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 shop fitting 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.

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. An almost 10-foot 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 ACRYLITE® LED optimized letter block (WM51) by Roehm America LLC.

"The ACRYLITE® LED product range was specifically developed for the light spectrum of LEDs," explains Weimin Wang, Head of Asia-Pacific in the Acrylic Products business unit at Roehm. "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.

Striking facade design

Even in daylight, Nike logos made with ACRYLITE® LED optimized letter block are clearly recognizable.

© Röhm GmbH – Acrylic Products

Brand with a strong attraction

The Nike Live store in Shanghai at night: The outline of the brand logo stands out in radiant white against the artistically designed mural. The illuminated advertisement material was made from ACRYLITE® LED block material.

© Röhm GmbH – Acrylic Products

Outstanding at night

The logo shines extraordinarily clearly and brightly in the dark, ensuring it is a fantastic eye-catching piece against the advertisements.

No yellowing in the sunlight

The illuminated sign is directly exposed to constant sunlight and elements but due to it's UV stable properties and weather-resistance, the logo retains its high quality and original color over a long period of time.

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, ACRYLITE® 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 328 feet.

Suitable for any design concept

ACRYLITE® 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.

Auxi Industrial Solution Co., Ltd. produced the illuminated signs for the Nike Live stores in China from 1.18 inch ACRYLITE® LED optimized letter block (WM51); a white acrylic material specifically developed for illuminated letters.

"Thanks to the excellent optical performance of ACRYLITE®, we were able to implement our design concept perfectly," says project manager Andy Zheng. The almost 10 foot 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.

Instagram spot

Invitation to take a selfie: A part of the façade is designed to be ideal for Instagram pictures. Visitors can interact with the popular logo and the mural, which is why the sharp edges of the logo were rounded off slightly for safety.

However, the ACRYLITE® LED still emits the light homogeneously and clearly, because its extraordinary optical quality is retained even after the surface has been processed.

© Röhm GmbH – Acrylic Products

ACRYLITE® LED ensures even scattering of light

The balanced property profile makes ACRYLITE® LED acrylic products suitable for a multitude of lighting applications such as edge lighting, side lighting, or backlighting. In addition, ACRYLITE® 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.

ACRYLITE® acrylic signs withstand UV damage

Thanks to the extraordinary weather and UV-resistance of ACRYLITE® acrylic, illuminated signs retain their high-quality appearance. The material’s inherent UV protection prevents the acrylic from yellowing even under intense sun exposure. This becomes even more important if radiant white is part of a brand’s appearance, as is the case with the Nike logo.

Featured products

ACRYLITE® LED optimized letter block


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Shining Brightly and in Good Shape: Illuminated Signs for Nike