Last weekend, I took a trip to Delaware to pay a visit to someone near and dear to my heart. Being really close to Philadelphia, I knew there was going to be an opportunity to check out some heat. A suggestion by the friend of the brand, Alex, led me to UBIQ.
This was the first ever boutique that I had been to on the east side of the nation. Like anything else in between the East and West (and Third, damn right) coasts, the differences between sneaker boutiques are no different. When I first walk in, I walk up the ramp and to the right, I’m greeted with the latest ISPA sneakers, which, in person, don’t look that cool to me as they did on photo. As you finish walking up the ramp, you’re met with the first floor. To the right, is one part of the first level with a row of sneakers, mostly the newest releases that dropped, including a few accessories and home goods. One thing you’ll see in that little part is (400%?) UBIQ Be@rbrick. I asked one of the employees how much it was:
“60.”
“60?!”
“I think so, I think it was on sale, let me check.”
“60 is a steal, wow.”
“Oh, no, I’m sorry, it’s 160.”
“I was about to say.”
Apparently, at one point in time, there was a similar Be@rbrick on sale, which may or may not have been $60. I then proceed to go back into the hallway and go further back to another section of the first level. As you go down the hallway, UBIQ’s wall has a number of custom sneakers, from their post-retail customization offering, UBIQLAB. As you go continue down that way, you are then met with sneakers, hats, and accessories. The layout is amazing. The room has a very country club-esque feel; wooden fixtures arranging the sneakers and accessories with the perfect lightning made it feel like James Bond’s closet if he were a sneakerhead.
When you walk up the second floor, there’s another room, with more accessories, clothes, and sneakers. This time it came with a section of the wall for books and magazines. The rest of the room wasn’t as nice as Bond’s hypothetical closet, but still nice nonetheless. The latest in high fashion lined up the racks, the room was split into a guy’s and girl’s section, and the middle space was for display cases of accessories, most of it being Herschel. On the guy’s and girl’s sections were lined with appropriate and fitting offerings in all the hottest sneakers from Adidas, Nike, New Balance, and the like. I had never seen so many Y-3s and Raf Simons models in person like that outside of a Neiman Marcus. Nor had I seen so many collabs so easily accessible outside of the reseller market.
Now, I didn’t actually end up buying anything from UBIQ, as I am still watching my sneaker purchases this year, and I wasn’t sure there was going to be any room for any sneakers in my luggage for my flight back, but should I ever find myself back in Philadelphia, I’ll definitely make room in my luggage. UBIQ is a great place, and I definitely recommend hitting up the joint for sure.
A quick word on Philadelphia: as a Cowboys fan, people around Philadelphia surprisingly weren’t up in arms when I was wearing my gear. I was expecting some flak, but nobody really bit.
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