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Jonathan White

Hong Kong-based shoe retailer Sneaker Surge has had an interesting few years that stretch back to 2019 and the citywide anti-government protests that made it difficult to stock local shops.
“We had to close up shop or go online,” says co-founder Ravine Mahtani. “[We had to] say we are no longer in the sneaker business or say, OK, we know it is going to be a hard road – let’s go online with whatever inventory we have left and see what happens.”
Sneaker Surge chose the latter – and it has not looked back.
“We’re really excited for the next few years and we’re really open,” Mahtani says. “I was always very close-minded that we need to just buy-sell.” And of the future? “Let’s see what happens, let’s explore alternatives.”

Mira Uttamchandani is Mahtani’s wife and the co-founder of Sneaker Surge.
“As we built the supply chain [during the protests], the pandemic hit,” she explains. “We went from being heavily business-to-business to needing a new way to shift these sneakers. We didn’t shift fully. The pandemic really helped grow our business.”
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“We were fortunate that it has gone the right way – the world has gone more towards e-commerce,” says Mahtani. “Customers want to shop online because of the ease but we’ve given it a twist.”
Going the right way is an understatement, given the growth of the business – according to Mahtani, the company saw growth of 160 per cent in 2019 and 252 per cent in 2020. This year, Sneaker Surge is projected to see growth of 150 per cent.
And how many shoes have they sold? “A lot,” Mahtani says. “A good volume. Black and white Nike Dunks are our number one seller of all time.”

“The first year, we sold sneakers out of the car to the stores,” Uttamchandani says. “Now, we’re in a big warehouse space and we have a showroom.” They plan to add a virtual showroom to their physical space, and have plans to “dabble in the metaverse”.
Even beyond protests and the ongoing pandemic, the industry is an unpredictable one.
“Every month is a different story for the sneaker world, and that’s something that we love,” Mahtani says. “It’s not your traditional business, where it’s the exact same Monday to Friday.”

“If news comes out like Travis Scott news, Virgil [Abloh] news – prices fluctuate every hour,” adds Uttamchandani. “That’s also a challenge. We have to monitor our website pricing every day, so every day it’s a new price. When Virgil’s death was announced, our Off-White shoes skyrocketed.”
It’s all very different from Sneaker Surge’s beginnings in 2016, after Mahtani returned to Hong Kong from studying in the US.
A friend’s Adidas Yeezys had caught his attention, but he had balked at the US$1,000 price tag. Despite this, he decided that he too wanted a pair and, though he was told it was “impossible” to get them, he was not about to take no for an answer.

“Long story short, I utilised all my connections and I ended up getting a pair for, like, US$700-US$800 and I thought it was a good deal. When it came to Hong Kong, I was super excited and I went to [the post office] to pick it up.
“I opened it and walked around with the box, and a lot of people stopped me on the street saying, ‘Cool shoes, can I buy them?’ I ended up flipping the shoes that same day on the street. I realised that there was a market here.”
That experience urged him to dip his toes into the shoe business. “I said this could be an interesting project to work on, rather than working for the family business. I went back to my supplier and my friends and I said ‘Get me a few more’, and one thing led to another.”

The recent growth has seen Sneaker Surge’s focus shift from supplying stores in Hong Kong to shipping directly to customers across the globe.
“A lot of it in Asia has been word of mouth,” says Uttamchandani. “The pop-ups have helped, influencer marketing has worked. We got lucky – some celebrities reached out to us on Instagram and we sold to them and they posted about it.”
If anything, though, it’s been down to Chance that they’ve been so successful – Chance the Rapper, to be precise, after Mahtani sold shoes to the US singer and producer after meeting at an airport in Shanghai and sharing a flight.
“As we reached Hong Kong, I was like, ‘Hey if you ever need some sneakers, hit me up.’ Four or five hours later, his assistant called and said, ‘Hey, Chance wants to buy some sneakers.’ He came and bought some.”

Still, it’s not all chance and fortune – some of Sneaker Surge’s swift success has been by design, such as its rebrand in January 2020, and a concierge service that soon followed.
“After the pandemic, we launched a concierge service because we realised there is not a lot of information about sneakers,” says Uttamchandani. “There are other platforms that enable transparency, which is great for us but it is a really hard market to access and understand.
“It kind of acts as a vehicle for education, guaranteeing authenticity and educating customers why this shoe costs US$2,000, or why there’s a HK$2,000 [US$250] difference between two sizes,” she says, likening the sneaker market to one where you’re not allowed to sit with the cool kids in school.

“Human interaction is something I think the bigger companies don’t have so much of, and that’s one of our strengths,” she adds. Newer customers and women are the ones using the concierge service.
“Companies like StockX and Stadium Goods are amazing companies,” says Mahtani, with the pair admitting they cannot compete when it comes to marketing. “They’ve grown and built massive valuations.”
“At the end of the day, people will look at Stock X and Goat, Stadium Goods as well,” Uttamchandani says. “They are everywhere. It’s heavy competition, but I think if you differentiate enough and build a sensory experience those other companies don’t have yet, it really goes a long way.”

One other big difference? “We own all of our inventory,” Uttamchandani says. “It’s in our warehouse.”
And of how many shoes are in their warehouse, Mahtani says they have “north of 10,000 pairs in the inventory at any one time”, though there can be temptation within that.
“You know how they say, don’t get high off your own supply? We do not take that advice,” says Uttamchandani, wearing a pair of Off-White x Nike Vapormax kicks while her husband sports Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro High J Balvin Colores y Vibras.

“There are a few pairs that I bought which I don’t want to sell, but if there’s a customer that really wants it, I will give it to them to get the customer,” Mahtani says. “Hopefully, the customer is happy with us. Who knows, maybe one day I can buy them back.”
With the company’s new buy-back policy, which sees them buy the shoes they have personally sold to customers, that’s not impossible.
“We tag every shoe. If the shoes are still intact, and have our authentication tag on, we will buy them back. A lot of our customers sell back to us and that helps the community,” says Mahtani.

“One of our customers bought an Off-White Blazer from us and, when Virgil passed away, we messaged them and said that this price has gone up, do you want to sell it? They were like, yeah sure,” adds Uttamchandani.
“People are considering sneakers as an asset class now,” Mahtani says. “We see a lot of customers buy two, one to wear and one to store.” The money might be in the box, he adds, but the joy is seeing the shoes on the foot. “It’s a good feeling, seeing people wear sneakers that you’ve sold to them.”


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Lifestyle

Fashion & Beauty

The co-founders of Hong Kong-based shoe retailer Sneaker Surge had two choices amid protests and Covid-19 – shut down or go online. They chose the latter
Business is booming, with company growth of 160 per cent in 2019 and 252 per cent in 2020, despite competition from rivals like StockX, Goat and Stadium Goods


The co-founders of online shoe store Sneaker Surge explain how business is booming, their unique edge and why they owe some of their success to Chance… the Rapper.
