Auxiliary shoes launches AR experience with Selfridges

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 1, 2019

Selfridges is continuing to focus on unusual brands and attention-grabbing experiences and its latest move means visitors to the Oxford Street flagship in London can find an exclusive augmented reality (AR) experience there in a deal with premium footwear label Auxiliary.

The overall campaign is called Continuous Play and it’s the first of its kind to use Facebook’s Spark AR platform, which makes it an interesting move in itself. 

It debuted on Monday in the men’s footwear department with the retailer boldly claiming it will “redefine immersive retail”. And on Auxiliary’s Instagram account, the shoe firm said that Selfridges was “nice enough to provide a bottomless void for us to display our shoes on, thank you kindly for that.
You can have a look at it today at Selfridges oxford street through your Facebook app.”

Experiential retail is really what the department store wants to be seen doing these days with initiatives like its Corner Shop taking it in that direction, as is the plan to open a cinema at the Oxford Street site, and its Skate Bowl in the menswear department. These all help to add further appeal to the store that should encourage shoppers away from their screens and into physical spaces.

Auxiliary already has a history with Selfridges, having launched its very first collection at the upscale department store last year. The company was started back in 2017 by Matthew Taylor, who had previously been with Swear London, Puma and Paul Smith.

The AR experience was put together with the help of Stink Studios, Retail Week reported, with its technical director Matt Greenhalgh saying the company used the “massive audience and rapid prototyping advantages of Spark AR and paired them with faithful modelling, a bold design and one-of-a-kind shaders to bring the auxiliary story to audiences in a dramatic new way.”

AR is becoming increasingly important as a retail tool for both product visualisation and entertainment.