The 5 Sneaker Stores Currently Raising The Game
Extra Butter
The New York retailer continues to spread its influence. Extra Butter, fresh off a tie-up with Reebok and the New York Islanders, is at it again this month. Its second collab with Diadora pays tribute to Italian Giallo thrillers.
Extra Butter, which has boutiques on Long Island and on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is also looking ahead to Election Day, with plans to release its For the People collab with Saucony. Fans took to social media to cast their votes on design details.
Concepts
The Cambridge, Mass.-based sneaker haunt marks its 20th anniversary this year — and it’s celebrating with a blockbuster Dubai opening this summer. “Dubai is a huge international hub,” said president Tre Lucas. The store will be at City Walk, an outdoor lifestyle shopping center in the Middle East. “We wanted to create a [sneaker] culture from the ground up,” said Deon Point, general manager and buyer.
Meanwhile, for a special anniversary partnership, the retailer teamed up with New Balance for the City Rivalry Pack — which plays up the storied baseball rivalry between New York and Boston. Concepts boutiques in each respective city will stock their shoe exclusively starting this month.
Watch on FN
Bait
The retailer is angling for more cool shoppers. With locations throughout California, Washington and Oregon, Bait now has its sights set on Asia. “Tapei, Taiwan, is on track to open as one of our first stores there,” said owner Peng Cheng. “We are also looking at other tier-one markets such as Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
Back on the West Coast, fans can also look forward to more three-way collabs with footwear partners and entertainment properties. In May, Bait will launch the first shoe from its Diadora x DreamWorks partnership, based on “Kung Fu Panda.” Also check out the retailer’s new sister store, longtime retail influencer Undefeated, which Cheng became a co-owner of last fall.
Supreme
The boutique — which has 10 stores around the world and a cult consumer following — had fans in Paris’ Le Marais lining up around the block when it opened in the French capital during fashion week in March. The highly anticipated Nike Air Max 98 collab will surely generate more fan fervor.
The retailer was behind one of 2015’s most coveted exclusives, the Supreme Air Jordan 5, which has been spotted on Tyga, Kylie Jenner,Kevin Hart, Jermaine Dupri and Chris Brown.
Dover Street Market
When Dover Street Market — the concept store created by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons — decided to move its London boutique from Mayfair to a more tucked-away spot in Haymarket, the team wanted to make a grand statement. “The biggest thing is that [our new store] is three times the size,” said VP Dickon Bowden. “We will be familiar, yet new and different at the same time. Each floor has its own personality and its own feeling.”
Dover Street, which also has shops in New York and Tokyo, unveiled two hot collabs for the opening: the NikeLab Roshe Daybreak x DSM and the Vans Vault DSM Special Old Skool in checkerboard. A full assortment of kicks is located in the store’s basement area, also home to NikeLab.
