Maintaining a sneaker store in these weird times is such a challenge. It takes a lot of patience, hard work, and dedication to keep the boat afloat.
But there are stores that choose to brave the storm continuing to sell shoes despite the odds. Such is the case of Aftermarket who has been consistent in doing what they do best–that’s selling sneakers and streetwear via their Greenhills location and through their app.
We caught up with its owner Matthew So to find out how they managed to maintain the store among other topics. Sit back and enjoy our conversation below.
Can you share with us some history on how the store and the web store began?
I started AfterMarket in January 2020 at Pacific Centre Binondo. March 15, 2020, the unexpected pandemic started, so I pushed myself to sell online since I was already an online seller long before starting my physical store. The pandemic hits different; there are a lot of pros & cons; in a way, you’d learn to strategize & cope with the situation. That’s when we had the perfect time to start our online platform. We launched our web store in Sept 2020 to the public. In April 2021, we transferred to Greenhills for expansion, which is up until now. Soon, hopefully, we can expand again in May 2022.
When it comes to product selections, what are your main criteria? Is it all hype items or do you consider the historic ones too?
For me, I prefer to buy releases from the year 2015 above. There are a lot of risks buying releases from the year 2014 and earlier since they crumble & hard to sell already, but I do pre-order basis for some of my VIP customers. One VIP bought 1985 Jordan 1s before.
Now that we are at Level 1, how has it affected your retail space? More foot traffic I would assume?
Yes, we’ve experienced a higher volume of foot traffic plus online sales. Currently, we only have 50sqm, which did affect us since we had more consigners, but we will expand to a bigger space soon.
Personally, what would be your all-time favorite pair if you were to pick it out from the store? The all-time grail you would purchase if you were the customer?
My favorite pair or silhouette in-store is the Jordan 1 High Guava Ice, which I’ve been using personally until now. My all-time grail may be Nike Air Mags(2016) or Nike Air Force 1 x Louis Vuitton x Virgil, but we don’t have them in-store, unfortunately.
Can you tell us more about your Hype Therapy Podcast? Any interesting takeaways from your episodes?
Hype Therapy Podcast is very interesting because as a co-host, I’ve been learning a lot from business to real life-encounter/experiences. I’d usually pick up what I’ve learned & apply them to my daily life as I grow older. One of the more interesting episodes that I think a lot of people already know is with Rhandrhelle himself. He said, “pag takot ang puhunan, takot ang kita.” People nowadays are scared to try new things, to risk or maybe change. Little did they know, they’ll learn a lot of new things, new experiences, new challenges, new ideas. It’s just that they need to cope with the situation.
Being a retail and web store at the same time, what would be the pros and cons for having both?
It is one of the unique business concepts in the sneaker industry. I’ve pushed myself to adapt to the situation here in the Philippines. I started with Rhype, an app(online) based platform, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out. After that, I’ve learned that Filipino people want to buy sneakers that they can touch, smell & feel. That’s the time when I realized that why not both? From physical store with an online store and not an online store to physical store.
Future plans for AfterMarket Philippines any shoutouts to our readers?
We will expand this April-May for our Greenhills branch. We will start to accept rental/consignments for local clothing brands(15-20) and maybe, start with our Gadgets, one of our categories available on our platform. Lastly, if it’s God’s plan, we will branch out to a new mall located at BGC this 2022.
Thank you Matthew and AfterMarket! In other sneaker-related news, here are some interesting Dunks to watch out for this Q2.
