Vans is returning back to its skateboarding roots, and that comes with a major retail overhaul starting in London, one of the brand’s biggest markets.

The footwear brand’s 214 Oxford Street store, which opened in 2019, has had a major revamp — taking it from a dingy corner store to a bright, state-of-the-art space with floor-to-ceiling windows that’s fitted with a 200 square meter Roman travertine stone skate ramp.

For a brand to really stand out on one of the busiest streets in central London, new ideas are necessary.

Vans’ next door neighbors — Nike and the newly opened Ikea — have demonstrated that to lure customers in, they need more than just rows of products or mannequins – there needs to be a sense of community and a history of the brand.

Ikea is capitalizing on its blue polypropylene bags and Vans is reminding everyone that they’re one of the original brands for skateboarders.

By day, the store sells clothes and accessories, as well as skateboards with British slang printed on, meanwhile in the evenings, the space will be used for regular skate lessons, demos and events by Vans skate team and local skate schools.

“We thought it was quite provocative to bring the best of counterculture into one of the most commercial strips in the world,” said Andreas Olsson, vice president and general manager of Vans EMEA in an interview.

There’s more space than ever at the store as Vans has adopted a new design system using the walls and surrounding areas for hidden storage instead of a physical storage room. There are no cash registers as transactions can take place anywhere on the floor — just like at the Apple store.

The walls replicate the waffle pattern found on the sole of Vans shoes and the hidden storage units are made of grinded plywood – a subtle nod to the construction of skate ramps, which can be flipped for a gray canvas to replicate the interiors of an art exhibition.

“We need to raise the standard and somewhat also bring ourselves a little bit closer to the community and the culture of London,” said Olsson, adding that the brand has seen the importance to gain proximity to the culture of skateboarding, art, design and music.

Olsson, who has been back with Vans for over a year now is shaking things up. He wants to “elevate,” “reset” and “push” the brand into the future. 

He previously spent almost seven years with the brand from 2012 to 2018.

“We want to lead through skateboarding. The purpose of retail today is that it’s a mix of the commerce side of retail – which is only a piece of it, but it’s really about the whole entertainment and activation side of things,” said Olsson.

“Consumers expect to engage in retail in a much different way than they’ve done in the past. In the past it was more of a commerce driven entity, but today, anything can be accessed through a cellphone – the reason that someone comes into the store is to experience the depth of the brand and the cultures that we represent. We want to do that justice in the most credible way.”

London is the first piece in Vans’ rejigging of retail followed by refreshing its stores across Europe that will soon be rolled out to the U.S. and Asian market. The brand is also introducing a new ecommerce website.

The Oxford Street store doesn’t stop at just skateboarding. A lot of newness is being injected into the space by working with brands and talent outside of VF Corp., Vans’ parent company that also owns Dickies, The North Face and Timberland.

London-based creative Jack Charlie Mitchelln has curated a selection of books and music that customers can buy and next to that are items from Vans’ collaboration with the jeweler The Great Frog, audio brand Gomi and skateboarding brand Lovenskate.

LONDON — Nike is getting a touch-up from renowned makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench.

She has created two colorways, a beige and chocolate brown that will be applied to the Air Max Dn that will be released on Dec. 20.

“Beauty has a massive presence in women’s sport today,” said Ffrench. “It’s been inspiring, working with athletes throughout this journey with Nike—and humbling to feel that the things I’m creating are helping these women feel good and give them confidence to perform at their peak”.

Ffrench added that female athletes inspired the collaboration.

“Female athletes show that you can have it all. You can have prowess in sport. You can be at the top of your game. You can take an interest in your appearance. You can express yourself in as many ways as you want and still be a top athlete. Beauty doesn’t undermine any of that. Beauty actually enhances it,” she explained.

Nike released the Air Max Dn on March 26, a date known affectionately by sneakerheads as Air Max Day. The shoe is a clear departure from previous looks in the iconic franchise, which was an intentional move from the design team.

“It’s important to note that we’re not making the Max 1 anymore,” Kathy Gomez, Nike VP of NXT Footwear, told FN at a media preview in late January. “We’ve evolved so much because we have this foundation of experience and expertise that we build on we learn from. I would say the team is even more passionate today about continuing to improve the benefits of Air for consumers.”

Asics is going green with its latest sneaker launch.

The Neocurve uses the materials from grinded-up footwear, deadstock, and defective shoes.

The Japanese brand took a deep dive into its own trash to find the materials then teamed up with Fast Feet Grinded, a Netherlands-based footwear recycling company on the materials. The company disassembled discarded footwear and separated the materials that Asics provided them with.

