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Converse is closing its SoHo store and Stadium Goods is downsizing

When We Go We’re Taking You All With Us mural in Shoreditch, London | Artist: Louis Masai

A Blank Canvas: Converse is closing its flagship location at 560 Broadway in SoHo on January 18th, according to a source who asked to remain off the record. The two-story, 10,000-square-foot location was Converse’s largest location globally. Converse first occupied the space in 2010, and six years later the brand invested in a major renovation project which added additional space and a customization bar.

From what I’ve been told, the reason is simple, the lease was up and sales at the location didn’t justify the rent. The space will not remain empty for long. Located in a stretch of Broadway known for very high levels of foot traffic (I was there this past Sunday, it was as packed as it was on December 24th!), the space allegedly has already been scooped up by American Eagle. (I emailed Converse and American Eagle to confirm but didn’t hear back by the time I published.)

While Converse is moving out, in a sign of the times Canadian fast-fashion brand Aritzia opened a flagship store in the corner location of the same building in November, a space formerly occupied by Dean & Deluca. The building is represented by GFB Real Estate, which announced yesterday that Aritzia is extending its lease and also planning to expand its footprint.

In May of last year, Bloomberg reported that Converse laid off 2% of its workforce, mirroring parent company Nike’s own staff reductions at the time. Converse is “realigning some of our teams to better support future growth,” a spokesperson told the publication, “We can confirm that the total changes to Converse’s workforce were included in Nike’s overall 2% reduction plan, however, we were operating on a discrete timeline.”

Converse’s fiscal year revenue in 2024 was $2 billion, off a high of $2.4 billion the year prior. The brand’s revenue when it opened the store on Broadway was $983 milion, according to Statista. On Nike’s Q2 earnings call, CEO John Elliott’s first at the helm, Converse sales were $429 million, down down 18% on a currency-neutral basis, “due to declines across all territories.”

Converse still operates over 70 stores, though the vast majority are outlet stores.

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The Great Retreat: New York-based Stadium Goods is closing its New York City store on January 19th, according to reporting by Complex. The sneaker resale retailer will close the 47 Howard Street Store in SoHo, moving the business to a smaller space located at 412 Broadway, which it had used previously as a drop-off center for resellers.

Just like Converse, Stadium Goods’ lease at 47 Howard Street, is expiring, and the company has decided not to renew. Instead, Stadium Goods is planning to focus revenue on ecommerce, which accounts for the majority of revenue.

Rewinding back for a moment to an earlier, more innocent era, Stadium Goods was founded in 2015 by John McPheters and Jed Stiller who sold it to Farfetch for $250 million in 2018 (and who would go on to start up SMVentures). When Stadium Goods was acquired, FarFetch had already purchased Browns and style.com and was a public company trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Keeping the spending spree going, FarFetch then snapped up New Guards Group (I wrote about NGG’s current status here.)

The stock hit an all-time high of $73.87 in mid-2021, after which it began to bounce downhill beset by choppy earnings and, surprise—surprise--rising debt. The company was $1.2 billion in the red when it was purchased in 2024 for $500 million by Coupang, a Korean-based online retailer. Spurred by the purchase, Farfetch was delisted by the New York Stock exchange, leaving stockholders high and dry.

I say this all to say, Stadium Goods is probably not the funnest place to work at the moment. Beside the challenges created by Farfetch’s chaotic management style, the resale space has been squeezed by a downturn in demand for athletic footwear led by cooling demand for Nike and Jordan’s classic sneaker franchises.

At the same time, Stadium Goods is competing with multiple better funded and managed resale platforms, including StockX, GOAT, Ebay, Poizon and The RealReal, which is why I included “resale consolidation” on my 2025 Bingo card last week.

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