Adidas Closes Down Square Shop

After only a year in the Square, the Adidas athletic-wear store at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St. quietly closed its doors last week-leaving only an empty, boarded-up storefront in the high-visibility location.

Before Adidas moved in last March, a family-owned music store, Briggs and Briggs, had leased the spot for over 100 years.

Steadily increasing rents forced the music store to relocate to a spot near Porter Square, where it announced bankruptcy last year.

As a national corporation replacing the small, family-owned Briggs and Briggs, Adidas faced resentment from many students and Square shopowners who said they were surprised by its quiet closing but relieved the chain store was unable to survive in the Square.

"I'm delighted," said Louisa Solano, owner of the Grolier Poetry Bookshop. From the window of her store, Solano faces the Adidas storefront. "I'm glad to know that the Harvard community had greater taste than the store assumed they had," she said.

Adidas representatives could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Square shopowners say they believe an uninviting storefront and poor marketing devices caused the athletic store's quick demise.

While Adidas enjoyed an attractive location-with large windows facing Mass. Ave-the athletic store windows were blocked by large posters of athletes decked out in Adidas gear.

Students said they were equally unsurprised by the store's quick departure.

"There was just never anyone in there," said Bradley W. Rogoff '02, the captain of Harvard's junior varsity soccer team.

Rogoff is one of a small number of students to have shopped-even occasionally-at the athletic store.

"The prices aren't good and they have a limited selection," he said. "I had a friend who worked there and he never had anything to do."

Solano of the Grolier Bookstore, said she thought an athletic store was a rather odd choice to fill a spot across from Widener library and surrounded by bookstores.

She said she watched Adidas struggle to define itself in the space.

'At first, they tried to play loud music to attract people. That only lasted a few days," Solano remembers.

"They tried to create this kind of feeling of being a meeting place for athletes, but it didn't work," she said.

Bill Hootstein, owner of Bob Stonestreet's, a long-standing men's clothing store next to Adidas, said he did not feel the store's publicity tactics were successful.

"We just weren't impressed with anything they did over there," he said, gesturing to the empty storefront. "The way they conducted themselves-I can conclude that they had no pride in their product-from the upkeep to the storefront."

However, Hootstein said he did not expect the very sudden departure.

'One morning they were there and the next they just weren't," Hootstein said. "It was odd."

Shop owners say that the empty storefront creates a great opportunity for the Square to regain its unique character.

"I just miss Briggs and Briggs," Solano said. "This should be something similar, more in keeping with the area."

Solano suggests that another music store move into the vacant space.

Says Harvard Square Bookshop Employee Tom D. Hummel, "The last thing the world needs is another shoe store."

--Staff writer Daniela J. Lamas can be reached at lamas@fas.harvard.edu