Highsnobiety has come a long way. What began as a sneaker passion blog in 2005 now attracts upwards of 9 million visitors monthly to its site containing news and analysis of high fashion, streetwear and culture. The site has attracted a highly influential audience of young, educated and affluent, mainly millennial male, readers. These are the hard-to-reach people even for social media, at this point. So it’s not a huge surprise that it’s attracted new investment.
It’s now secured $8.5 million in funding led by the UK-based VC Felix Capital.
The new investment will go into investing in new technology and digital media in niche verticals, from sneakers to music, and the capturing of more extensive data and analytics. Plus, it’s following other publishers into the world of curated editorial and long-form video. The company claims that for the past three consecutive years, it’s grown 100% year-over-year, and its employee base grew from 15 to over 100 across its offices in New York, London and Berlin.
Highsnobiety also produces a bi-annual print magazine and, in 2015, launched the content production arm Highsnobiety+ for branded content.
The move comes as Hypebeast filed for IPO in 2016 too, the same year Complex got bought.
Founder David Fischer told TechCrunch why he thinks this is an exploding sector: “The sneaker market, streetwear and menswear – all core to Highsnobiety’s reporting since day one – have all seen explosive growth over the last decade and today they are more important than ever to millennials and Gen Z audience not just to traditional fashion brands, but now more than ever to luxury houses. From the very start, Highsnobiety has been focused on the intersection of these worlds and are therefore perfectly positioned to cater to the young men’s lifestyle market globally.”
In addition, Complex Media was acquired by Verizon/Hearst. What’s his take on that?: “We worked with Complex for several years and it is incredible to see how far their team has taken the Complex brand. Not many manage to grow to their scale, all while maintaining a strong brand.”
Fischer says Felix Capital was attracted by “a fast-growing, profitable, strong media brand that has built a highly loyal and engaged global audience. With this base we can take the brand in many exciting directions, add new revenue streams and strengthen our existing content studio and advertising model.”