Rawlings Opens Immersive Retail Concept, Completes HQ Move
Date Posted: April 16, 2024
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Business Journal: Rawlings Sporting Goods on Friday opened The Rawlings Experience, an immersive retail concept that marks a significant step in the completion of the sporting good brand’s move to its new headquarters, as well as in Lodging Hospitality Management’s ongoing effort to breathe renewed life into Westport Plaza.
Rawlings’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Thompson said he’s often perplexed that few people are aware of the company’s presence in St. Louis, despite its 137-year history in the city. So, when the company several years ago began looking to move its headquarters, its leaders sought to find a spot where they could construct “a flagship brand element,” aimed to establish the company as a St. Louis institution.
The city has “this great brand, these great fans and an affinity for baseball,” said Thompson. “What I like to say is, it’s a ‘Field of Dreams’ strategy. So, if you build it, they will come.”
The Rawlings Experience occupies 14,000 square feet of Westport Plaza’s gold tower, at 111 Westport Plaza Drive in Maryland Heights. Visitors to the attraction can walk into its “Glove Vault,” a room that showcases all the company’s Gold Glove Award winners, in addition to being able to personalize their own bat, which can then be tested out in batting cages, and design a custom-made glove.
“Personalization and customization — that’s what kids and players are looking for these days,” said Thompson. “They want products to be their own, and they want to have a hand in designing it.”
Also scattered throughout the attraction are various one-of-a kind artifacts, multiple “Instagram-able” photo opportunities, odes to the history of both Rawlings and the sport of baseball, and myriad Rawlings products and apparel available for purchase.
Rawlings, founded in St. Louis in 1887 and owned by California private equity group Seidler Equity Partners, makes the official baseball glove of Major League Baseball and partners with organizations including the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Little League Baseball and Softball. MLB also has a stake in Rawlings.
Thompson declined to share an exact investment figure but said the company “didn’t cut corners” in building out the attraction. The company when it first announced it would move its headquarters in November 2022 said it planned to invest between $10 million and $20 million on the project.