Hikmet Of Solebox

1 - Hi Hikmet. Its good to catch up with you. The next Solemart is just around the corner. Tell us what inspired you to start with Solemart and what Solemart really is?

Hi David, pleasure is on my side.

Thank you for your interest in Solemart.

It is a pretty easy idea: Many of us, having more than one pair of trainers. Sometimes we buy two of the same, one to wear, the other to put aways. But sometimes we resell the shoes, because we want to buy something else. And usually the most people do it online. But isn´t it more personal to meet the seller? How you say: You buy the seller.

On the other side it is great to have a happening for all of us out there, which we know from several internet forums, like crookedtongues.com, sneaker-tv.de, sneakerfreaker.com, sneakers.fr, etc. Something like a big blind date ; )

We can meet, talk, buy, sell, swap and look what is coming next. Therefore we invited the big players in the Industry to show their upcoming collections. I think it is a good mixture of all three participants in this construction.

Manufacturer, Seller, Buyer. We can gain feedback in short ways, give feedback in short ways.

2 - How important is it for you to connect with your community outside of the Internet? What does it change?

As said above, it makes it much more personal. It is our biggest aim to keep our business personal and direct. And a product is always better to buy if you touch and feel it. Internet is cool, nice and easy. But what is better: Youporn or Realporn ? ; )

3 - The concept is pretty new, at least for Germany and Europe, one can say. What experience do you have with it so far? Are people open for it?

Sure, a fleamarket is nothing we invented. But for trainers it is something new here in Germany. We have lots of fashion things going on, especially in Berlin. But for me I am not the fashion guy. I love my trainers, and there are many out there with similar thinking. So we thought we do not do something for only the industry people, we do something for the most important: the end customer. Our first Solemart in August were a big success. We had a release of our Asics Solebox on the same day. It was massive, lots of people from all over Europe joined it and it was big fun for everybody, a bit like small Woodstock for Sneakerfans.
Let us see how the peoples feedback would be this time.

4 - What changed from the first Solemart event to the one of next month?

To be true: Not much. It is still simple and easy. We are not a trade fair. We are having fun with friends. But be sure, there will be many good and desirable trainers to buy.

5 - We heard you have big plans with the event in the future. What can we expect from Solemart?

We are already working on different locations. We hope to give you some detailed info soon. But why not in other big cities in Europe, like Paris and London.
Stay tuned. See you hopefully on the 18th of April in Berlin as our Mediapartner.