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TI:  Merchandizing a Canadian theme: Roots presents a nicer, less aggressive image than its American-born specialty-store mall mates
AU:  Breen-Martha
PN:  Canadian-Interiors
SO:  Canadian Interiors, v.37(5) S/O'00 pg 46-49.
Illustrations
FA:  Fulltext: 1418 words
IS:  0008-3887
CI:  Roots-Canada-Ltd
CZ:  Roots Canada Ltd
PT:  Most-Recent-Update; Journal-article
SF:  Illustrations
PD:  20001000
PY:  2000
AN:  4974784
LN:  LONG
FT:  In the 27 years since Roots founders Michael Budman and Don Green
introduced the oddball-chic, negative-heel shoe to the walking public, the
company has maintained a quintessentially Canadian modesty in its products
and how it presents them. Perhaps it's this unaffected Canadian-ness that
gives Roots such cachet with entertainment-industry expatriates (many's
the time the Roots logo has shown up on Hollywood movie sets and Letterman
guest shots). Yet Roots is just as popular with high-school kids, families
and ordinary people who value practicality and comfort over flash. Which
certainly describes a large cross section of the Canadian buying public.

But just because Roots presents a nicer, less aggressive image than its
American-born mall mates doesn't mean it doesn't have a slick handle on
how to build a brand. Everything from graphic designer Brace Mau's
block-caps-and-beaver logo to its merchandise and store designs presents a
single idea: We're Canadians, we don't want to knock you over, we prefer
to let the products do the talking.

The two women responsible for Roots's clean, spare interiors both graduated
from Carleton University's architecture program, and both are longtime
Roots associates. Chief designer Diane Bald, who is Budman's wife, has
been there since the first store opened in 1973 at Roxborough and Yonge
Streets in Toronto. She has worked in Paris and New York, including a
stint with international commercial designer Andree Putman. Pauline
Landriault, the company's director of store design, joined Roots in 1986
after working in the retail front lines as principal of a clothing
company. Together, Landriault and Bald oversee the some 140 stores
currently operating in five countries and new stores opening or undergoing
continual redesign.

A cadre of workers mill around the giant new, unfinished Yorkdale Mall
location two weeks before its scheduled opening in mid-August. Painters
roller the walls, electricians perch on ladders and carpenters carry
boards and tools as Landriault and Bald discuss the fine points of the
company's presentation. The Roots look, they say, is brand-conscious and
fluid. While there is a general platform -- natural wood, white walls and
a clean, open feeling -- no two stores are precisely the same. ``Our
designs are contextual to each location,'' Bald explains, ``so that mall
stores, which also change according to the status of the mall, differ from
street stores, for example.

``We also think about the city.'' A perforated metal railing on a stairway
in the New York City store, for instance, takes its cue from the inlaid
dots that line nearby sidewalks. ``And we think about the product being
featured. You'd do leather very differently from the Home line, for
example.''

With its white walls, wood shelving and stainless-steel accents, the
company's flagship in Toronto's well-heeled Bloor Street and Avenue Road
area marked the beginning of the modern incarnation of Roots stores when
it opened in 1996. Formerly a Georg Jensen tableware shop, the building
had remained unchanged since undergoing a handsome renovation in 1959.

``We wanted to retain some of its clean-lined ideas,'' says Landriault,
``so we developed a design based on stripped-down stud walls made of
Douglas fir. The carpenter's rule of 16-on-centre widths, the standard
spacing of wood studs in wall framing, was adapted for clothing
displays.'' The stud-wall idea became a staple of the design and has
provided the blueprint for most store shelving ever since. It is
straightforward, easy for store staff to adjust and inexpensive.

Bloor Street was also a landmark in that it marked Bald's first experiments
with feng shui, the Eastern philosophy that relates design and layout with
spiritual energy. Toronto feng shui expert Malca Marol has worked with the
pair ever since, offering advice on everything from where to place the
cash desk to which colours are luckiest. While instrumental in much of
Eastern design, the practice is less revered in Canada, but its philosophy
does have a practical aspect: Bloor Street is only 13 feet wide, says
Bald, but feels much wider.

