Cavaliers, Snarkitecture reimagine team shop with Center Court

Designed in close collaboration with Snarkitecture, the international design practice of Cavaliers creative director Daniel Arsham, Center Court is a reimagined twist on the traditional team shop.

One of the goals of Snarkitecture is to reimagine the familiar, whether that's using 200 Air Max 1s to build a sneaker chandelier inside the Kith clothing store in Paris or scattering the original "MIAMI ORANGE BOWL" letters throughout the east plaza of the Miami Marlins' LoanDepot Park or building a two-story "basketball run" inside the Cavs' new Center Court team shop at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (RMFH).

"It's about taking something from our day-to-day existence or our childhood and re-creating them to a new effect, creating a moment of wonder and reflection that's hopefully memorable," said Alex Mustonen, the partner and co-founder of Snarkitecture, of the ball run. "Play and sport allow us to do that. Play and sport allow us to connect to the sense of being a child, and the sense of curiosity and wonder that come with that."

The basketball run was inspired by a child's marble run toy scaled up to accommodate 15 custom white full-size basketballs. It takes 46 seconds for each ball to make the whole trip. It is very fun and very memorable and very different from what teams typically do when they reimagine their team shop, which is to shift the merchandise around and — if they're feeling really frisky — change the color of their hangers.

The Cavs are not typical. The Cavs gave the 6,700-square-foot Center Court its own Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts, a 90-second introductory drone video (which zooms through all angles of the shop) and a grand opening with a DJ, food from Sora and coffee from 27 Coffee Club. The grand opening even debuted a (vegan) nail polish line from Cleveland native Machine Gun Kelly.

"As a brand, we're always looking to toe the line between pop culture and basketball," said Christopher Kaiser, the Cavs' chief marketing officer. "This store is the physical embodiment of this new and innovative retail strategy that we've taken over the last couple seasons. … It makes for a different experience, one that changes the entire shopping experience."

When asked if any other NBA teams have done something like this, Kaiser said, "This is a completely different stratosphere than other teams."

Much of the Cavs' approach is designed to appeal to a younger group of fans — specifically, Generation Z — who are looking for something new and different, whether that's in the look and feel of a retail space or the merchandise itself. But "new" isn't the same as "polarizing." Center Court's apparel racks are still filled with jerseys, T-shirts, hats and hoodies — and it's a safe bet that consumers will find something that will satisfy everyone from their 10-year-old kid to their 70-year-old father.

"It doesn't really alienate anybody; I think it really just extends our brand to a wider fan base," Kaiser said. "That younger generation wants to support the Cavs and be Cavs fans, but they don't necessarily want to wear what I wear on a daily basis, which is a polo shirt or a quarter-zip (pullover). We want to grow that next generation of our fan base."

While the ball run gets the most attention, Center Court has plenty of other cool design elements, from a reconstructed entrance that allows more natural light into the shop to a new wing devoted to Cleveland Monsters merchandise (which includes a blue resin floor meant to mimic glistening ice). Also in the space: signage inspired by vintage LED scoreboards (the letters are composed of individually illuminated dots), an area designed to resemble a locker room, and a staircase inspired by the tall theatrical curtains used as backdrops and drapery on stages, a nod to the rich concert and entertainment history of the FieldHouse.

"An arena is a big and complex space, and there are a lot of specific operational and maintenance requirements," Mustonen said. "It's not like designing a boutique store that's more specialized. So to do something in this (arena) environment that feels really special and unique and remarkable makes me very happy."

Snarkitecture is the international design practice of the Cavs' creative director, Cleveland native Daniel Arsham, who oversaw the design process for the team's three main jerseys from the 2022-23 season, as well as the Metroparks-inspired City Edition jerseys. The company's name is a combination of the playful and the serious, and it originates from a Lewis Carroll nonsense poem called the "Hunting of the Snark," which is about an "unlikely crew on an impossible journey," Mustonen said.

"They don't know what they're looking for or how to find it," he said. "That's analogous to what we wanted to do with our creative process. We're exploring the unknown and looking along the peripheries and edges of architecture."

Center Court's design process started two years ago. The Cavs originally wanted to do the bulk of the construction last summer, but they ran into some supply chain issues with some of the higher-end materials, Kaiser said.

"This (ball run) is one of a kind; it's the only thing like it that exists in this world," Kaiser said. "Someone had to figure it out from an engineering standpoint, how it was actually going to work. We came up with the idea before we even figured out if it was possible."

Consequently, the Cavaliers spent about 85% of the season without their official team shop, yet game-day revenue was still up 77% year over year. That's partly because there were plenty of other shops inside RMFH selling merchandise, and partly because, well, the team went 31-10 at home and sold out every game. And when Center Court did open late in the season, it performed well aesthetically and functionally, providing a "wow" factor for fans without clogging up the checkout lines, Kaiser said.

"We wanted to get it right," he said "It was one of those situations where we had a pretty nice team shop, but we wanted to do something special for our fans. We didn't want to rush the final product."

The Cavs also wanted to make it a place fans would visit throughout the year, whether they were watching a Cavs or Monsters game, or just passing by the arena. It's the same approach they took with their sportsbook, which opened on New Year's Day.

"In my opinion, the standard retail shop is a bit of an afterthought (to most teams); as long as the jerseys are out and they're selling them, there's not too much else to it," Mustonen said. "What's powerful about the Cavs is they're committed to valuing the design experience. They believe a physical space can do more than just sell a jersey. It can extend the overall experience of being at an arena and being a fan.

"They wanted something that is a destination in its own right."