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German fashion and beauty e-tailer Zalando is acquiring a majority stake in Highsnobiety, a streetwear news and e-commerce site headquartered in Berlin and with offices globally, for an undisclosed sum.
Highsnobiety’s founder and CEO David Fischer will retain a minority stake, and continue to lead the business with president and COO Juergen Hopfgartner.
“Highsnobiety has mastered the art of turning stories into products and products into stories. I am very excited to bring our capabilities to Zalando's commitment towards fashion inspiration and together reimagine the future of content and commerce,” a statement from Fischer reads. “Equally, I am thrilled to tap into Zalando’s unrivalled expertise in scaling e-commerce platforms and bring my lifetime’s passion work to the next level.”
Highsnobiety will act as a strategic and creative consultant to Zalando, offering “cultural relevance and insight” and helping it to develop new inspiration-focused spaces and formats on its platform, the companies said. Meanwhile, Zalando will provide retail know-how and operational capabilities to fuel Highsnobiety’s own e-commerce.
Highsnobiety has been focused on converting readers into customers. In May 2022, it signed a joint venture deal with travel retail giant Gebr Heinemann with the goal of opening permanent stores at airports, Vogue Business exclusively reported. It’s an ambitious project, with three more global retail openings in the works for 2022.
Fischer told Vogue Business that his ambition is for retail to account for as much as 30 to 40 per cent of Highsnobiety's client services business by 2025.
Founded in 2005, Highsnobiety launched e-commerce in May 2019. The online store features collaborations and drops with luxury and streetwear brands, including Prada, as well as Highsnobiety’s private label, launched last year.
Following the success of its pop-up concept store Gate Zero, streetwear publisher Highsnobiety has signed a joint venture deal with travel retail giant Gebr Heinemann with the goal of opening permanent stores at airports. Vogue Business has the exclusive details.
Fischer says the e-commerce business is still smaller than client services but “growing very fast”. Under Zalando, Highsnobiety will retain its editorial independence, with creative agency work remaining fully autonomous and management structure unchanged, according to the companies.
“Both of our companies share a passion for building strong brand partnerships and enabling brands to inspire audiences with their products and stories,” says Zalando’s Schneider. “Partnering with Highsnobiety will allow us to execute much faster on our ambition to offer the most relevant and engaging — as well as convenient — shopping experience to our customers.”
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