The company's New York store came next, opening at the corner of Prince and
Lafayette Streets in SoHo next to established fashion shops such as J.
Crew and Agnes B. Here, they further developed the ideas that were used at
Bloor Street, with Douglas-fir frame displays, white walls and metal
hardware. ``It's a great location,'' says Landriault. ``Right across the
street is Pravda, which is a Russian bar that's incredibly trendy right
now; there's great exposure there.''

The Toronto flagship Roots Central store in Eaton Centre marked another
evolution in 1998, as the first to divide the selling space among three
large levels. (Last year, the New York store was expanded to three levels
as well.) Among other innovations, it features a backlit graphics panel
that runs almost the full length of one wall. The combination of the
graphic and the dimensions of the space, however, left a puzzling bit of
wasted space at one end. Green and Budman conceived an inspired solution:
a fully fitted sound booth, where each weekend a deejay spins CDs and
hosts a party in the middle of the store. ``In every store, we love to set
up something special,'' Landriault says. ``It's not just a selling space.
Some of our locations have cafes, Internet stations and CD listening
stations. We want you to feel comfortable here, we want you to stay.''

The recently opened Montreal store, at St. Catherine and Peel Streets, has
a bit more Quebecois panache, in keeping with its French-flavoured
surroundings. A cafe on the Metro level is managed by the owners of
Beauty's, the Montreal eatery that's been a local landmark since 1942. The
main and lower levels feature the signature wood display shelving and
white walls. The mezzanine level, which as in New York is given over to
Roots Home, is pure white, as are many of the products.

Bald mentions Andree Putman as an influence on the store's design. ``She
loved white, as well as bleached oak and textures such as Zolatone and
hammertone paint. She really was ahead of her time.''

In contrast to the three-storey Montreal store, mall locations tend to
emphasize practicality over drama. Toronto's Bayview Village, at about
7,000 square feet, features concrete floors instead of the cherrywood
strip flooring used in some older street locations. ``Concrete has certain
practical advantages,'' Landriault says. ``It's extremely hardwearing,
inexpensive, easy to install and lighter in colour than wood, which looks
good with the products.'' However, in some of the newer stores hardwood is
being deployed once more, to define and glamorize specific departments
within the larger concrete surface.

Although the company has been designing and selling children's wear for
almost a decade, the first Roots Kids stores opened across the country
earlier this spring, with locations in Toronto as well as Vancouver,
Calgary and the bedroom community of Newmarket, Ont. ``We wanted these
stores to be a little different, partly because at 1,000 to 2,200 square
feet, they're smaller,'' Landriault explains.

The basic design features concrete floors, stud frame shelves and fixtures
in the same profile as the regular Douglas-fir models, but in metal. The
ceilings are left exposed to show white-painted mechanicals, but include a
kid-friendly feature: suspended, Bruce Mau-designed animal cutouts in a
range of untypical Roots colours. ``It's great for kids in strollers,''
Bald says. ``They look up and it gives them something interesting to
see.''

The new Yorkdale location opened just as Roots launched its latest
high-profile (and fittingly Canadian) campaign: as the official clothing
supplier to the 2000 Canadian Olympic team. (For the 1996 games, Roots
luckily sponsored snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, who emerged as a big star.
He wore his Roots leather jacket prominently during interviews.) Roots has
introduced a line of Olympics-inspired wear for ordinary Canadians as
well. The store features 15 flat-screen TVs arrayed along its upper walls
that flash entertainment and lifestyle images and promote campaigns such
as the Olympics.

Flat-screen TVs and Internet stations add to the sense of event in the
stores, an essential in the increasingly entertainment-oriented retail
world. But like most of Bald and Landriault's concepts, they're intended
merely to set the stage rather than perform the show. ``It's really about
the brand,'' Bald says. ``Roots is about comfort, style and integrity.
Everything we do is designed to express that.''

Sources:

Graphics: Roots in collabaration with Bruce Mau Design

Construction team: Roots in-house construction team

Wood and hardwood flooring: Custom-milled for Roots

Paint: Para Paint Canada

Lighting: Eurolite; Paul Wolfe Suppliers

Electrical: Neal Patel, Elect. Eng.

Mechanicals: Triad Engineering Ltd.

Concrete flooring: Ardex Flooring


FC:  Copyright 2001. All rights reserved by original publisher and copyright
holder.  No part of this data may be reproduced, published, sold, 
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or set out in a separate license agreement from the original publisher
and copyright holder.
YC:  2001
UD:  20010124