STREEThing

Warp (wôrp) - To turn aside from a true, correct, or natural course; go astray.

Even before walking into the store, you’d find yourself greeted by 4 revolving panels filled with some of the worlds most talked about and most rare sneakers. Upon entering, you’d almost be blinded by rows after rows of sneakers from brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok and Vans. But what sets this store apart from the rest of the same league is the obscure juxtaposition of housing not just some of the most expensive sought after sneakers like the Nike “What The Dunk” SB, which is a crazy concoction of all the popular dunk SB’s ever released or an Italian made Nike Air Force 1 handcrafted in crocodile leather, to the cheapest models one can’t find elsewhere except maybe in flea markets.

As its name suggests, many of the store’s embellishments are a little peculiar. From the obscure mirrors, the deliberate makeshift card holder in the form of an ash tray, the use animal heads to the vintage phone, which the staff will have you know, is fully functional.

YOU SET THE PRICE, THEY SELL YOUR SHOE
All this however, isn’t what the sneaker store at Far East Plaza is about. Beneath the façade of selling sneakers, apparel and toys, it ideally runs as a sneaker consignment store which, interesting as it sounds, has a lot of the sneakers put in store to sell by customers, for customers. Being the first of its kind in Singapore and possibly in South East Asia, Warped’s unique selling point is in the fact that it helps anyone sell their rare, mint condition shoes at a price based on their discretion as well as the staff’s recommendations. Think of it as selling them online only it’s far more tangible. Slowly gaining awareness, Warped is seeing itself as an avenue for sneakerheads to reach out by putting their collections up for sale. For the consumer who comes in never knowing what to find and the consignee who gains from the money he makes, it’s a win-win situation.

Warped Singapore, 14 Scotts Road, #03-119 Far East Plaza, Singapore 228213

More Warped after the Jump

KICKS AND MORE

Deeper into the store and contrasting itself with the main floor is another dimension that manifests the store’s concept by injecting fun and humor and guaranteeing to capture all 5 of the human senses. After reflections have been skewed, noses tickled, taste buds teased and what not, one would then notice that housed in this enclave are the store’s most prized Nike Air Force 1 Lux, toys from KidRobot, apparel from the likes of Nike SB, KidRobot, mhi by Maharishi and KiksTyo. Sinful to not mention, the latter’s range of tees have blatant amounts of designs from the Aki Hoshino collection that has the Japanese soft porn star eye-pleasingly printed on them.

KIDROBOT
One of the store’s key highlights is KidRobot, world’s leading creator of limited edition art toys and apparel. ‘Many KidRobot products feature unique collaborations with famous artists from backgrounds of graffiti, fine art, industrial design, graphic design, illustration and music’. On November 10 this year, Warped launched exclusively 3 pairs of sneakers that KidRobot and Lacoste collaborated on.

THE WARPED FUTURE
As Warped continues to evolve with the consumer in mind, their team of scouts constantly scours the globe for the most sought after kicks and apparel and to always keep their customers in the loop. With the help of greater public awareness, they aim to have the most extensive range of sneakers in Asia.

To kickstart 2008, the multi-label boutique will start their own apparel line to reflect their concept, ideas and interests and convey them in the only way they know how to-the Warped way.