After Dark Tour Digital Wishlist

Nike After Dark Tour is a global series of night-running events built for women. The 2026 Sydney stop was a 21K night run from Rozelle Parklands to Tumbalong Park, with an expo and post-race celebration at Tumbalong Park.

Within the park, Nike set up a compact, container-based merch stand. The small footprint left little room to browse and transact, and queuing at peak times was an anticipated pain point based on learnings from the previous year’s event.

Nike initially briefed Tundra on a digital queuing solution. However, through early conversations we landed on a slightly different approach, by creating an opportunity to help shoppers decide what they want to purchase before they reach the counter. This gave them an elevated method to browse the collection on their own phone and make their merch selections early.

We worked with Nike to define a lightweight digital catalogue and wishlist. Shoppers could preview the collection, save their choices and arrive at the counter ready to buy.

We also designed the admin side of the experience, where merch stand staff could keep stock accurate and process orders quickly.

User flows and defining requirements

We started by mapping the shopper journey from first scan to the register, along with the journey for the merch stand staff behind it. To keep the experience robust, we kept the features focused. The wishlist needed no login and no personal data. It also didn’t reserve a product, so the experience stayed honest about stock and simple to run on the day.

The stand’s point of sale system would stay separate from the wishlist, to keep the scope contained. This also meant the handover at the counter had to feel connected. We shaped the flow around that, so the wishlist produced something staff could scan straight into their POS system.

Interface design

We designed the wishlist and the admin interface around the After Dark Tour brand, for mobile first. The shopper experience was a swipeable catalogue with category navigation, size selection and a running wishlist count, so people could browse quickly while they waited. Sold-out states stopped shoppers from planning around product that was gone.

Merch stand staff needed something they could use quickly, often one-handed. The admin interface let them search by name, category or SKU and mark individual sizes as sold out in a few taps.

Development

This was a build for a single event, so we kept the tech infrastructure lean. We built the app with Vue 3 and TypeScript, with a mobile-first approach designed around busy event conditions.

Wishlists saved instantly in the shopper’s browser, then synced to Google Firebase’s Cloud Firestore through server-side APIs, so shoppers could build a list without creating an account. The same database powered the admin interface, where staff managed availability by product and size. Shopper screens checked a lightweight, cached stock endpoint, which kept availability current without downloading the whole catalogue again.

Using Nike’s product and size identifiers, we pre-generated barcodes for every item. Staff scanned them straight from shoppers’ phones into the stand’s existing point of sale. Service-worker caching kept barcode images and product assets on the device, so wishlists stayed accessible through any connection issues at the event. Google Analytics 4 tracked traffic and key interactions.

Staff guidance

We prepared a staff instruction manual covering setup, stock management, scanning wishlists at the register and troubleshooting. It was shared with merch stand staff to refer to during the event.

The wishlist extended the compact stand beyond its physical footprint. Shoppers could explore the full range on their own phones and make their choices before they reached the counter, which gave Nike a low-friction method to elevate the experience and speed up the handover. It also showed which products people were drawn to, which is useful insight for future events.

• More than 2,300 people used the wishlist over the race weekend
• Site visitors took more than 12 actions each on average
• 43% of site visitors added products to a wishlist
• 31% of site visitors confirmed a wishlist
• People who built a wishlist saved nearly 3 items on average