“I’m on page 74 of the Ssense sale.” What started as a joke on TikTok and Reddit became a meme that defined the platform’s identity.
Once seen as a bridge between culture and commerce, the Canadian e-commerce company — founded in 2003 by Syrian-Palestinian brothers Rami, Bassel and Firas Atallah — is now in administration. It filed for creditor protection in Canada under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) on August 28, following internal restructuring, layoffs and a damaged brand image.
“The platform became a punchline,” said Steve Salter, former editor-at-large at the London high-end concept store LN-CC. “At one point, it stood for something culturally exciting. But eventually, the sale overwhelmed everything.” The company was unreachable for comment.
The memeification of Ssense points to deeper shifts in how Gen Z engages with luxury. Value is increasingly decoded through aesthetics and cultural context, not just price. Ssense (99,000 followers on TikTok, 1.3 million on Instagram) had once made emerging fashion aspirational — first, in the late 2010s, when it became the place to discover designers like Marine Serre and GmbH. Later, led by Thom Bettridge (2022–September 2024), its editorial content reached a creative peak through cinematic campaigns like photographer Nick Knight x Alyx and a collaboration with K-Pop band ILLIT. From the viral 2024 Kidswear Spelling Bee campaign to the late-2023 minimalist anniversary billboards, which Salter called “one of the sharpest things they did,” Ssense showed flashes of how it could turn internet culture into broader cultural signals. But instead of leaning into that relevance, it scaled up into a discount-driven model that ultimately diluted its identity.
Then again, turning Gen Z’s cultural affinity into full-price sales is a challenge across luxury. While the dream of buying a Marine Serre top, for example, still holds, most purchases now happen via resale or at steep discounts. Today, teens tell Glossy they’re hunting for shoe-of-the-summer Margiela Tabis and Vivienne Westwood corsets on Depop.
“Luxury won’t evolve if it relies on brands alone,” said Salter. “It needs independent platforms like Ssense that shape how we consume fashion.” He likened the retailer’s early cultural weight to A24, the independent entertainment company that has seen significant success with its cultural crossovers, like its 2021 collab with the fashion brand Heaven by Marc Jacobs. “In the same way A24 is a signifier of ‘cool,’ Ssense should be, too,” he said.
Ssense tried to build that cultural platform. Its early content strategy, pioneered by Joerg Koch in 2016 and later led by Bettridge, felt revolutionary. Koch now runs Berlin-based 032c as both a magazine and fashion label, with projects spanning retail, exhibitions and collaborations with brands like Adidas.
The storytelling on the Ssense site — positioned less like an e-commerce blog and more like an online magazine — was premium. But the connection between content and commerce weakened, as content moved further into culture without clear links back to product. “You’re left wondering: Does this even feel like Ssense anymore?” said Salter.
He also pointed to a missed opportunity in Ssense Works, the 2020 creative initiative launched with playwright Jeremy O. Harris. Described as a “multidisciplinary program,” it aimed to commission and support original creative projects across fashion, art, music and culture.“That could’ve created an entire platform around creative talent and community. Instead, it was a one-off.”
The company’s Montreal flagship store, opened in 2018 and designed by renowned architect David Chipperfield, is part gallery, part showroom, with a rooftop café that initially drew Instagram attention but failed to drive foot traffic, according to multiple sources, due to its Canadian location outside of typical fashion capitals. “It was a cultural flex,” said Elena Kirioukhina, an independent retail and wholesale consultant at the high-end fashion brand advisory Openstyle Consulting. “But who was it for?”
Kirioukhina also noted that Ssense’s “very, very good” styling team could have been developed into a true standalone service, but like other Ssense initiatives, it was never fully built out. At the Montreal flagship, inventory is deliberately limited and rotated often, with customers able to book appointments and have wish-list items brought in from a nearby warehouse — a system that hinted at a luxury-level personal shopping model, but wasn’t scalable.
