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Mainstreet
Initially born as the offspring of Pune based entrepreneur Vedant Lamba’s fascination with culture and acumen for business, the Mainstreet collective, 3 years since its inception has blossomed into a cohesive community, fostering the growth of sneaker & streetwear culture in India. Nurtured upon the salient pillars of accessibility and awareness, the duality in Mainstreet’s approach to community building are what set its impressive sneaker roster and exclusive culture-centric content apart.
“Growing up, I was always driven by the curation and business aspect of things. My focus has always been towards studying what moves culture and devising solutions to plug market gaps in awareness and accessibility” quotes Vedant. “Since the beginning, Mainstreet has been less about my love for sneakers and more about my yearning to create a sanctuary for sneaker-heads and hype-wear aficionados country-wide” he explains.
“It all began with a pair of pricey addidas shoes I got a peep at on a friend’s snapchat story. While the shoes were a steal, what truly roped me in wasn’t their price tag or designer look. It was the back-story, significance, and their long-standing market value that led me to spy their true potential” recounts Vedant, breaking down the chain of events that spurred his foray into streetwear and sneaker resale. This discovery sparked Vedant’s newfound interest in the 21st century’s burgeoning sneaker culture, leading him to explore elusive tapestries of the industry and its rich culture-imbued history.
“Sneakers are so much more than just shoes. Buying the right kind is like investing in stock; except what makes sneakers special, is the unique significance they have in lives of collectors, sneaker-heads. No two people will have the exact same collection or preference when it comes to buying high-end pairs. An individual’s purchase patterns are dictated either by their aesthetic preference, sentimental connection to the shoe or a market-savvy reseller’s prediction of a sneaker’s value, often dictate trends.” Explain Vedant, demystifying the hefty price tag that accompanies most high-end shoes.
He goes on to articulate how akin to investing in shares, stock or start-up businesses, collecting sneakers or reselling professionally also requires years of studying brands and past releases while factoring in a pair’s availability and market performance of the shoe’s precursors.
While all of this may seem complex to the average Joe, the sneaker resale industry is an open market, welcoming to newcomers with a willingness to devote their time to researching trends and assimilating a strong network.
The genesis of Mainstreet Marketplace
Created in line with the brand’s foremost pillar devoted to bolstering Sneaker & hype-wear accessibility nationally, Mainstreet marketplace is India’s only cohesive, well-knit, and critically acclaimed platform for sneaker resale. Impetus is laid upon identifying current consumer needs, setting up a gateway for purchase and cataloging coveted, in-demand products for users to choose from. A safe haven of sorts for sneakerheads, traders and culture-vultures alike, Mainstreet’s retail model boasts two channels. While the online store vertical offers enthusiasts access to shop the rarest sneakers and high-fashion at the swipe of their fingertips; its physical store in Bandra, Mumbai is quickly evolving into a melting-pot of culture.
Marketplace also holds raffles for high-end sneakers regularly; a lottery of sorts, raffles give sneakerheads an opportunity to win coveted pairs at measly prices. A game of chance, raffles connect enthusiasts to rare pieces, most of which go out of stock within a matter of minutes since their release. An opportunity for enthusiasts and collectors to cop their favourite pair, large-scale raffles create a certain excitement and network-building opportunity among sneakerheads.
Having held some of India’s largest sneaker raffles in the past, Mainstreet recently held the single largest raffle featuring a pair of ‘Air Diors | Dior x Air Jordan Lows’ as the grand prize. The shoe valued at nearly 12 lakh INR was put on raffle, only to be won by a certain ticket holder that entered the raffle having paid a measly sum of 999.
MainstreetTV
Marketplace’s cultural-driven collateral is MainstreetTV. Defined by its 3 verticals, video, editorial, and social, MainstreetTV aims to encapsulate the cultural-zeitgeist surrounding sneakers and high-end fashion using YouTube, Instagram and its eponymous website as mediums for content-curation.
Its distinct verticals encompass every niche of streetwear, sneakers and pop-culture. While its YouTube channel offers behind the scene footage from sneaker-launches to exclusive podcasts with notable comedians like Tanmay Bhat, sneakerheads like Karan Khatri and Harshvardhan Kapoor; its social and online channels keep the Mainstreet community up to date with the latest scoops on pop-culture, sneaker drops, releases, and other globe-turning announcements.
