Solebox

Solebox was founded in Berlin in 2002 by brothers Hikmet and Suekret Sugoer with the goal of bringing rare, hard-to-find sneakers into the European market. The store built its reputation through exclusive collaborations with major athletic brands including New Balance, Adidas, Reebok and Puma, and grew from a single Berlin boutique into a multi-city retailer with locations across Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Munich, Paris and Vienna.

Its Berlin flagship, redesigned in 2014, is notable for an automated retrieval system nicknamed 'Solebot' — a robot able to pick sneaker boxes from warehouse shelving and deliver them to staff on the sales floor, a physical detail that distinguishes the store's format from a standard sneaker boutique.

Solebox continues to be known within sneaker culture for limited releases and brand collaborations rather than general athletic retail, positioning it closer to a specialist collector shop than a mainstream chain.