Solemart Berlin 2012

Another year brings us another Solemart event here in Berlin; considerably Germany’s first choice gathering for picking up that holy grail you’ve been after for years. This year though, things get shook up a bit as brands adidas and PUMA (among others) step in by installing their own product rooms and showing off their new goods.

Over here at eatmoreshoes we not only hit the event and snapped some shots but we climbed into Solebox’s HQ and hit up the ‘Hausmeister’, Hikmet, to get the 411 on the man and motives behind the event.

Hey Hikmet, thanks for joining us for a quick chat. Tell us, what’s your background as a sneaker-interested person yourself?

Easy one. I made my passion into my profession. I started as a kid to collect my milk money to buy me trainers. In my school days I worked summertime to buy trainers. So it was a long way…

Livin’ the dream! And how did you start Solemart?

We wanted to give something back to the community. Many people know each other from the internet through sneaker forums like sneaker.tv and CrookedTongues. We wanted to do the analog version of the internet. An analog version of eBay and sneaker forum, so we created Solemart. By the way, it’s also the first sneaker market in Germany!

Quite impressive, yet cool to hear the humble background story behind Solemart. So for you, what made this year’s Solemart in Berlin different from the past?

We always try to do it a bit different. But this time it was really huge. More than 1500 people came in from all over Europe to check out Solemart. Next time we need a bigger location and a bigger entrance.

Seriously. Agreed. So was this the first time adidas and PUMA got directly involved?

adidas and PUMA supported us already before with Solemart. But like Solemart itself, we’re all growing together and getting it to be a bigger thing.

Can you describe the layout of the event?

We had two floors in a historic German building. First floor was for the brands: adidas, Puma, Reebok, and Supra, and some shops like WoodWood, Again.st, HHV, and more. The second floor was packed with private sellers with lots of sneaker heat. So it was a house full of rooms with sneakers to explore.

No doubt it’s a team effort then! Now, for future Solemarts (here in Berlin and elsewhere) how can people get involved?

Best is to check our blog (http://blog.solebox.de) and our Solebox Facebook Page. We always set up a Facebook Event too to reach more people.

Lastly, any words about the event or hints about future plans?

Enjoy your life! And go out and have some fun…

Cheers Hikmet, thank you again for taking some time to holler at eatmoreshoes, we look forward to the next event!

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by Jeremy Pierce-Mayer