The collective’s two collaterals, Marketplace and MainstreetTV work in synergy to drive conversation around sneakers and inspire a change in people’s perception towards sneakers and their significance in culture. The brand’s ethos is to promote inclusivity in sneaker culture, by replacing gate-keeping norms and demystifying sneaker culture’s enigmatic trends. Mainstreet aims to work in coalescence with sneaker heads, designers, retailers and creators from around the country to foster a growth in the industry’s presence nation-wide.
Marketplace’s Mumbai store
“I moved to Bombay two years ago; looking for an opportunity to set up shop. While my initial plan was always to set up a physical store in Bombay, it didn’t come without its share of problems. In the beginning I struggled to pay rent, so I had to juggle between multiple businesses and online retail to actually become financially self-sufficient.” Shares Vedant as he recollects the bumpy roller-coaster of highs and lows his journey towards opening up an actual physical store in Mumbai has been.
“Once I had my feet firmly in the ground, I began striving towards remodeling what our Pune story had been. The vibe, look, and offering of the Bombay store had to be an accurate representation of everything Mainstreet was about. The store’s physical space had to instill a sense of community and togetherness among sneakerheads and fashion-enthusiasts.” explains Vedant.
Mainstreet marketplace’s Mumbai store opened just a couple months ago, around the end of July as COVID restrictions grew relaxed. The store’s opening also brought with it the exciting news of a 4-week long Jaywalking pop-up at its Bandra sneaker store. While one end of the store had exotic, luxury footwear on display, the other end had racks displaying Jaywalking’s exclusive catalog.
A culmination of all the years Vedant and his compatriots spent studying sneaker culture, their experience retailing hype-wear online and their growth past the setbacks they’d met with during their Pune store’s brief run, Mainstreet Marketplace’s grand Mumbai store was slated to open on the 20th of March. Until COVID-19 cast its shadows and foiled their launch plans, things looked bright for the collective that had already planned an exciting ‘stupid fifty sale’ to allow enthusiasts to cop hype-wear products at ridiculously reasonable prices. An all-night camping arrangement leading up to the store’s grand day launch was also part of their initial plan.
Vedant’s new team, an ensemble of creators, sneakerheads, designers, and writers, knew how to deal with the uncertainty lockdown had brought. They shifted operations online up until the end of July, when lockdown was restricted and Mainstreet procured the necessary permissions to re-open.
Its fresh August opening in harmony with Jaywalking’s exclusive two week pop-up at their store’s physical space proved to be a blessing, as it drew massive attention from fashion bloggers, influencers and streetwear fanatics from around the city. Culture-vultures and sneakerheads alike flocked to the store, which felt less like a retail outlet and more like a safe-space for them to get together in a spirit of mutual taste and communion.
“Our store’s focus is not purely on sales. Like other high-fashion retailers we don’t profile visitors based on whether we think they may shop our products or not. Whether you’re a potential buyer, an actual sneakerhead or simply someone willing to explore, our door will always be open. Its heart-warming observing people who’ve supported us since day one, walk in every other day, bring friends, socialize, and just have a good time with us. We don’t care as much about maximizing profits as we do about building a well-knit community. We’re in it for the long haul” elaborates Vedant on the kind of vibe Mainstreet aims to create.
What’s next from Mainstreet
Working tirelessly towards upscaling their business, improving their logistic reach to be able to serve consumers globally, Mainstreet has some juicy updates for sneakerheads to look forward too.
Mainstreet’s ‘Metro card’ is one of the brand’s most exciting offerings till date. The metro card is a membership card that gives holders exclusive access to sneaker drops at outrageously discounted prices, special mandates, and first preference every time marketplace announces an exciting sale or raffle. “While raffles are exciting, they can unfortunately have only one winner. Hence every time a raffle is held, out of the 100 people that enter, 99 are left disappointed. While every person entering the raffle does so having weighed in the odds, we wanted to make sure that no one entering a raffle feels like they lost anything at all. Hence we came up with the metro card offering, where card holders entering any raffle get their entry ticket’s price converted to live store credits that they can redeem when shopping for sneakers.” Explains Vedant, who shares his excitement on this new venture.
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