Influx

Sneakers are one of the iconic symbols of teen cool, but most of them are purchased in mall-based stores that reflect more sports, than street culture. One of the drivers of the massive growth of the category has fashion, not sport. Driven by people who are into collecting the limited edition varieties and are always on the look out for the next surprising design. This burgeoning army of sneakerheads were chronically underserved by the mall-based stores.

NYC’s Alife was one of the first retailers to go all out and provide retail environments designed to meet the needs of this consumer base. The most extreme example is its Rivington Club, a faux gentleman’s club that serves as a vertiable temple for the worship of sneakers. Freshness blog has a special on the Alife brand, including an interview with the founder and reviews of all its retail formats including its newest store in Vancover.

Jest, Alife’s founder describes in the interview the experience he is trying to create for his customers.

“Our consumers are the people that are driving this market. They know what is going on all over the world in terms of this lifestyle. We like to give them the most that we can when entering one of our spaces, from the music to the quality of craftsmanship of the shop, to the shopping bag when they leave the space. It is all thought through while building. We like to give the customer the feeling of entering a space that they will remember for one reason or another.”

With the move into Canada and branded partnerships, like the one with Levi’s, Alife is successfully carving out a leadership position in an interesting niche for consumers that are looking to go beyond cookie-cutter retail solutions.