Under a vast glass ceiling emblazoned with Arc’teryx’s instantly recognisable fossil logo, flooding the space with natural light – as well as the sight of London’s February rain – the new store makes an impact, and seems fitting for a brand associated with the great outdoors.

The 2,404 sq ft space at 41-42 King Street, Covent Garden, spans two floors and is now Arc’teryx’s biggest in Europe – where it has eight shops. Its opening marks the brand’s central London relocation from its 49 Long Acre store, which closed on 22 February, and adds to another two shops in the city: Piccadilly and Battersea Power Station, which opened in July last year.

It is also the first shop Europe to feature a repairs centre – sitting under the brand’s Rebird circularity programme, which launched in November 2021. The initiative includes services such as upcycling, care and repair, and forms part of Arc’teryx’s wider sustainability efforts.

Towards the front of the shop’s ground floor entrance sits the brand’s spring/summer 24 collection of brightly coloured technical outerwear, followed by its ski range. Further in is a base layer collection and a “shell destination” – Arc’teryx’s range of lightweight, waterproof jackets, many of which have been made using repurposed material salvaged from returned garments taken back under the Rebird programme.

Next to the large checkout desk is a “community room”, featuring comfortable sofas, a message board with information about events – the store holds fortnightly yoga classes, for example, and Arc’teryx is affiliated with 20 climbing walls in the city – as well as local trail maps and books on everything from bouldering to hiking. A big screen sits on the wall for screenings of athlete films.

Downstairs, Drapers finds a lower floor full of real trees and shrubbery planted into beds running down the centre of the space, complete with wooden log benches for customers to use while trying on Arc’teryx’s footwear range across approach shoes – ahybrid of hiking boots and rock climbing shoes – hiking and trail running footwear.

In a separate space divided off with glass walls, sits the Veilance collection – a men’s and women’s wear range designed for life in the city. Sleek, minimalist dresses, parkas, shirts, trousers caps and bucket hats come in an understated palette of olive, stone and black.

The lower floor also houses the Rebird service centre – a workshop where customers can bring in Arc’teryx products for light touch repairs like such as Gore-Tex patching and zip replacements, and treatments such as re-waterproofing. More substantial repairs are sent offsite to a UK repairs facility. Staff on both the cash desk and repairs centre are also trained to advise customers on how to best care for their products.

There is also a technical washing laundry where customers can wash their Arc’teryx jackets – Dominique Showers, VP of the Rebird programme, told Drapers to keep outerwear in peak condition (and in use for longer) it should be washed in these conditions every six wears. All services at the repairs centre are free of charge.

Showers told Drapers that the Rebird team feeds back regularly to the brand’s design team, updating them on the most frequently requested repairs so that these can be addressed in the design process. It is “part of our problem solving ethos,” she said.

“We have seen a big uptake in demand for our repairs service [there are now Rebird repairs centres at nine of the brand’s global stores, including Vancouver in Canada and Tokyo in Japan]. We’re trying to build a movement, not add more stuff to people’s closets. Custodianship is really important.”