Three years ago, we wrote about Garmin’s secret sauce for innovation.  Sales have more than doubled since then, and the company is projecting $1.6 billion for the year, a 60 percent jump from ‘05. (Not to mention, a market share in unit volume of 57 percent, compared to 21 percent for No. 2 TomTom.) And these days, the little company from the prairie—Olathe, Kansas—keeps acting more like the big one from Cupertino, Calif. This week, Garmin (GRMN) not only unveiled 20-plus new marine nav products for 2007, it opened its first flagship retail store along Chicago’s trendy Magnificant Mile, complete with all of the design features and options you see at Steve Jobs’ Apple Stores. Who would have thought a few years ago that a niche maker of nav devices for Bassmasters, sailors, and Cessna pilots would be opening doors on its own version of NikeTown? While there are dozens of other rivals now in the GPS market, more than anyone else, Garmin paved the way—so it’s fitting that the company is first to put a dedicated GPS boutique on the mall.

Some store features are bone-headedly obvious that other retailers ought to be copying: Walk into any West Marine and you’ll see a shelf full of GPS units—often behind locked glass doors—that you can turn on, but can’t use. The Garmin store has signal repeaters on the ceilings to make sure you can test everything you see.  More details at Garmin’s suprisingly lively corporate blog.

As for the marine products, more on those later, as more details emerge from the METS marine trade show in Amsterdam.