Me and Peter met in the 90s. We both worked in the same sporting goods chain. At some point we ended up in the same shop and got together over trainers. I would say we knew each other for 3-5 years before we decided to start SNS.

 

The original idea was to sell sports shoes based on looks rather than performance. Originally we were only going to do it online, but having grown up in retail, it was natural for us to open a shop in the location we found. And we had some kind of plan - but we blew our annual budget within the first 2.5 months and just improvised over the next 5 years.

 

It was very different from today. It was the time before adidas Originals and before Nike Sportswear. Not really before the internet, but before Google, so the true sneakerhead really had to make an effort to gain knowledge.

 

So we had to travel a lot to find shoes that were not available in Europe. That was a lot of fun - but it was also a lot of work and we had to make a lot of sacrifices. For the first two years, we didn't have a real salary. And it took a long time before we earned any money at all - and when we did, we used the money to expand further.

 

 

 

Haha - I think that's where it starts, isn't it? I mean, we went to New York City to look for sneakers that we couldn't find here. And friends knew that we knew what was going on, so they asked us to buy a pair for them too. Friends of friends and random people came to the shop where we worked. In the end we had to charge about 20 euros for the trouble. With that we paid for the hotel or the flights - but the main goal was always to buy trainers for ourselves. Once we had accounts with the brands - and the lifestyle started to develop - we bought more than a few pairs over the years.

 

Man, we met so many fun people. And some not so funny ones. It's always hard for me to reminisce and talk about "the good old days". I think I cling to the future, because the best times are yet to come.

 

But I remember walking around Brooklyn with $5,000 in my pocket, trying to look casual - going into every shop on Fulton Street and trying to get the best deal. We tried to sweet-talk anyone who was willing to give us a few dollars more, only to find out later that all those shops were owned by the same man anyway. We met him in New York a few years ago and laughed about it. Now he asked us for trainers...

 

 

I don't know. We always wanted to expand. I think it's because Stockholm is a small market - we couldn't afford to offer such a bad service like shops like Supreme or Clientele in NYC. In the first 2 years we bought out our neighbour to expand the shop, and within 4 years we opened another shop in Stockholm. After 5 years we opened another shop in Malmö, and we even started our own chain of shops called Proof, where we managed to open two shops before reality caught up with us.

 

 

But I think the most important ingredient is realising what you want to do and what you are missing or need to add to achieve that. We had a really hard time in the mid-2000s realising a lot of that. Personally, I think quite far ahead sometimes - but I'm also very restless. We have to keep moving - if you stay in repeat mode for too long, you will die.

 

I think this risk exists regardless of size. And that is something to keep in mind and focus on. But the secret is to get more people on board. It's been amazing how many great people we've been able to attract over the last 10 years. Without them, it would be impossible to stay SNS.

 

I think the atmosphere. And a good and friendly service. That is very important for us. Of course, that will be triggered in different ways at different times. But friendly and comprehensive customer service will always be important.

 

Haha, social media is weird. You can say 1000 positive things and nobody really says anything about it. But one bad thing unites all the people who are in the same situation and that can be inflammatory. To be honest, I wrote the post to help our customer service team who were being pressured by people who couldn't get a pair. But I guess the irony is that it worked. Senior adidas staff grabbed us (me) by the ear and let us (me) know that it wasn't okay.
They all agreed with what I had said - it was more the way and where I had said it that bothered them. And I agree with them that it is a bit too easy to play the role of Robin Hood in such a world. They said that I should have addressed them directly instead. But I told them that I had already done that but could not see any change. My theory was that in a big company no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, so the problems get stuck with middle management. The irony of it is that it gave us access to the right people who then made changes for the better. Nike, on the other hand, was not pleased because I had called adidas "the brand of the future". In my defence, I have to say that I put that in inverted commas because they called themselves that. I think they are both brands of the future. And I should probably stop here - I love politics.

 

People are frustrated - I understand that. I don't know if it's fair. But it may be that 130,000 people sign up for one shoe. With today's tools, we know that all people are unique. And we do get a lot of shoes, but still 99% go away empty-handed. So for some people it will feel like we didn't have shoes at all. But we are working closely with the brands to understand the new world together. I'm not saying we will ever get 130,000 pairs, but we need more pairs so that the overall impression is positive.

 

You've always held up the flag for independent retailers and brick-and-mortar shops, as a contrast to the big sneaker chains. Now that SNS is expanding more and more, do you think you could end up in that chain-like position at some point - even with some of the features that people criticise about the big players?
I think that dissatisfied people will always look for a scapegoat. But to be honest, that's what we do every day. This is what we talk about internally every day. How do we stay true to who we are and where we come from every day? But again, it comes down to who you have on your team and that you allow them to do their thing locally and globally.

 

The first steps are always a challenge. The first shop outside London was hard work. There was a structure to build, brands to convince to support us and so on. In New York it wasn't much different, it just took longer, longer conversations. And the world has become much smaller in the last 5 years. I think it would have been more difficult for us to open in New York when we were as big as we were 5 years ago.

 

What happened is that the venture capital partner we had for the last three years was at the end of his term. We looked for a new partner and found him in FSN Capital. So we have not run out of business. We just have a new partner who can better support our ambitions. Myself, Peter and our now 200-strong SNS family will continue to run SNS. We have many years ahead of us and we are still excited to be here.

 

Open for business adidas. It wasn't really an SMU, but adi sold it to us as one. We had been asking adidas for exclusive colourways for some time and they finally said, "If you buy 300 pairs each of these Gazelle Hemp, we won't sell them to anyone else in Sweden". We bought 312 pairs (to prove something, I guess) and they sold out very quickly.

 

When Puma - who were the first to agree to a collaboration - came along, we referred to the same shoe to appeal to a vegan clientele, even though none of us were (are) very vegan. But then we added details like numbered shoes: gold embroidery on the inside as a tribute to the street we started in and had just moved out of at the time of this collaboration. We also wanted to have multiple laces, a special cardboard fabric and so on, but Puma couldn't do that - so we did it all ourselves and repackaged all the shoes. Pretty forward-thinking in 2003.

 

I loved how spontaneously the first rounds with New Balance came about. That was a lot of fun. Nowadays, we all tend to think too much and design too much - both brands and ourselves. This is also true for the ZX shoe we developed. It was groundbreaking in many ways, in terms of backstories. But as always, I get excited when I look to the future. I love being part of new technology and not just living in the past. To have seen the development of the Ultra Boost - and now to be part of the launch of the adidas 4D this summer - is really great.