04 Jul Creating a cosy man cave: Sportscraft Man Merivale
For the first of their men’s shops in New Zealand, and only the 4th men’s store across Australasia, Sportscraft (and their parent company, APG & Co.) knew they needed a team they could trust to fit it out.
“As we were preparing to build our first Sportscraft Man store in New Zealand, we asked Datum Projects to quote,” says Nik Drakoulis from APG & Co. “After speaking with Seth and hearing from other people in the industry, we decided to go with Datum.”
A mostly joinery based project, this Merivale store needed to feel like a cosy man cave. Timber cladding, marble skirtings, leather handles, and painted larch on the shop front all gave it a luxurious yet comfy feel, and we had some extremely intricate detailing work to make sure it was just right.
An external designer crafted the design of the new store, which posed some extra challenges and made it a particularly interesting project to work on.
“It had a much lower ceiling than what we’re accustomed to,” explains Nik. “There was also a step down which wasn’t taken into account until we got to site so although we had pretty good drawings and pictures, there were still a few surprises.”
Luckily, the Datum team is used to dealing with surprises – flexible is one of our values, and we pride ourselves on our nimble, ‘can-do’ attitudes. We focused on finding solutions, asking questions when needed, and keeping the Australian-based AGG & Co. team updated.
“For their first attempt at one of our stores, they did a very good job,” shares Nik of his experience working with Datum. “They covered all their bases, delivered on time, were more than helpful, and went out of their way on some occasions to get things sorted. I don’t have a bad word to say about the overall delivery of the store.”
