Howie Mandel takes permanent spot in Skechers store via hologram
A comic actor and TV reality show judge is becoming a virtual ambassador for a popular footwear brand.
Skechers has officially unveiled a hologram activation at its Manhattan Beach, Calif. store in partnership with Howie Mandel, a judge in the long-running “America’s Got Talent” reality TV competition, and holographic communications platform Proto Hologram.
The footwear brand is permanently installing a life-sized, interactive and immersive 3D Mandel hologram designed by Proto Hologram at its Manhattan Beach location. This implementation marks one of the first permanent Proto Hologram installations in a footwear retail.
Customers can interact with the hologram, take a “Proto Selfie” with it, and obtain access to a promotion through the experience. Skechers is building on an existing promotional partnership with Mandel which began before he was an official ambassador when he walked into a Skechers store, took a selfie, and joked that he should get a discount because he already represented the brand.
Bourbon brand, fashion retailer launch hologram promotions
Skechers is not the only retailer to leverage holograms from Proto Hologram for promotional purposes, nor the first to integrate a celebrity with its efforts.
In October 2025, PriceWeber, a Kentucky advertising and marketing agency, created a hologram activation based on Proto Hologram technology for Row 94, star country music performer Dierks Bentley’s Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey brand.
[READ MORE: Country star Dierks Bentley promotes whiskey — as a hologram]
Throughout the month, a life-sized Dierks Bentley hologram greeted travelers, shared the story of Row 94 and directed passing consumers to signed bottles and limited offerings available at the airport’s spirits retailers.
Previously, South Korean fashion retailer Matin Kim installed Proto Hologram’s virtual reality hologram technology at five of its Matin Kim and Hago Haus stores.
The hologram models can move and turn 360 degrees to show outfits to shoppers and have built-in cameras, microphones, speakers and touchscreens, as well as AI capabilities. The hologram avatars can also be activated to answer questions for shoppers about products, in any language, using Proto AI tools.
In the future, Matin Kim intends to be able to beam hologram versions of live special guests into its stores with the ability to see, hear and interact with shoppers in real time.
