Sneakerboy is a Melbourne retail Mecca for trainer aficionados

An aisle with six rows of sneakers on both sides.
(Image credit: TBC)

Stepping off the retail grid, this Melbourne trainer ‘gallery’ merges online shopping with the traditional try-on facilities of a bricks-and-mortar store. ‘We wanted to create a multibrand with a new luxury movement at its core,’ says creative director Chris Kyvetos. To shop, Sneakerboy customers first register online for a special ID. In store, there are no tills or products to take home. All purchases must be made through an iPhone or the in-house iPads, fixed to custom spun-steel chairs.

The showroom carries a full-size range of each style (there are more than 1,500), while orders are shipped direct to customers from a Hong Kong warehouse. The design by local firm March Studio begins with a large circular steel portal at the entrance, which directs visitors to the ‘viewing chamber’, where, inspired by the same retro futurism of an Underground station, illuminated glass shelves display each style. In the live-wire server room, scrolling LED tickers credit each shoe’s designer, and when customers scan purchases with the Sneakerboy app, the pricing and sizing options pop up, along with responsive comments like ‘sold out’.

A GIF image that switches between dark and light. The picture is of the aisle with the sneakers on both sides.

(Image credit: TBC)

The end of aisle display with six rows of trainers on both sides.

(Image credit: TBC)

Three side-by-side egg shaped chairs with Xs in the middle of each. Trainers on shelves in the background.

(Image credit: TBC)

The exterior of the Sneakerboy store with a large window on the left featuring shoes, the Sneakerboy logo written down like an acrostic and a tunnel like entrance.

(Image credit: TBC)

ADDRESS

Sneakerboy
Shop 21, 265-279 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Australia

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