atmos Will To Close Its US Stores And Website To Focus On Japan/Asia Business

[frenchbreadbuilds]

atmos Will To Close Its US Stores And Website To Focus On Japan/Asia Business

atmos’ run in North America is officially over. The Japanese footwear retailer, which began its empire with its first brick & mortar shop in Harajuku...

sneakernews.com

atmos’ run in North America is officially over.


The Japanese footwear retailer, which began its empire with its first brick & mortar shop in Harajuku back in 2000, first opened its one and only U.S. store in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. Located right on 125th St., atmos Harlem served the northern Manhattan community as one of the few boutique-like sneaker retailers, hosting various in-store activations in collaborations with brands.


In November 2020, atmos merged with renowned Philadelphia-based sneaker boutique UBIQ to form atmos USA. A year later, Foot Locker completed its acquisition of the global atmos brand, although the foreign imprint continued to operate independently and with its own name in its NYC, Philly, and DC locations.

According to Footwear News, Foot Locker has chose to shutter the atmos USA business, closing the three brick and mortar stores as well as its online store.


“The Atmos brand has a unique and authentic identity, character and spirit. Given the strength of Atmos in Japan and Asia, we are focused on further investing in this market. Though in line with this focus and our plans for simplification, we have made the strategic decision to close our three Atmos stores in North America and our Atmos U.S. website,” said Atmos SVP and GM Patrick Walsh in a statement.


atmos will now focus its business solely in Japan and Asia.

Not really sure what prompted this move. I live in the Philly area and they just recently acquired Ubiq turning that store into the atmos philly location. I hadn’t bought many shoes since the transition into atmos but I’ve really been feeling the atmos brand clothing recently. Great quality especially in the price point they occupy. Didn’t realize until recently that they were bought and owned by footlocker.

 

[finessence]

Damn. A staple

 

[ghenges]

I see some of these mall 'sneaker boutiques' and wonder how they stay in business. They'll be selling panda dunks for $269 with a straight face.

Streetwear is a tough business. You've got to adapt and stay current. It takes a long time to go from a "fad" to iconic. That's why so many of them fizzle out.

 

[blakep267]

atmos Will To Close Its US Stores And Website To Focus On Japan/Asia Business

atmos’ run in North America is officially over. The Japanese footwear retailer, which began its empire with its first brick & mortar shop in Harajuku...

sneakernews.com

Not really sure what prompted this move. I live in the Philly area and they just recently acquired Ubiq turning that store into the atmos philly location. I hadn’t bought many shoes since the transition into atmos but I’ve really been feeling the atmos brand clothing recently. Great quality especially in the price point they occupy. Didn’t realize until recently that they were bought and owned by footlocker.

Yea I wonder what happens to ubiq. I used to go there a lot in the early 2010’s egc to get SB dunks but haven’t been in ages

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

Yea I wonder what happens to ubiq. I used to go there a lot in the early 2010’s egc to get SB dunks but haven’t been in ages

Ubiq is gone. They turned into the atmos Philly location

 

[Raji Lowenthal]

atmos Will To Close Its US Stores And Website To Focus On Japan/Asia Business

atmos’ run in North America is officially over. The Japanese footwear retailer, which began its empire with its first brick & mortar shop in Harajuku...

sneakernews.com

Not really sure what prompted this move. I live in the Philly area and they just recently acquired Ubiq turning that store into the atmos philly location. I hadn’t bought many shoes since the transition into atmos but I’ve really been feeling the atmos brand clothing recently. Great quality especially in the price point they occupy. Didn’t realize until recently that they were bought and owned by footlocker.

FTL got their hand in all things sneakers. Just found out they own WSS too.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

I see some of these mall 'sneaker boutiques' and wonder how they stay in business. They'll be selling panda dunks for $269 with a straight face.

Streetwear is a tough business. You've got to adapt and stay current. It takes a long time to go from a "fad" to iconic. That's why so many of them fizzle out.

