Chris Kyvetos's sneaking success

CHRIS Kyvetos sells high-fashion sneakers in an innovative model that blends a physical store with the efficiency of the internet.

The sleek, polished concrete cave of Sneakerboy in Melbourne acts as a showroom for covetable sneakers that are sent from Hon...

A TRANSPARENT oculus blinks open, inviting customers into a sleek cave of pumping hip-hop and luxury kicks of the kind that would make even Kanye West want to whip out his black Amex. It's a veritable jewellery box of bling; brushed gold plackets, quilted velvet tongues, metallic eyelets, patent leather toe caps, shark-tooth zips, Swarovski panels, embossed leather collars, customised two-tone rubber soles and crocodile straps.

Evidently, this isn't your local Foot Locker. Welcome to Sneakerboy - a premium sneaker store with no till, no fixed point of sale and no on-site inventory. The brains behind the fashion-tech start-up is Melbourne-born Chris Kyvetos, who is credited with "pioneering a luxury retail revolution" by industry website The Business of Fashion.

A tall, black-clad Kyvetos cuts an intimidating figure as he emerges from the polished concrete portal on Melbourne's Little Bourke Street, but appearances can be deceptive and the softly spoken 30-year-old is reserved, though eloquently versed in fashion know-how.

Merging bricks and mortar with e-commerce functionality, Sneakerboy is an online store that you can walk into, applauded for its omni-channel capabilities that benefit both consumer and retailer. "Why pay thousands per square metre when you can basically pay zero? Sneakerboy is about maximising retail space with online efficiency. We only use 77sqm of our 80sqm of shop floor and carry over 300 skews of shoes with a back area of 3m," Kyvetos says. "Products are dispatched from our logistics centre in Hong Kong, which enables us to maintain prime local real estate for the convenience of consumers who still value interaction and retail tangibility."

Karson Stimson, director of WeAreDigital and vice-president of the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, says Sneakerboy's model is innovative on several levels. "Customers can opt to shop entirely online or alternatively experience the physical retail environment where they can try on samples and make purchases in store via integrated iPads or on their own device at their leisure. It is a true mobile commerce experience. Gone are the days of brand dictatorship - customers now hold the purchasing power in their hands, which is how any good consumer-centric retail strategy should work. There's no doubt that the seamless integration of digital and physical platforms will be adopted, in some form, by brands and businesses in the near future."

Selling the new-age concept of Sneakerboy to the world's biggest fashion houses sounds no mean feat, but they say you should never judge a man until you've walked in his $1241 Rick Owens high-top Ramones, and Kyvetos has done some serious miles in his. A luxury buyer since the age of 17, he has a keen eye that was instrumental in forming Melbourne's avant-garde Assin boutique followed by his role as creative director at luxury men's emporium Harrolds.

While Kyvetos's little black book got the ball rolling, he wasted no time pitching to chief executive level in some cases. "I'd never had to do that before," he says. "My first appointment at a prominent French fashion house said: 'We don't supply start-ups. We don't do first seasons. And we would never sell a single category.' We currently stock that brand," says the self-proclaimed "kid in the Nikes who has never owned a pair of dress shoes in his life".

Overall, the feedback has been tremendous and, in celebration of the September launch, Sneakerboy was given worldwide exclusivity for some limited-edition lines: Maison Martin Margiela's "pony skin high tops"; Kris Van Assche's "running shoe"; Giuseppe Zanotti's "horn high top"; Balmain's "biker boot" (otherwise only available at the brand's Paris flagship). "They offered it to me. I wish I'd thought of that stuff," he laughs humbly. "But these are all people I've known for over a decade; we've built up a mutual trust. I guess I've just become desensitised to the whole intimidation thing."

Simon "Woody" Wood, Sneaker Freaker magazine's founder and editor, has noticed a huge rise in the market for luxury sneakers. "It can partly be attributed to how hip-hop has embraced European brands," he says. "Kanye West is the modern prototype, having designed shoes for both Nike and Louis Vuitton. The popularity of his personal swagger has played a huge role in the mash-up of street and high fashion." Kyvetos first noticed whispers of the "sneaker thing" as far back as 2004 when Hedi Slimane sent Jordan Askill, his young Australian design assistant, down the runway in Dior's "revolutionary" Classique sneakers. "What he did in those years reshaped the entire industry. It broke the rules of the fashion establishment," says Kyvetos, who got to experience it up close and personal as the main buyer of Dior from beginning to end in Australia.

Continuing to stamp its vision of rebellious luxury on the Australian market, Sneakerboy will debut on December 12 at a new shop in the Sydney CBD.