The sneaker is exclusive to Europe — it is designed and crafted at Studio Hagel in Amsterdam, Netherlands in order to reduce CO2 emissions.

“For our concept, we always wanted to innovate but at the same time, stay true to the brand. We went through all the catalogues at the Asics European head office dating back 35 years and selected the styles that resonated with us. From there we started playing and experimenting to see how far we could push the concept to create something new and innovative,” said Mathieu Hagelaars, creative director of Studio Hagel.

The Neocurve is Asics’ pledge to commit to sustainable practices.

“Yet, as environmental challenges intensify, we recognize that the future of sport, and the mental wellbeing benefits it brings, is under threat,” said the brand in a statement.

The new sneakers feature a wave design with metallic finishes that have become synonymous with the brand.

Earlier this month, Asics reported results for the first nine months of the year that showed solid growth across several regions and channels, including in North America.

According to the Japan-based athletic brand, gross profit increased 26.7 percent to 290 billion yen. Net sales for the first nine months of 2024 jumped 17.3 percent to 525 billion yen, driven by strong sales across all categories.

As shopfronts and online retailers prepare for Black Friday sales, the French footwear and accessories brand Veja is taking a stand against mass consumption.

The brand is offering their own alternative to discounted items by introducing Repair Friday, which will take place on Nov. 29 and 30 at Veja’s Paris headquarters.

“Since 2017, Veja has opted out of participating in Black Friday. Offering an alternative since 2020, we have established 10 cobbler spaces globally, repairing 35,000 pairs of shoes to date, including those from Veja and other major brands,” said Sébastien Kopp, the brand’s cofounder in an interview.

“Black Friday is 24 hours of relentless promotions on everything imaginable – a frenzy of consumption followed by emptiness. The money is spent, the excitement fades, and many of the items purchased quickly become waste. People buy products that generate massive carbon emissions during transport, only for them to end up in the trash,” he added.

Last year, the brand introduced Free Friday, another alternative to Black Friday, where they provided free repairs for one pair of sneakers at any of their cobbler locations and accepted sneakers from any brand.

The brand received 450 pairs of sneakers for repair within 24 hours. This year Veja is anticipating to welcome around 500 people to their Repair Friday event.

At the brand’s London store on Monmouth Street, which opened earlier this year, the in-store cobbler has repaired 595 pairs so far, averaging around 100 pairs per month.

Veja’s retail expansion has been on a streak. The brand set up shop in Brooklyn on 111 North 5th Street and opened a Veja General Store in Paris, a 100 square meter space with two cobblers that work on repairing sneakers and shoes all day long, as well as a tailor who will repair clothes.

Kopp said that the U.K. was Veja’s top performing European market in 2023 followed by France, Italy, Germany, Benelux and Spain.

Birkenstock 1774, the luxury line from the German footwear brand, is ringing in the Year of the Snake this Lunar New Year with a python embossed collection.

The snake in Chinese culture represents wisdom, elegance and transformation.

For this collection, the footwear brand is taking its signature Arizona, Florida and Tokio designs and reimagining them in new ways with contrasting textures of soft suede and soft nappa leather.

Birkenstock’s Florida style, which is made up of three-straps, has been produced in a beige and red snake skin. The same snake skin print has also been applied to the two-strap Arizona sandal. Meanwhile, the Tokio has been revisited in black and beige suede with python embossed straps and hardware in gold or silver.

In September, Birkenstock rolled out a new category of foot care collection called Care Essentials, which includes Relaxing Bath Salts, Smoothing Pumice Stone, Exfoliating Foot Scrub, Nourishing Foot Balm, Relief Lotion Tired Leg & Foot, Comforting Dry Oil and kits of these products, ranging from $10 to $50, all made in Germany. 

The German company, which reported earnings of 565 million euros in the third quarter, is also celebrating its 250th anniversary this year.

Earlier this year, the brand introduced two new footwear silhouettes: the 33 Dougal, inspired by the iconized Birkenstock Boston clog, and the 222 West, designed to blend the classic Birkenstock Arizona two-strap sandal with the Boston style. Both styles are crafted with a high-shine finish.

To celebrate the new styles, the brand unveiled a campaign featuring four New York-based creatives: Cassi Namoda, Rafael Prieto, Coco Gordon Moore and Louis Mueller.

The Selfridges Corner Shop is getting cozy for the winter season with Ugg.

The Deckers-owned footwear brand has taken over the space until Dec. 7 by turning it into an igloo with comfy brown sofas and using the same fluffy materials that’s used in their shoes on the Christmas trees.

The brand has put a variety of products on display at the Corner Shop including the new Ugg Extreme collection that consists of cold weather shoes and apparel.

