Georgetown NIKE Store Update Updated

SIGN IN THE WINDOW OF THE GEORGETOWN NIKE STORE

TUESDAY UPDATE: After I posted this story, Nike responded with a Tweet: "Nike Georgetown opens 10/25. Your official destination for all things Nike in the nation's capitol." This can only mean round-the-clock construction, but now we have a date. (Their construction company should do home renovation, which never gets done on time).

I have no insidery information, only photos, but you know what they say about photos, and a photo I took inside the old Barnes & Noble building, soon to be Nike, indicates it must be racing to meet a Fall 2012 opening. Here's what I saw:

INSIDE WHAT WILL BE THE GEORGETOWN NIKE STORE

Technically, they can open on December 19 and it still qualifies as fall. Whenever the store opens it will be debated in Georgetown, where the whole idea of a monster-sized Nike store is controversial, but especially because it fills the former space of a well-regarded bookstore, the last of any size in the neighborhood. In this form the Nike store concept feels very 1990. NikeTown was cool but is out of date with the intimacy trend in retail shopping. People seem to want less monster and more hands-on. But every chain store that opens in Georgetown, alas, seems to land here about five or more years after the peak of its trend. I don't know if that's developers who lack trend radar or landlords who are too intransigent and greedy to get deals done in a timely fashion. 

Thankfully we still have a lot of modestly sized and independently owned stores that chug along, year afte year, forecasting the trends, riding a long with them, remaining relevant. 

Full disclosure: I practically live in Shox. But I don't need a giant Nike store in my neighborhood to get my Shox. There are about a half dozen places to buy Shox in an easy distance from Georgetown and each of those stores has parking right out front. 

If anyone has a legit hard date for the Nike store opening, please let me know.