Sports Direct built a different kind of big-box.
What’s happening: The Frasers Group-owned sports retailer unveiled an experiential store in Liverpool, UK, uniting fitness, activewear, and recovery under one roof.
Game on. Merging store and fitness studio, the 90K-sq-ft site features women’s training, running, and agility zones, inviting hands-on interaction through gait analysis, fitness challenges, and performance testing. An Everlast Gym+ housing a HYROX Performance Center occupies an entire floor.
Stocking amenities, it adds a Reformer Pilates studio, a Myprotein café with co-branded HYROX supplements, and a recovery suite with Brass Monkey ice baths and herbal/dry salt saunas.
Sweat economy. Aligned with a wider elevation strategy, Frasers Group’s CEO Michael Murray sees the immersive format as a way to redefine retail, combining community and commerce. Not its first pilot, it installed a Barry’s studio inside luxury fashion retailer Flannels in 2022.
Shopping around. Active retail is accelerating, becoming hubs for style, social connection and movement. DICK’S House of Sport blends point-of-sale with play, and just became US wholesaler for community-minded apparel brand Gymshark.
Meanwhile, Nike is scaling strength studios alongside gear, Alo is building private gyms, and Reebok x F45 Training are exploring a fitness-meets-retail concept.
Takeaway: Betting on experience-led spaces, Sports Direct’s evolution signals a broader shift — trading transactions for touchpoints and shoppers for communities.
