The world’s largest paid sneaker community has joined forces with Philly-based footwear designer and manufacturer to help creators launch their own sneakers for fans.
Vancouver’s SoleSavy has joined forces with Garrixon, an end-to-end footwear designer and manufacturer, led by industry veteran John Lee, to form a joint venture focused on empowering creators to design and launch their own original sneakers.
Founded in 2018 by Dejan Pralica and Justin Dusanj, SoleSavy helps its members effectively showcase, buy, sell, and trade sneakers at retail. The VC-backed sneaker startup has been pioneering ways to make collecting sneakers more democratic as resale prices have soared in recent years.
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Garrixon’s Lee founded Philadelphia’s world-famous sneaker brand UBIQ in 2012, which merged with Atmos in 2020, a digitally-led Japanese retailer to create Atmos USA. Atmos was acquired by Footlocker in 2021 for $360 million.
Lee now has his sights set on the next frontier of sneaker creation, which he believes will be led by the $100B+ creator market.
“We’re excited to announce this joint venture with SoleSavy, which allows us to offer creators a first-of-kind end-to-end solution to successfully enter the sneaker market,” said Lee.
“With our on-shore design and manufacturing capabilities and SoleSavy’s deep roots in the sneaker community, we’re well-positioned to fulfill the demand from creators and artists to bring their sneaker visions to life.”
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SoleSavy, which has developed sneakers for leading sports franchises like the Philadelphia 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers, has both crowd-sourced design alongside its community and also worked with veteran sneaker designers for its NFT sneaker launch which was redeemable for a physical sneaker.
“We’re thrilled to enter this joint venture with Garrixon,” said Dejan Pralica, Co-Founder and CEO of SoleSavy. “Traditionally, sneaker creation at scale has been limited to legacy brands, all-star athletes and celebrities. By democratizing the process of creating and releasing a sneaker, we can help creators expand their merchandise footprint and build their unique brands.”
Las Vegas-based creator, CJ So Cool (pictured above) has over 8 million YouTube subscribers and 5 million Instagram followers will be the first to debut his own sneaker under the joint venture.
The Frostbite SS4, CJ So Cool’s sneaker is now available for pre-order.
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