Stadium Goods

Thursday October 15th, 2015 – It’s 6:30PM and I find myself strolling through the busy streets of SoHo with a couple takeout bags from Eddie Huang‘s BaoHaus and David Chang‘s Fuku. I grabbed all of my food to go so that the walk from East Village to SoHo would be more enjoyable, taking bites as I people watch walking down 1st Avenue.

My trips to SoHo typically consist of going through every street and alleyway in the area that is encapsulated by Houston Street, 6th Avenue, Canal Street, and Crosby Street. The varying types of businesses and individuals that are seen throughout the area can be quite interesting but I always find myself going to the same set of spots that I have grown to love in my numerous visits: Opening Ceremony and NikeLab at 21 Mercer to name a few.

As I’m doing my walkthrough, I turn onto Howard Street from Lafayette Street and notice a large crowd outside what seemed to be a shop opening. As I’m walking towards the crowd, it struck me that Stadium Goods was holding their grand opening party that night. The crowd that I saw from a distance were attempting to see OG heads, the likes of of DJ Clark Kent & Just Blaze, and I told myself that I will be back the next day.

If you’ve been apart of this industry for a bit, you might have heard of one of the owners of Stadium Goods, Yu-Ming Wu. If you have gone through sites such as Sneaker News, Freshness Mag, Jordans Daily or have ever attended a SneakerCon event, you should be thanking this man. He’s well-known within the community as an individual with great vision, evidenced by his great success in the internet sneaker era. He’s the epitome of what many bloggers strive to be, with his ability to transform his love of the culture into initial success through websites and publications, then following with a brick & mortar consignment shop.

Whether you want to buy sneakers or sell sneakers, Stadium Goods has something for you. Their storefront located on Howard is the location where customers can come in, look at the selection, and purchase items whereas their storefront located on Canal is where people can come to sell their sneakers for consignment purposes. They have done an amazing job of making both of their locations very accessible as they are in the same block between Mercer and Broadway.

After seeing what was happening at Stadium Goods on Thursday night, I knew that I must go there and check out the new shop before I leave the city. I started my Friday morning with breakfast at Russ & Daughters then proceeded to SoHo relatively early in order to miss the larger crowds. After breakfast, Stadium Goods was actually the first store I stopped by as I was excited to see a new consignment shop in NYC that might be able to compete with the notorious Flight Club. Don’t get me wrong, I have never had a bad experience at Flight Club, however my experience at Stadium Goods far exceeded my expectations.

I walked into the shop and loved seeing the clean layout along with the displays that were all fully visible from the entrance. I was greeted by numerous friendly employees but the fact that so many employees greeted me with enthusiasm as well as not making me feel rushed to make a purchase decision. Especially as a first-time customer in the shop, I needed the time to look through the selection and it proved to be quite beneficial. Their display walls had so many gems that I did know where to start as they had a great variety of styles, brands and price points. The store also has numerous display cases holding many of the rarer and pricier items which had most customers wishing they had one pair inside the case. After browsing through the walls and cases, I found a pair that I had been wanting for over a year: the Capsule Toronto x New Balance MT580 “Canadian Tuxedo”.

I would like to thank everyone at Stadium Goods that made me feel so welcome, in addition to the amazing price on the shoes! After my purchase, I proceeded to chat with a few of the employees as they invited me to stay longer and just hang out. It’s safe to say that I have been to my fair share of sneaker shops but this has to be one of my favourite experiences, hands down. For those planning a visit to New York City, I would suggest adding Stadium Goods to your itinerary.