It’s pure paradise for jocks and geeks alike. Sport Chek’s revamped 48k SF location at Metropolis at Metrotown brings digital tech to the fore via 190 screens, 60 tablets and 100 computers. Eric Watt tells us how the retailer is reinventing the in-store shopping experience for the online era.

Digital features at the Metrotown store—which debuted earlier this month— include a two-storey, 23-foot LED monolith made up of 660 individual panels; a custom-built Vancouver Canucks broadcast studio for team interviews and in-store appearances (seen above); eight digital showcase boxes with dual screens to promote products; and gesture-enabled video walls. Store staff—Sport Chek hires only athletes, Eric notes—use digital technology to provide personalized service to shoppers. ”We want to have a more interactive relationship with our customers,” he says, “and move away from having a transactional relationship.”

The Metrotown store design is based on Sport Chek’s Toronto Yonge Street "flagship lab”—where Eric says they experimented with the new format and “ironed out kinks”—as well as the flagship location it opened at West Edmonton Mall in February, one of the most digitally enhanced retail environments in North America, the retailer says. Sport Chek plans to open three new locations in Toronto in 2015, and Eric says "we think we can open three more in the Greater Vancouver Area over the next five years.”

The enhanced in-store digital experience is meant to complement what Sport Chek is doing online. “To win online, you have to win in-store,” explains Eric. If the store experience is a good one, he reasons, then when customers are sitting at home thinking about buying specialized performance equipment, "they’ll probably think about Sport Chek." These new digitally decked-out locations cost more to operate and require extra power, Eric acknowledges, but the ROI makes up for it. The redesigned West Edmonton Mall flagship is exceeding targets, he points out, with sales up 50% year over year.