Kikikickz sold rare sneakers at the peak of the boom — then the boom ended

Kikikickz started in early 2020 in the dining room of a Paris apartment, where founder Kilian Dris and four friends sold rare, new sneakers with an authentication process that checked everything from the original box to fonts, materials and smell. In its first year it sold more than 20,000 pairs for over €1M of volume, and in 2021 it opened a 500-square-metre showroom at Place de Valois. By 2022 the company ran about fifty staff and claimed 4,000 transactions a month.

The numbers turned against the model. Filed accounts showed a net profit of €39,400 in 2021, then a €5M net loss in 2022 with €1.57M of financial debt — for a company that had always run on its own funds. By mid-2023 it was looking for a buyer; Dutch platform Restocks moved to acquire it for several million euros — and then Restocks itself was declared bankrupt in November 2023.

Kikikickz asked the Paris commercial court for protection, blaming in its own words the failure of its principal shareholder, but the court ordered liquidation judiciaire by a judgment of November 14, 2023. Customers took to social media over cancelled orders and refunds announced but never sent; the company's last emails pointed claimants to a lawyer. At its peak the platform had generated close to €20M of activity.

In April 2024, rival Wethenew — which had passed on buying Kikikickz while it was still solvent, judging the price too high — acquired the liquidated platform's intangible assets: the site, its social accounts and a database of 1.5 million contacts. No debts and no team came with the deal. The two collapses, months apart, marked the end of the first wave of European drop-resale platforms.