Kelowna residents are ‘hyped’ about the city’s newest retail store.
The Hype Kelowna, located at 543 Bernard Avenue opened on May 22 to a line up of people halfway down the block excited to get their hands on rare shoes and merchandise.
Owners Damon Sumner and Kade Holodniuk had a vision of what they wanted to open, but they never imagined the early success in their first week.
“It was wild to say the least,” said Sumner about the store’s opening day, adding that they “didn’t expect at all” the massive lineup.
They estimate 400-500 people came through the store on the first day trying to be the first to get their hands on new Nikes or Supreme items. With that kind of success, they’ve heard nothing but great things from the community so far.
“It’s been great,” said Sumner. “We’ve got lots of positive feedback and lots of people coming in just to check out shoes they’ve never seen before.”
After collecting sneakers for the last few years and learning from people they follow and are friends with in the industry, they knew they wanted to open their own store and the opportunity came up at the beginning of the year.
“We have been into sneakers for four or five years now and the opportunity arose early this year where Kade found this spot, and it took off from there,” said Sumner.
They put the store together in just three weeks as they got the keys on May 1.
This type of retail store is the first of its kind in Kelowna, one of the reasons why they were so motivated to open.
“It’s huge for the city,” said Sumner. “We’ve had countless people come in and say ‘the city needs this.’ Its definitely a big part of the city right now.”
The Hype is locked into their location for two years.
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