Manhattan Beach is on the cutting edge of the next generation of retail innovation, with a new interactive hologram experience now featured at Skechers' flagship store. 

The Proto Hologram at the downtown Manhattan Beach store allows visitors to "interact" and take selfies with Skechers ambassador Howie Mandel - and receive a discount code for their Skechers purchase. 

"Retail to me is theater, so it should be engaging; it should be fun," Skechers president and CEO Michael Greenberg told MB News. "We don't want to be just a footwear store; we want to be interactive. We love our consumers and we want it to be fun."

The full-sized Luma unit featured at the Skechers store has a touch screen with high-fidelity speakers and 4K video. It is the first permanent in-store Proto installation with a major brand, and it is also the first Proto retail experience that enables an actual transaction, allowing customers to unlock discounts and make purchases. 

"What's really special about the technology is that Howie can be anywhere in the world and he can tie into the Proto box in the store and he can see everything that's going on," said Greenberg. "He could say 'Excuse me, lady in the grey sweater, come on over here - yeah I’m talking to you - I'm not real but I'm real.'"

David Nussbaum, founder of the Van Nuys-based Proto Hologram, added: "When they can't beam in, their AI avatar takes over. and so their AI is even better in some cases, because now they speak 200 or 300 languages. Now Howie can reach out to fans anywhere - in Japan, in India, in France - and be able to speak in the dialect, in his voice, connecting with the fan, connecting with the shopper. The AI avatar is taking over, allowing Howie or anybody to interact with anybody, anywhere, in any language."

Mandel, an advisor and investor in Proto, introduced Greenberg to the technology. 

"When we started working together, he said, 'Michael, hey, I want to show you this hologram thing that I'm working on,'" said Greenberg. "So I went down to the studio and I fell in love with it. I said, 'Let's try this in a Skechers store and maybe it will grow and do more.'"

Greenberg said that he was proud to be able to unveil the hologram in the Manhattan Beach Skechers store - the first of what has now grown into more than 6,000 retail stores worldwide. 

"We're pretty lucky to have been able to build this company and maintain it and stay in Manhattan Beach where we started in 1992," said Greenberg. "We have 1,500 people who work here in addition to the 25,000 employees that we have globally, and it's a great place and it's enjoyable for our employees to be here. So we're blessed."