The Adidas Boost Experience is situated on an unassuming block in Chelsea. The pop-up appeared to be the type of place you have to know about in advance, which added to the allure.
Once inside, we were immediately overwhelmed with the bright bursts of sunshine yellow emanating from every corner.
"[The Boost Experience] helps bridge the gap between the hardcore performance running world of the shoe and what it was designed to do, and the practical applications of using it in everyday life and and wearing it around," Petticrew said.
As we wandered in, an Adidas associate — wearing, you guessed it, yellow — led us down a hallway lined with yellow arrows.
The friendly associate led us to an area designated as "pick-up," where shoppers can come grab a pair of Ultraboost sneakers to prepare them for the pending activities.
As we laced up our sneaks, we admired the funky art and read inspirational facts posted on the wall, like: "Thinking about what you're grateful for releases positive chemicals in the brain such as serotonin and oxytocin."
"Being outside, even in the cold weather, actually improves memory and attention span," read another.
First up is the maze, or the "Boost Your Brain" part of the experience. The exercise is designed for visitors to get a sense of what it's like to do a physical cognitive thinking exercise in the shoes.
Next up is the seesaw, or the "Boost Your Creativity" part of the agenda. The seesaw is intended to evoke the playful energy of childhood while testing out the spring capacity of the Ultraboost.
Lastly, there's a vertical jump test, referred to as "Boost Your Future." The running jump motivates shoppers by letting them leap for a prize, showcasing the flexibility and bounce of the shoe.
Time to enter the maze! In advance of walking into the labyrinth, an Adidas employee gave us approximately five seconds to view a sheet of paper that detailed the way out.
Now we just had to remember it ...
The journey of a thousand miles — or um, the exit from a maze filled with hundreds of yellow balls — begins with a single step.
There were so many balls.
Sarah Hall — a creative strategist at Harley and Company, the firm that helped design Boost Experience — said the intention is to be more than just another Museum of Ice Cream.
"From a designer's perspective, we create so many spaces that are purely pretty because we want people to take a picture and that's the exchange," she said. "We want people to come and really learn something and push themselves a little bit. That's our hope when we do things like this, that we go beyond just a sprinkle pool."
We were instructed that if you see a block of pathway with lines like this, you must turn around. We got a bit lost.
Eventually we made it through, and we didn't even make one bad joke that mentioned "Yellow" by Coldplay along the way.
Riding the high of our maze navigating skills, we moved on to the seesaw. We were hesitant, but once we climbed on it admittedly took us back to childhood.
Scattered around the store we found symbols like this, encouraging social media sharing and promoting the hashtag #FeelTheBoost.
Slightly disoriented from riding a seesaw for the first time in two decades, we moved on to our last activity, the vertical jump.
There are five different zones, depending on height. After you're assessed with a measuring stick, you take your place in front of your zone.
With a running jump, we reached as high as could to pull a ticket that features additional prizes you can win.
"It's really important that people actually get to accomplish something with the shoe launch. It's not just a matter of seeing it and going to a store and walking back and forth," Hall said.
