Kennedy Nolan has consistently demonstrated a specific aptitude for creating retail environments that possess a lively, living pulse. The Melbourne practice’s 2023 flagship for Up There, situated beneath the Herald and Weekly Times building on Flinders Lane, successfully transformed the act of shopping for menswear into an experience that resembled theatre—abstract, saturated, and faintly cinematic in its presentation. Moving beyond that previous work with the creation of Up There Athletics’ first store located outside of Melbourne, Kennedy Nolan has intentionally swapped visual spectacle for physical sensation. The Darlinghurst store, positioned on Oxford Street in Gadigal Country, is designed to engage the visitor on a multisensory level, marking a distinct evolution in the practice’s retail portfolio.
This new environment is meticulously calibrated for all the senses, beginning with the very ground patrons walk upon. Underfoot, a rubber soft-fall floor yields with every single step—creating a surface that is springy and faintly bouncy. The texture and resistance draw a physical parallel to an athletics track, while simultaneously recalling the specific cushioning found in a new pair of trainers fresh out of the box. It is a foundational detail that serves as a subtle but powerful announcement of a conceptual shift the moment one walks in, communicating the store’s athletic nature well before a customer has consciously registered or clocked the merchandise on display.
Rising above that responsive surface, a flat, dull olive green washes continuously across the floor, walls, and ceiling. This deliberate application of monochrome color creates an unfussy backdrop, specifically constructed to absorb whatever unpredictable drop of gear lands within the space next. The fixturing supports this adaptability, remaining loose and mobile; shelving and rails shift between horizontal and angled arrangements around a grid of fluorescent red posts that march down the main merchandising wall, providing a rhythmic verticality to the space. Running the entire length of the store, a line of cobalt blue mannequins functions visually like a stop-motion study in acceleration, capturing a frozen moment of action. Complementing these figures, narrow lighting strips slice diagonally overhead, actively nudging both the eye and the body forward through the space, creating a sense of propulsion.
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“It’s a haptic experience rather than a visual statement,” explains Patrick Kennedy, articulating the core philosophy driving the design. He describes the project as an emphasis on “feeling the movement of a body through space,” prioritizing the physical interaction between the customer and the architecture over a purely aesthetic appreciation. By focusing on the haptic, the design redirects the visitor’s attention from static displays to the dynamic experience of handling the interior, aligning the built environment with the physical nature of the athletic products sold.
There is a clear and strategic intent behind every element included in the fit-out: to heighten the sense of mobility as one moves through the store. The grid of red posts shifts in parallax as customers pass by, creating a dynamic visual rhythm that changes with perspective. The mannequins, though frozen in place, suggest intense motion through their arrangement. The diagonal lighting serves a functional purpose as well, pulling the visitor onward through the volume. Unlike typical sports retail environments, which often clamor for attention with aggressive branding and high-intensity visuals, none of these elements shout. The palette stays tertiary and low-key, allowing the form of the space to lead. The lighting remains warm and inclined to dim rather than the showroom-bright illumination usually associated with athletic gear, supporting an atmosphere of immersion rather than exposure.
This design strategy serves as a sophisticated bit of positioning for a brand straddling two distinct worlds: the provision of serious performance gear and a customer base that cares as much about how a space feels as how a shoe performs. Kennedy Nolan has not dressed the store up as a gym, nor have they dressed it down as a standard boutique. Instead, they have constructed an interior that behaves like the sport itself: kinetic, a little unpredictable, and entirely about the body moving through space. The result is a retail environment that mirrors the physicality of its inventory without relying on clichés. [Images courtesy of Kennedy Nolan. Photography by Anson Smart.]
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