Ladies are taking the sneaker scene by storm, as they go from owning and creating sneakers to opening brick and mortar sneaker stores targeted at women only.
Pam Pam’s co-founders Bethany Haggarty and Rio Holland (Image via Dean Martindale/The Cut)
The sneaker world is enjoying the increased presence of women, and we’re not just talking about consumers here. Celebrities like Solange Knowles, Rihanna and Rita Ora are doing their part in creating sneaker collaborations. But what about sneaker retailers, the “middlemen” between buyer and brand? Enter Pam Pam, UK’s first women’s-only sneaker store.
It’s easy to assume that Pam Pam founders Rio Holland and Bethany Haggarty are wading into unfamiliar territory, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The duo bring with them plenty of experience from their days of working in a menswear boutique.
“We worked in menswear prior and found that a lot of women were really liking what was out there for men,” Holland said in an interview with The Cut. “With the sneakers, in particular, in the women’s ranges there was always a smaller offering and also the offering was a bit jazzy, or glittery, or bright colors — and girls really enjoyed the more neutral tones.”
The store interior (Image via Dean Martindale/The Cut)
Their love for sneakers is also apparent, with Holland having been into them for a long time as “they’re easy to wear” and Haggarty having a liking towards “classic sneakers like Vans or Converse”.
But it’s also a keen sense of perception, of recognizing a gradual shift of focus towards women sneakers and as Haggarty puts it, “a big surge of women (in London) dressing really smart, really sophisticated, suiting head-to-toe and then they had on a pair of Reebok classics or classic Adidas like Stan Smiths” that cements the trend of women venturing into sneakers as part of their fashion get-up.
The duo go on to tell The Cut about how sneakers with heels is a trend that shouldn’t have happened, and how the Nike Huarache is a comeback silhouette and that it would resurface in the years to come, appealing even to the next generation of sneakerheads. Missy Elliot’s name also pops up in the interview, as Holland tips her hat off to the singer-songwriter who’s had “three or four rooms dedicated to just her sneaker boxes”.
Pam Pam may be barely a month old, but with this passionate duo at the helm, there’s certainly potential for more women to get involved with the sneaker scene, whether as a consumer, store owner or collaborator.
Source: The Cut/NY Mag