Shining brightly and in good shape: Illuminated signs for Nike

Even the best-known brands need to constantly reinvent themselves in order to stand out among the competition in large shopping malls. Sporting goods manufacturer Nike is pursuing an innovative shopfitting concept with its Nike Live stores: digital, local and dynamic. In early 2021, the first Nike Live store in China opened in Shanghai, followed by a second store in Beijing. The clever part here: An algorithm manages the goods in stock by adapting to customers’ preferences at the respective location.

Nike Live stores are also visually different from other Nike stores. The design concept includes large façade claddings with graphically designed sports motifs that cover the entire width of the building. A three-meter wide, illuminated Nike logo stands out from this background with a brightly lit white outline. The striking illuminated signs for the Nike Live stores in Shanghai and Beijing are made from PLEXIGLAS® LED WM51 block material, a product variant of the brand acrylic glass from POLYVANTIS.

“The PLEXIGLAS® LED product range was specifically developed for the light spectrum of LEDs,” explains Weimin Wang, Head of Asia-Pacific. “The balanced property profile offers good transparency as well as even scattering of light – without distracting differences in brightness, also known as hotspots.” This is why the logo shines homogeneously and appears to have been drawn from light.

Prominently visible during the day and at night

In the dark, the logo is so brightly lit and sharply defined that it can even stand out from the flickering spectacle of illuminated advertisements. Despite its extraordinary brightness, PLEXIGLAS® LED ensures soft, evenly scattered light. Thanks to the radiantly white color impression, the logos of the sporting goods manufacturer are very clearly visible during the day, even at a distance of 100 meters.

Suitable for any design concept

PLEXIGLAS® LED is easy to process and provides extensive freedom of design when it comes to illuminated signs. Even with complex or winding shapes, the light is emitted evenly without any differences in brightness.

PLEXIGLAS® processing partner Auxi Industrial Solution Co., Ltd. produced the illuminated signs for the Nike Live stores in China from PLEXIGLAS® LED, WM51, a white acrylic glass specifically developed for illuminated letters. Block material with a thickness of 30 millimeters and five percent light transmission was used here.

“Thanks to the excellent optical performance of PLEXIGLAS®, we were able to implement our design concept perfectly,” says project manager Andy Zheng. The three-meter-wide logo was laser cut from the block material with the highest precision. In contrast to milling, the laser cutting process has the benefit that the cut edges remain smooth and glossy. A channel was milled into the backside of the block for the LED modules.

PLEXIGLAS® LED ensures even scattering of light

The balanced property profile makes PLEXIGLAS® LED suitable for a multitude of lighting applications such as edge lighting, side lighting or backlighting. In addition, PLEXIGLAS® LED ensures a higher luminous efficiency for illuminated signs than other sheet materials under the same conditions. As this means fewer LED modules are needed to illuminate logos or letterings, the material also contributes to energy efficiency.

PLEXIGLAS® illuminated signs do not yellow

Thanks to the extraordinary weather- and UV-resistance of PLEXIGLAS®, illuminated signs made from the brand acrylic glass permanently retain their high-quality appearance. The material’s inherent UV protection prevents POLYVANTIS' acrylic glass from yellowing even under intense solar radiation: Color stays color, white stays white and black stays black – guaranteed for ten years. This becomes even more important if radiant white is part of a brand’s appearance, as is the case with the Nike logo.