Sneakers Unplugged, Germany's sustainable-sneaker bet, folds after five years

Sneakers Unplugged started in 2020 as a Cologne retail concept built on a specific bet: that sneaker shoppers would pay for sustainability. Founded by Reya and Christian Ohm, it grew beyond pop-up stores in Köln, Berlin and Düsseldorf into three permanent shops — Cologne, Düsseldorf and Münster — stocked with sneakers pitched on ecological credentials rather than hype.

The bet ran into the market. As the founders described it, persistent consumer restraint, the growing weight of online retail, a high propensity to save and an increasingly critical attitude toward sustainability themes all worked against them at once. Continuing the small company, they said, had become impossible both economically and personally.

Sales ended on December 20, 2025, and operations stopped at the end of the year. After five years, all three stores were gone; the founders said the online shop and the brand's rights could still be transferred to an interested buyer — the assets of the idea, if not the idea's stores.