It may seem ironic for a brand like
Mitchell and Ness to relocate its flagship store at 1318 Chestnut Street to a more modern location. After all, the brand is rooted in nostalgia, offering fans all the old-school apparel money can buy, celebrating the history of teams both local and national. But sure enough, M&N announced that they will be opening a new store at 1201 Chestnut Street this week, in time for the holidays. The original flagship store will remain open through the first of the year as well. President Sean McKinney believes that, while they are not moving far, the new store will signal a "rebirth for the brand."
"Our products are great but when you go into our current location, the layout and the customer experience is really not that much different than most sporting goods stores out there, and I think it does our product a disservice," says Mitchell and Ness president Sean McKinney. "In the new space, you can understand the relationship between an old, wool baseball jersey hanging in an old wooden locker. The product will be displayed and showcased much better, connecting the Mitchell and Ness history with sports history and our vintage products."
Artistically designed with wood accents and exposed brick, 1201 Chestnut will feature antique-style clubhouse lockers as display cases and, on the second floor, features a repurposed basketball court. But McKinney assures us that they have not lost nostalgia completely. The building was once a bank, complete with regal latticework in the ceilings and polished railings that fit nicely in the refurbished Mitchell and Ness. McKinney believes the combination of history and modernity is what Mitchell and Ness is all about.
"With our brand being around since 1904, we definitely wanted a building with some history to it," says McKinney. "A lot of the architecture and the character of the building is going to remain. We have refurbished in some cases but we loved the history that the building had."
Source: Sean McKinney, Mitchell and Ness
Writer: John Steele