Sneaker-Marmalade
Welcome to the Sneaker Culture
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
6 Allée du Carmel, 1354
Email: sneakers@sneaker-marmalade.com
- Category: Culture, Fashion, Streetwear
- Periodicity: Quarterly
- Language: French / English
- Format: 230 x 280 mm
- Price: Free
- Web: http://www.sneaker-marmalade.com
Founded in 2005 - No longer published
Exclusive Interview
Our first issue took us a whole year
What is your magazine about?
Sneaker-marmalade is a magazine about sneakers and their culture. Today, nobody can deny the role they play in fashion, medias and of course in everybody’s dressing-room. We have dedicated sneaker-marmalade to all curious and open-minded people.
What justifies the existence of the magazine and gives it credibility is the sneaker: to inform on new releases, to detect new tendencies and designs, to realize flash-backs and historic researches on key-pairs, to help connoisseurs in their approach.
Of course, sneaker spirit is a state of mind. That is why we talk about diverse subjects in an alternative way: urban cultures, literature, fashion, music, photography, graphic design… with the following shibboleth: “stay fresh and entertain”.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Gregory Kulus. Chief Editor of sneaker-marmalade and financial business consultant in a parallel life. Born and raised in Paris, before working and living in Luxembourg, where I discovered my partner, Runa. Always had a passion for sneakers and magazines. My encounter with Runa was a revelation to me. You know the result, our baby… sneaker-marmalade.
Runa Egilsdottir. Art Director of sneaker-marmalade and Freelance Graphic Designer. Grew up and studied in different places, all from the cold Iceland, to the tempered Luxembourg, Paris and know my way around Antwerp. Passionated by passionated people, here is the main reason why I entered this project, there are loads of them to find this way.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
Our first issue took us a whole year. We took the decision to do it all by ourselves from A to Z: Concept to distribution. The hard core of the team is composed by Runa and I, and we coordinate a grape of s-freaks, artists, writers and friends who bring their contributions.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Runa and Greg’s meeting. The choice of our first cover. Our first advertiser. To sell ads before having even 1 copy of a previous issue is not an easy catch, as many of you might know.
Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
Authentic and credible. Independent. Passion driven.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
Time, money and many slaves.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
More readers, more advertising partners.
To be able to talk about any subject using a sneaker attitude point of view.
Distribution all over Europe in selected places.
A crazy funky serious sneaker magazine!
Have people say: this is a fine piece, this one I’m going to keep! (We hate the idea of having a magazine been thrown away.)
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Between 25 and 35: They lived the sneaker boom and continued wearing sport designed shoes despite of their professional activities. Not all of them are sneakerheads but most of them know some cult shoes and are interested in this unusual thematic. Co-branded sneakers along with their famous designers (Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons and others) target this particular active and wealthier population.
Between 15 and 25: Composed of students or young professionals, this population is directly concerned by the sneaker theme. They sometimes look for the latest editions, sometimes the rarest, most technological… the sneaker item is an expression of themselves.
And global amateurs of fresh and alternative magazines.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Strategy is a big word. We are independent because we are a drop of water in the ocean. And we like that.
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
It does absolutely not influence our content. But we must admit though the advertisement can influence and strengthen the publication when the visual, content and especially the message meet one another. But instead of advertising-driven-editorials we prefer editorials-driven-advertising.
Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
Yep. TV’s one the greatest invention and a pain killer.
Which is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
Not easy when you ask the impossible: the best price, the best advice, the best quality… and deliver at the right date please!
Which magazines did influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
Technikart for its content, paperJam for its unusual pictures, Bedoun + Trace for their layout and illustrations, Wad for its covers, Bulgaria for the surprise and many others.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
Still proud of it even if… not happy with the inside paper, the text size and some other stuff (top secret!)
What question did you never ask in your magazine but would have liked to?
!
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
10/10. I just love magazines ever since I was a child. When I enter a news kiosk, my heart beats faster. Believe it or not its like an alcoholic at the bar, I even end up in every petrol station I go to at the bookstall, even though I am never able to even buy one (they are just too bad)!
E-mail interview from “28.12.2005”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
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