America keeps trying to do the corporate run streetwear experiment and failing. A lot of these shops and boutiques weren’t meant to scale up past the region they’re in but that doesn’t jive with the conglomerate business model. A lot of these shops attracted local crowds because they had tier zero/consortium/equivalent accounts for big brands but they were also design houses for their own brands. Footlocker must not know how to play in that arena. The more they buy up, the less Identity these individual shops have.

 

[blakep267]

Ubiq is gone. They turned into the atmos Philly location

I know. I just still call it ubiq. I’m wondering if somebody else buys it

 

[Dave East]

This sucks.

Atmos bought Ubiq, now Atmos closing.

We lost Villa, Jimmy Jazz and City Gear.

What happened to City Blue?

We’re losing all these small shops that added so much diversity and their own touch. It sucks that the shoe game has been gentrified and watered down to death.

 

[DaKidFromHaiti]

I see some of these mall 'sneaker boutiques' and wonder how they stay in business. They'll be selling panda dunks for $269 with a straight face.

Streetwear is a tough business. You've got to adapt and stay current. It takes a long time to go from a "fad" to iconic. That's why so many of them fizzle out.

Maybe it’s wrong of me but I really be feeling that some of these stores are drug fronts. There are a couple at Tyson’s Mall here in the Northern VA and I rarely see people buying stuff in there but somehow they’re still around. Tyson’s is one of the last thriving malls up here and I know that rent ain’t cheap.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

Maybe it’s wrong of me but I really be feeling that some of these stores are drug fronts. There are a couple at Tyson’s Mall here in the Northern VA and I rarely see people buying stuff in there but somehow they’re still around. Tyson’s is one of the last thriving malls up here and I know that rent ain’t cheap.

most of these shops also have websites. so i assume they do a solid bulk of their sales online. a shop just opened up a town over from in Collingswood NJ called Scores sneaker boutique. Theyre charging $200+ for foam runners. i always assumed that the non-consignment model means they have to charge you what it costs to keep the lights on. But collingswood is also situated near some very high income zipcodes so the suburban kids (and their parents) can probably afford the mark up

 

[DaKidFromHaiti]

most of these shops also have websites. so i assume they do a solid bulk of their sales online. a shop just opened up a town over from in Collingswood NJ called Scores sneaker boutique. Theyre charging $200+ for foam runners. i always assumed that the non-consignment model means they have to charge you what it costs to keep the lights on. But collingswood is also situated near some very high income zipcodes so the suburban kids (and their parents) can probably afford the mark up

That is true, now that you say that I’m remembering my therapist who I would consider to fit in the rich suburban mom label told me about how she bought sneakers for her son from one of those stores and I remember thinking that that’s the type of people keeping those places in business. People that don’t know any better and have the money to spend.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

That is true, now that you say that I’m remembering my therapist who I would consider to fit in the rich suburban mom label told me about how she bought sneakers for her son from one of those stores and I remember thinking that that’s the type of people keeping those places in business. People that don’t know any better and have the money to spend.

absolutely. out here in new jersey and the philly area the whole sneaker industry is propped up by rich suburban kids. The owner of my company's grandson whos actually a really down to earth guy in person is my age but easily has over $100k in sneakers including shoes like the air mags. also has about half a mil in cars at any given point lol hes my age (early 30s) but far from unique

 

[danikerhino]

Everyone is going for high fashion these days. Even Supreme is kinda settling down.

 

[kickvicisous]

Never knew Footlocker bought them but was aware of the merger with UBIQ. For some reason I feel like this is happening just so Footlocker can drive more business to their stores directly and can see them doing this to other "boutiques".

It might be my age but I'm just over resale in general at this point. Respect to the originators but Round Two's success birthed WAY too many knockoffs. This is in regards resale store talk.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

Everyone is going for high fashion these days. Even Supreme is kinda settling down.

supreme has a lane though and i think its staying there.

theres room for neighborhood boutique style shops, kith does it well, as does union los angelus, and the a ma manierre shops. its the corporate pushes that seem to be messing everything up.

 

[Beruseruku Desu]

Atmos AM 1 still top 3 AM ever