From a virtual basketball court to a projected hologram image, Rookie USA, a new children’s athletic apparel and footwear concept in New York City, deploys the latest in cutting-edge technology to engage customers and gain a competitive edge. The strategy extends to the decision to rely primarily on LED lighting to illuminate the 5,500-sq.-ft. store.

Portable digital displays proved the ideal solution for a temporary installation at a Gap store in Manhattan. The application takes the hassle, along with the unsightly cords and wiring, out of digital signage.

Solid-state lighting took center stage at the SPECS Sustainability session, “LEDs: Perception and Reality.”

Speaker Leigh Savage, national accounts manager, GE Lighting, debunked many of the myths that surround LED lighting. They included:

• LEDs produce no heat at all. FALSE

• LEDs are more efficient than any other light source. NOT NECESSARILY.

• LEDs are still too expensive to use in retail applications. FALSE

For commercial, on-premise signs, luminance (brightness) emerged as a key issue in 2005, when the California Energy Commission (CEC) first adopted the Title 24 regulations for electric signs. 


Storms and other weather events can wreak havoc with a retailer’s outdoor signage. Just ask Therese Grossman, construction manager for Edwin Watts Golf Shops, Fort Walton, Fla., which operates 83 golf specialty shops. This past spring, a bad storm with extreme wind velocities came through Baton Rouge, La., blowing the faces off the signs outside Edwin Watts’ store there. 


“In the retail world, having your exterior signs down is a crisis,” Grossman said. “I have to be able to respond and get them back up very quickly.”