Kikikickz: A kicky French concept expands

Beneath the office space of Emily in Paris, the Netflix international hit and fashion setting series, one finds another new French concept; rare sneaker store Kikikickz, the brainchild of two young French entrepreneurs who have taking sneaker trading to new heights.

Six years ago, the youthful duo first linked up, reselling cult and hard-to-find sneakers from the likes of Christian Dior, Comme des Garçons and Alexander McQueen to international customers online. This spring, the gents have grown their idea into a physical boutique, located in Place de Valois, just outside the Palais Royal in the first arrondissement of Paris. A private boutique that welcomes only celebrities that work with the brand or exclusive private customers.

For the founders, Baptiste Saltiel and Killian Dris, this is the latest step on their high-speed ride in business online. Fascinated by sneakers since he was a young lad, Dris began buying them in stores, in order to resell them afterwards, while his now co-worker Saltiel was organizing parties for a living. Eventually, the pair got along and joined forces, teaching one another their various savoir-faire.

The concept of Kikikickz was eventually born in the Matignon café, in the tony eighth arrondissement of Paris, next to the Champs-Elysées, coming to life when Killian was selling a dozen hard-to-find sneakers in front of Baptiste's eyes, literally off the café’s tables. The sheer enthusiasm of the buyers immediately tickled Saltiel’s interest and curiosity.

“People were not only buying shoes at an expensive price. They were also going home delighted with their purchases,” explained Baptiste, as he gave FashionNetwork.com a tour of the brand new, two-floor boutique.

Now, their boutique retails the footwear of hipster brands like Off-White or Sacai, or artists like Kanye West or Travis Scott, in their first steps out of the virtual world. A back room in the same space contains several sneaker traders, who man their phones and desktops like foreign exchange brokers working the market.

Kikikickz’s new 500 square-meter headquarters in the same space also has a logistic team sending out the orders; with shoes always accompanied with their certificates, validated by experts, proving their 100% authenticity.

The new boutique, designed by Akira Studio includes walls of brick and plywood, from which hangs scores of pricey sneakers, or what the French Les Baskets. A redesigned basement, entirely evolving around the sneaker’s environment, holds limited edition shoes like Air Jordan 1 retro Dior, the single most expensive pair in the store, at €2,000.

“Our idea is to supply the most wanted, and hardest to find, sneakers created to the biggest fans. There are quite a few of them! We cop, you rock,” added Saltiel.

No doubt about it, the store couldn’t dream of a better spot, situated in the heart of Paris, near bustling Les Halles; the brand new, must-see Pinault Foundation Bourse de Commerce; and Europe’s most elegant apartment building, the Palais Royal.

And, who knows, if you check out the store you might even run into Emily Cooper there?

Kikikickz: A kicky French concept expands

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