According to a 2022 thredup report, the global secondhand apparel market is projected to grow by up to 127% once we hit 2026 and what that means, if you’re considering the copping of sneakers, means that you’re going to want to start a holy grail list of the flyest kicks you’ve been eyeing for a while.
One man, however, and his name is Gijs Verheike (also, the CEO of Ox Street), has already had his eyes on bringing recommerce to life and quite literally, to the streets. Here, he tells us more about the brand.
Hi Gijs! Can you describe what you do for a living in 10 words?
Empower my team and make myself as redundant as possible.
Would you describe yourself as a sneakerhead?
Yes. I got into sneakers when I was around 10 years old. A classmate showed up at school wearing Nike Air Max, and the visible air bubble, with the concept of actually walking on air, was just too good to be true for a boy my age.
So, ever since I’ve had an interest in sneakers and tend to accumulate too many of them wherever I live.
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When did this love for shoes, and eventually all things street culture, start?
With regard to shoes, I answered above. With street culture, I think it’s a bit more of a combination of things. I have definitely always been a bit of an aesthete. I like nice things and interesting stories. Also, I would say my passion for music is probably more important to me than sneakers or street culture ever were. And there’s a huge intersection of music and street culture.
There is so much interest in street culture. It’s an endless rabbit hole with new things to discover.
You were previously a private equity investor and start-up launcher with Rocket Internet. What led you to build Ox Street?
In retrospect, it’s very easy to draw a direct line. I learned the theory of business during my Finance Masters and in my first job in Private Equity. But I wanted to be ‘in the field’, instead of on the sidelines, so I knew I wanted to start building companies instead of only investing in them. I also wanted to broaden my horizon and see the world. So I joined Rocket Internet and moved to Bangladesh.
In the following years, I built and led startups all over Asia, in Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In the meantime, I was trying to buy sneakers in Asia and it wasn’t a good experience so I decided to try and solve some of the problems I encountered.
What about Southeast Asia’s sneaker community then made you see potential in creating this marketplace?
To be honest, initially, it was more about just trying to improve the experience of buying sneakers. It was hard to find what I wanted, and there are lots of fakes in the market. I’ve definitely learned a lot about the community since then. It’s a vibrant community with lots of interesting stories still to be discovered.
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What about Singapore specifically? Do you think this could be the region’s street culture hub? Why or why not?
Singapore has a pretty unique cultural identity in my opinion. It is the most intersectional between Western and Asian cultures of any place I know, and that definitely gives it a shot at being a hub. On the other hand, I do feel it is somewhat held back by its success. Singapore is not known to be very lenient toward street art, so the art that is there is usually actively commissioned.
Most content created is on the safer side. As an ‘expat’ in Singapore, it’s also easy to be drawn into a kind of bubble of atas restaurants and bars.
And I think that goes for most demographic groups. I have to make a conscious effort to take a different turn often enough and keep broadening my horizon. The scenes are there, you just have to really actively look for them. So I hope some of the more forward-looking and original creators and projects will be able to get more exposure and appreciation in the future.
What kind of marketplace do you hope for Ox Street to be?
Known for having a unique take on why you should care. Where people look for inspiration apart from just a place to buy. And most importantly, as the undisputed leader in used sneakers.
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What are your thoughts about the recommerce trend in general? It’s more than just shoes now; it’s fashion as a whole. How do you think this movement, with environmental concerns in mind, will shake up the fashion industry as a whole?
Definitely! I’m a huge promoter of this trend. Fashion has a massive problem with waste and overproduction, and second-hand is helping provide different options. The shift has already happened in younger generations that used fashion and shoes are no longer something dirty or shameful, and that is the first step.
So growing adoption is just around the corner.
With Carousell backing Ox Street, second-hand has become much more of a priority, and we are the only regional marketplace in APAC that supports buying and selling Authenticated Used Sneakers.
What has being in all these industries taught you about business, the growth of a culture, and life?
Wow, that’s a huge question! Most of all I’m very grateful to have a seat at the front row of some enormous changes happening. The e-commerce trend, the general resale trend in fashion, and some of the changes in channel mix on the marketing side, like iOS privacy features, the re-anonymization of the internet and the refragmentation of social media with TikTok, Discord and even games taking over from Facebook.
I’m also very grateful to have been able to build Ox Street so far and to partner with Carousell. There were many times when it could have failed to take off, and I’ve made many mistakes along the way that taught me valuable lessons. So I have learned a lot in all domains.
I will leave on a quote: “If you don’t look back at yourself and think ‘Wow, how stupid I was a year or two ago,’ then you must not have learned much in the last year or two” — Ray Dalio.
If you could share, what is your most prized pair of sneakers? What’s the story behind it?
There are a few that come to mind and it’s hard to choose just one. But if I had to, I’ll go for the Off-White x Air Jordan 2 ‘White Varsity Red’. It was the last Off-White x Nike collaboration released while Virgil Abloh was still alive, and the release also coincided closely with the time when Ox Street was acquired by Carousell.
So that pair has a lot of cultural meaning, as well as a lot of personal meaning for me and memories contained in it.
How about a sneaker you have with the most interesting backstory; be it how you got your hands on it or where it came from?
I will go for the pair of Air Jordan 1 ‘Turbo Green’ that I bought on Carousell in 2019. It was a pair that I bought through a reseller, and I had to wait at the MRT station for the seller to show up. After buying it and bringing it home I made the mistake of watching more youtube videos on how to authenticate it and spent about 30 minutes super worried that I had bought a fake because a tiny detail looked a bit off.
It luckily turned out to be real, but that harrowing experience led me directly to starting Ox Street.
Last but not least, what song best describes what you are feeling these days?
I’m not a person who listens to lyrics so I chose an instrumental song: Digby Jones’s — Sunday Brunch. It means to me just to relax and take the future as it is. It’s uncertain times ahead but that doesn’t mean we have to spend today worrying.
I’m trying to be more present at the moment.
Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up on our November 2022 issue!
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