For a limited amount of time, the brand brought out new exclusive styles from its collaboration with Telfar. The new pieces come in colorways of black and chestnut, as well as denim.

To celebrate the opening, Ugg has invited British singer-songwriter Griff to perform a special acoustic set.

The luxury British department store is gearing up for the festive season and has already announced that this year’s theme for the store is “More the Merrier.”

Selfridges has summoned a Christmas team to bring the lights and magic alive.

Costume designer Max Allen has designed the outfits for Santa and the Selfridges Christmas entertainers; Emily Pugh has been enlisted as a Christmas tree stylist; the Oxford Street windows have been created in collaboration with the artist Andrew Logan with additional contribution from fashion designer Charles Jeffrey and the artist Flaminia Veronesi.

“The festive season at Selfridges is an antidote to the mundane; it’s our vibrant crescendo to 2024 as we transform our stores into high-octane wonderlands. We’ve collaborated with an incredible host of artists and creatives, bringing together different tastes and trends in an ode to imagination and a celebration of maximalism. We want our customers to share in this joy and to help them live brighter this Christmas,” said Laura Weir, Selfridges chief creative.

Running is hereditary for British-Jamaican athlete Adelle Tracey.

Her father, Nicholas, was a 400-meter runner for Jamaica and she always thought she would be following in his steps.

The younger Tracey, who is sponsored by Hoka, now primarily competes in 800m races, but she’s been running ever since she could remember. After being born in Seattle, her family moved to the Parish of Manchester in Jamaica, where she spent her childhood.

“The culture of running in Jamaica is a massive deal, so everybody runs. It’s been ingrained in me from a young age, and when I moved to the U.K., I always felt like it was already part of my identity to be a runner and I was really strong at it,” she said while sitting on a director’s chair in the Hoka store in London’s Covent Garden.

At school, Tracey joined the club system for gifted young athletes. Sports days were her favorite at school as it was an opportunity to show her strength.

“I wasn’t very academic and a lot of the reasons why I run are because I am neurodiverse, being dyslexic and dyscalculia. I gained a lot of confidence from being in sport as a child and I could bring that back to the classroom and tackle the challenges there with a lot more confidence,” she said, adding that she encourages anyone who is neurodiverse to lean into their strengths because it “gives so much power.”

Tracey made her first team for Great Britain at the age of 16, and at 19 she was chosen by Dame Kelly Holmes to be one of the torchbearers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Being recognized by Holmes was a motivating factor for her to want to become an Olympian. The moment remains sentimental to her. “I’ve only watched it back a handful of times, because I want it to remain really special,” said the now-31-year-old.

This summer, Tracey made it to the 2024 Summer Olympics, but represented Jamaica instead of Great Britain.

She went through a change of allegiance process that involved not competing for Great Britain for three years, which coincidentally happened at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve now fulfilled my childhood dream of being able to compete for the country that I grew up in. I’ve loved my experience as a G.B. athlete as well, and it’s been a privilege to be able to compete for both sides of your heritage,” said Tracey, whose mother is British.

The Jamaican team also has a rich legacy when it comes to the Olympics — Usain Bolt was the first athlete to hold the 100m and 200m world record; Elaine Thompson had a time of 10.71 seconds at the Rio Olympics in 2016; and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce became the first Jamaican woman to win a gold medal for a 100m race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Tracey was close to her own Olympic dreams in Paris this summer, until her plans took a left turn.

She didn’t make the repechage round in the 800m or 1500m races because she suffered from an injury that tore the arch of her foot in May that didn’t show up in an MRI scan until a second scan the day after the Olympics. 

She soldered on and cross trained every day but had to refocus her priorities. “Being there, I just had to take it all in and be thankful for being there and making the start line,” she said.

In the meantime, she’s spent a lot of time with friends and family. It’s taken her two months to be able to return to the gym and she’s started running again.

Her training regime is a rigorous one. Tracey spends three months a year running at high altitude.

She in Kenya in January, followed by South Africa in the spring and the south of France in the summer.

Kenya is one of her favorite places to run. “It reminds me of where I grew up in Jamaica and there’s something peaceful and simple about the way of living there. And as a woman, you feel empowered to run because you feel perfectly safe,” she explained.

As a Hoka athlete, she also spends time training in Flagstaff, Ariz., where the athletic brand has an elite running group.

She credits the brand for celebrating athletes as individuals rather than treating them as robots.

And the running trails in Arizona aren’t half bad either. “It’s a lot of dirt trails and beautiful pine forests. I run for miles and miles, and the surface is incredible because of the high elevation. There are also some cool spots in Sedona, where there are red rocks,” said Tracey.

Her training is leading up to the 2025 World Athletics Championships that will take place in September in Tokyo, Japan.

