in 9 other prominent Nordstrom locations all over the country.