Novelship Redefines the Resale Market of Limited Edition Sneakers and Streetwear in SEA

In the 21st century, sneakers have become a closet commodity with a thriving resale market. We’ve seen prices of limited edition sneakers skyrocketing as people try to get their hands on the most popular and rarest pieces in the industry. In 2020, the sneaker resale market was estimated to be worth US$2 billion. With its high demand, it’s no surprise that consumers are eagerly seeking the best deals to cop their favourite sneakers.

Enter Novelship, a fast-growing e-commerce marketplace focused on limited edition sneakers and premium streetwear. Starting out on Carousell, a local e-commerce app, Singaporean founders and fellow sneakerheads Richard Xia and Chris Xue turned their passion for sneakers into a business venture in Southeast Asia in October 2018. The duo conceived the company after a late-night brainstorming discussion. Novelship was then formed with the words “Novel” and “ship” to reference the company’s mission to ship originality to its customers.

From a bootstrapped startup to an e-retail paradise, Novelship grew exponentially with over 40,000 customers tied to its name within its first two years. More recently, the business achieved its first US$1 million (approx. S$1.3 million) monthly revenue milestone despite the recent impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. On top of that, Novelship also recently made a successful debut in the Indonesian market.

Novelship strives to set itself apart from other resale platforms, like Carousell and GOAT, from regional and international shores by using authentication as its ultimate trump card for local competition. The brand stands out from global retailers by delivering a variety of sneakers and streetwear pieces to the Asian market.

To ensure their customers receive high-quality products, Novelship takes the extra care to authenticate each piece before shipping them out. The company also understands that some customers might not be able to keep their sneakers in their homes due to storage restrictions. That is why Novelship is offering their storage system, where customers are able to store their sneakers in sky-high shoeboxes before the orders are ready for delivery.

Novelship takes pride in their robust and professional authentication process. The company has enlisted every staff from their operations team to professionally authenticate each piece that comes their way before delivering them to their customers. To date, Novelship takes honour in themselves for never shipping out a single inauthentic item to their customers. This is a huge feat as Novelship transacts about 100 pairs of shoes per day. Novelship predicts the number will triple or quadruple during the holiday seasons as they expect buyer-heavy markets like Australia and New Zealand to enter their e-commerce space.

As Novelship continues to grow in the resale market, it brings great joy for the Saltine team to have them featured in great publications such as Harper’s BAZAAR, The Peak, FEMALE, Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore and NUYOU in Singapore as well as Yahoo Indonesia, Fashion Daily Indonesia, The Shonet, Merah Putih and The Indonesia Times.

Saltine Communications is proud to be the PR agency in partnership with Novelship in 2021. Drop us a message at hello@saltinecomms.com to find out how we can get your brand onto the media at affordable rates.