“I’m excited to start afresh and my body’s healthy again. I think the year before was a really great year for me, so I’m ready to build on that,” she said.

The love affair between Kurt Geiger and Galeries Lafayette continues in Paris.

The British accessories brand has staged another pop-up at the luxury department store’s Haussmann address following the success of the Champs-Élysées pop-up earlier this year.

Kurt Geiger has plastered its campaign with Emily Ratajkowski across the storefront and put up flags that replicate the brand’s diamond stained glass window print.

Inside the pop-up, two columns have been decorated with the stained glass windows and  teal green carpeting.

France has become Kurt Geiger’s fastest growing market in Europe and sits in 18 Galeries Lafayette stores, from Azure Coast to northern France.

“At Kurt Geiger we’re being very selective about our distribution and where we open stores — we’re willing to wait for the best location in a market,” said Steven Sousa, the brand’s chief international officer in March.

Kurt Geiger’s annual sales reached $466 million in the year ending February 2024, a 10 percent increase from the year-ago period. Earnings increased by 34 percent, exceeding $50 million.

The brand cited its “affordable luxury” handbags for its success.

“Quite simply, we stand out from the crowd. Our brand has [a] unique design aesthetic – fun, colorful and instantly recognizable. That, combined with a strong British DNA and an incredible value proposition – we’ve filled a white space with bold, maximalist silhouettes at an affordable price point,” said Neil Clifford, chief executive officer at Kurt Geiger.

“2024 is on track to smash all of our most ambitious predictions – with our global footprint growing exponentially, driven by handbags — now our largest product category in all markets. Not bad for an independent British brand, operating against a pretty tough economic backdrop,” he added.

There are no summer blues for Kurt Geiger this year as they announce record company sales and a new ambassador.

Kurt Geiger’s annual sales reached $466 million in the year ending February 2024, a 10 percent increase from the year-ago period. Earnings increased by 34 percent, exceeding $50 million.

The brand cited its “affordable luxury” handbags for its success.

“Quite simply, we stand out from the crowd. Our brand has [a] unique design aesthetic – fun, colorful and instantly recognizable. That, combined with a strong British DNA and an incredible value proposition – we’ve filled a white space with bold, maximalist silhouettes at an affordable price point,” said Neil Clifford, chief executive officer at Kurt Geiger.

“2024 is on track to smash all of our most ambitious predictions – with our global footprint growing exponentially, driven by handbags. — now our largest product category in all markets. Not bad for an independent British brand, operating against a pretty tough economic backdrop,” he added.

Kurt Geiger is now doubling down on its handbags success by naming Emily Ratajkowski as the face of its fall 2024 collection, which includes a new range, the Chelsea collection.

The new collection is named after the affluent West London area, which is where the Swinging Sixties on the King’s Road took off.

The ​​American model, actor, author and activist is pictured with various handbags in the campaign: a large red tote and a hobo style bag in small and micro size.

The brand’s signature eagle symbol has been updated with a crystalized halo buckle that adds a touch of sharpness.

In 2023, the brand’s handbags business recorded sales of $143 million.

Kurt Geiger also reported strong growth in the U.S. in the last five months, with a 104 percent increase.

The brand is firmly targeting retail. They’re planning to open three new stores in the fall in New York, Los Angeles and San Diego – and for the future, they have their eyes set on 50 stores across the U.S.

As it continues to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Swedish brand Axel Arigato is expanding its London presence with a second store opening in Covent Garden.

The new store, located at 21-23 Earlham Street, follows the brand’s retail strategy for gallery-like spaces designed by Swedish design studio Halleroed. Marbles and steel are incorporated throughout the space, as well as an inbuilt sound system.

The new Axel Arigato store will stock the brand’s ready-to-wear and extensive sneaker offering. 

“London has been a spiritual home to Axel Arigato since we launched our very first store here back in 2016. We’re thrilled to be able to expand our bricks and mortar business in the capital — and it feels extra special to do this in our tenth anniversary year,” said Albin Johansson, chief executive officer and cofounder of the brand.

Until Aug. 3, a series of events celebrating the 10th anniversary of Axel Arigato will take place, including a portrait pop-up with photographer Campbell Addy; an art class with Shaquille-Aaron Keith; and an intimate live set hosted by musician Venna, who will perform with special guests Jada and Cari.

The brand is also releasing an anniversary capsule collection to commemorate with monogrammed T-shirts, denim and sneakers.

“Our stores have come to reflect the cultural values we hold dear at Axel Arigato. A careful, considered and playful approach to design with architectural juxtapositions — encouraging our audience to experience the brand in person,” said Jens Werner, creative director at Axel Arigato.