Behind the scenes, cracks had been forming. In 2021, Sequoia Capital invested at a $4.1 billion valuation, per Business of Fashion. Ssense began to scale, expanding its brand roster and opening a European distribution center, which later shuttered. Leadership turnover followed: Chief brand officer Krishna Nikhil left for Pangaia in 2022, COO Daniel Habashi exited in February 2025 to board positions at 032c and Substack, head of content Thom Bettridge left in May 2025 to iD, and vp of womenswear Brigitte Chartrand exited in July this year to Net-a-Porter. Around 100 employees were also laid off in August 2024.
“The brand count ballooned [to over 700 brands]. It felt like they were trying to be everything to everyone,” said Hugo Mills, founder of The Bord Agency, which sells Scandinavian fashion brands like Ashish and Rodbjer to Ssense and other international retailers. “And once Ssense marked down [its assortment], everyone else — Matches, Net-a-Porter, Farfetch — followed. It became a race to the bottom.”
Brands also voiced frustrations. “There were always payment issues, markdowns initiated independently, constant overstocking,” said Mills. The sentiment echoed the same one brands’ had with Saks in 2024, although Mills said that, for his clients, terms never came close to the 90 days set by Saks. Others said that some brands still have not been paid at all.
Initially, Ssense lured exclusives with attractive margins. “But when they onboarded everyone, the dynamic shifted,” said Kirioukhina. “It became harder to justify the partnership.”
The platform’s fall was accelerated by global trade shifts. Plus, for years, Ssense relied on the U.S. de minimis rule, which allowed duty-free imports under $800. That loophole closed on August 29. “For many American customers, Ssense was the only way to access emerging brands affordably,” said Mills. “Once tariffs hit, the appeal vanished.”
Many indie brands stocked by Ssense — like international fashion brands GmbH, Rassvet and Kiko Kostadinov — had limited U.S. presence beyond the platform. While some have since launched DTC e-commerce, others like Paolina Russo and Duran Lantink still rely on a few stockists.
“Isolationism is redrawing the luxury distribution map,” said Nick Vinckier, vp of corporate innovation at Chalhoub Group, the leading sales and retail partner for luxury brands in the Middle East. “We’re seeing regionalization and onshoring. Local champions are rising where global players once dominated.” In practice, that means boutiques like U.S.-based The Webster or Chalhoub-backed concepts in the Gulf are filling the gap left by overextended players like Ssense.
Ssense’s collapse follows a broader reckoning in luxury e-commerce. London-based Matches entered administration in March and shuttered by July. Farfetch, once valued at $8 billion, was sold for $500 million in a 2023 rescue deal. Saks spun out its e-commerce arm in 2021 and still isn’t profitable. And Florence-based LuisaViaRoma has filed for court protection amid mounting strain, with over 1,250 creditors and a €30 million debt ($35 million) to restructure under Italian insolvency law.
“Scale-for-scale’s-sake is over,” said a C-suite executive at a luxury fashion brand, who asked to remain anonymous. “The model that works now is narrower: Ultra-high-net-worth individuals, offline experiences, curated digital.”
Still, Ssense’s absence leaves a gap for emerging designers. “They were often the first and only retailer to take a risk [on a designer],” said Kirioukhina. “I talked to a buyer once from a big department store, and she told me, ‘I don’t even look at the brand unless it’s on Ssense.'” No other platform is currently pulling off the mix of humor, storytelling and indie fashion that came to define Ssense.
For now, U.S. specialty retailers may step in. “Stores like The Webster, Kick Pleat, Julian Gold and Elyse Walker — they’re curated and loyal to their brands,” said Mills. Earlier this year, Glossy spoke to these specialty retailers about their strategies for catering to regional customers. And in Europe, boutiques like Berlin’s VooStore and Helsinki’s Beamhill are gaining traction, according to Mills. “They don’t chase trends. And customers trust that.”
Despite everything, Salter believes Ssense could still recover. “They still own the content space in a way most retailers don’t. But it has to come with a new curatorial vision, not just more brands.” What comes next will depend on whether Ssense can use that DNA to reframe what luxury looks like for a new generation.
