This Sneaker Resale Store is Popping Up at Paris’ Galeries Lafayette Champs Élysées With Rare Air Jordans & Yeezys
Stephanie Hirschmiller
European Editor
Sneaker resale platform Wethenew has landed at Galeries Lafayette Champs Élysées. The physical space is popping up in store for the month of September.
Sneakerheads can expect box fresh limited-editions and rare Air Jordan and Yeezy styles as well as sold out collaborations such as Air Jordan x Travis Scott and Nike x Sacai.
Wethenew was launched in Paris in 2017 by sneaker enthusiasts Michael Holzmann and David Benhaim. The entrepreneurs started out reselling sneakers to fund their own trainer habit and quickly realized that France lacked a secure, well-managed resale platform for new and unused goods specific to the sneaker market. In three years, the business has grown exponentially and now has 355K followers on Instagram alone.
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Visitors to the physical space in Galeries Lafayette Champs Élysées will also have access to the platform’s online catalog and the opportunity to purchase certain styles that may not be available in store. A proprietary Instagram filter has been created to enhance the in-store experience via augmented reality, too.
From Sept. 10, the pop-up at Galeries Lafayette Champs-Elysées will debut Wethenew’s newly launched own label as a brick-and-mortar exclusive. The capsule includes T-shirts and sweaters featuring the logo written in graffiti-style irregular typography designed to emphasize the human aspect of the brand.
Over the weekend of Sept. 12-13, it will host a free personalization workshop for Wethenew merchandise.
Wethenew’s September pop-up at Galeries Lafayette Champs Elysées comes hot on the heels of the new Presentedby luxury consignment store space that launched at Le Bon Marché on Friday.
In June, Galeries Lafayette CEO Nicolas Houzé said the business could take a billion-euro hit due to a decrease in soccer resulting from the pandemic and consequent lack of tourist traffic — at the time down some 20%.
With that in mind, department stores’ capitalizing on the continued popularity of rare and exclusive sneakers makes sound economic sense.
