SSENSE is a multi-brand retailer based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

specialising in the sale of designer fashion and high end

streetwear Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding and Japanese street fashion. Eventually hau ...

. It was founded as an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

platform in 2003 by three brothers: Rami, Bassel and Firas Atallah. The company delivers to 114 countries around the world and operates websites in French, English, Japanese and Korean.

History

SSENSE was founded in 2003 by brothers Firas, Rami and Bassel Atallah who were inspired to start an online fashion company by the experience of successfully selling a limited edition pair of

Diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

jeans online. Their focus was on high-end brands, but their approach was consciously aimed at avoiding any snobbery or aloofness associated with luxury fashion and instead focusing on building an innovative platform to showcase a carefully selected set of products from brands that were chosen for their dedicated following. They also put a heavy emphasis on supporting smaller, emerging designers and brands. In 2014 the founders of SSENSE were bestowed the Entrepreneur of the Year award by

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

. SSENSE was also named as one of the 30 leading global menswear retailers by Italian Prime Minister

Matteo Renzi Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having been ...

and The Business of Fashion. In 2017 Rami Atallah was named Honorary Chair of the 2017

Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards The Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards (CAFA) are an annual award ceremony to recognize and celebrate outstanding achievement and emerging talent in Canadian fashion. The awards were established to encourage the economic development of the Canadian fash ...

. Rami Atallah was also named to the jury for the International Woolmark Prize competition alongside industry leaders. In 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Rami Atallah was named to The Business of Fashion BoF 500. In 2018, SSENSE opened a flagship retail store in a historic 19th century building in Montreal turned into an experiential retail space by architecture firm

David Chipperfield Sir David Alan Chipperfield, (born 18 December 1953) is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museum ...

. the 5-story building within a building includes a cafe, art space and a floor dedicated to a personal-shopper-guided online-offline hybrid, which is accessible by appointment only. On April 5, 2018, SSENSE acquired community-based fashion and art website

Polyvore Polyvore was a community-powered social commerce website headquartered in Mountain View, California, Mountain View, California. The company's virtual mood board function allowed community members to add products into a shared product index, and u ...

from

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

, immediately shutting it down. In June 2021 SSENSE received minority investment from

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...

that valued the company at over $4 billion USD.SSENSE Valued at Over $5 Billion CAD After Sequoia Capital Investment
''Hypebeast'', Jack Stanley, June 8, 2021

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.ssense.com/ Online retailers of Canada Retail companies established in 2003 Internet properties established in 2003 Clothing retailers of Canada

History

See also

References

External links