Highsnobiety sold streetwear off its own authority for six years — never made money

On September 23, 2025, Business of Fashion reported that Highsnobiety — the streetwear and youth-culture media platform majority-owned by Zalando — would shut down its e-commerce division by the end of the year and cut about 50 of its 275 jobs, on top of 24 layoffs announced the week before.

Highsnobiety launched its shop in 2019, betting that the cultural authority it had built through editorial coverage of sneakers and streetwear could convert directly into product sales — the same audience that trusted its taste would buy what it curated. Founder David Fischer told BoF plainly of the division: 'We never made any money.'

The company said it would refocus its remaining resources on editorial content and on the creative and consulting services it sells to brands, retreating to the two businesses that had actually supported the platform's 20-year run, and leaving e-commerce as the one arm that had never carried its own weight.