Hype beast series#

The news follows its joint venture deal in May 2022 with travel retail giant Gebr Heinemann to open permanent stores at airports - an ambitious project, with three more global retail openings in the works for 2022, Highsnobiety exclusively told Vogue Business. On Tuesday, the Berlin-based publisher announced that it had sold a majority stake to German online fashion and beauty retailer Zalando, in a bid to fuel commerce. Rival Highsnobiety has also been focused on converting readers into customers. While financial success is always critical to the business, so is our level of engagement with the community,” she says. “Of course we want profitability, revenue and sales, but equally important to us will be how well attended our cultural programming is, the diversity of the people and brands that we invite into the space and how much our employees are able gain from the space once it’s open. “We’ll be looking at whether people are visiting and engaging with the place beyond just a transactional way,” says Lee. Hypebeast will observe the store’s “energy” daily as a measure of success.

Hype beast series#

Hypebeast also plans to bring Hypetalks, a series of online live discussions with creatives, to the physical space for the first time. HBX will showcase The Skateroom’s products for a few months, as well as host an event series. At least 10 per cent of the sale of a skateboard is donated to various global charities that focus on empowering young people. The company partners with influential artists to create exclusive pieces of art on skateboard decks. One of the partnerships at launch will be with a social enterprise called The Skateroom, whose mission is to combine art with skate and social change. The space will also be used to inspire and educate HBX will invite artists and creatives to take part in a variety of projects.

“We wanted to showcase an assortment that feels fully inclusive, that speaks to our aesthetic and is very welcoming.”

Top of mind for its buying and merchandising teams are progessive brands that drive culture forward, says Lee. Both its bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses are largely wholesale-based, but take consignment on a case-by-case basis to ensure flexibility for smaller labels. Other brands stocked include Nike, Stone Island, Acronym, Mastermind Japan, Mugler, Heron Preston, Thom Browne and Dries Van Noten in a gender-fluid space that isn’t divided by menswear and womenswear. It’s a convening space that will hopefully foster creativity in the team,” she explains.

“What we really want to have are those fortuitous moments where you might strike a conversation with someone. Those working for the media arm of the company will have an opportunity to interact with the retail space, brands and customers on a daily basis. “Until now, we’ve been operating out of a combination of a co-working space and remote work,” Lee tells Vogue Business from her apartment in Brooklyn. The US building is also home to Hypebeast’s first North American headquarters, where about 100 employees will be seated across four floors. It also has a café, called Hypebeans, and an event and gallery space. It will not only house brands from HBX’s e-commerce shop - including cult mainstays like Jil Sander and Raf Simons and emerging labels like Hyein Seo and ERL - but also brands not currently sold by the platform. Under the label of its HBX commerce arm, which stocks over 250 brands, the store will bring a selection of 40 carefully curated labels to a physical retail space in the US for the first time. Hot on the heels of Tuesday’s announcement that Highsnobiety has been acquired by e-commerce platform Zalando, this Friday Hypebeast will unveil a 25,000-square-foot, seven-storey flagship and US headquarters in New York’s Chinatown, as part of an ongoing attempt to build a “360-degree ecosystem” for its community that reaches far beyond publishing. Now, rival media brands Hypebeast and Highsnobiety are both pushing further into commerce. They evolved out of a desire to keep up with the latest news and drops from the hottest streetwear and sneaker brands. To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.