down to 400 square metres, has forced us to be much more considered with our brand mix and assortment,” he elaborated. While the new flagship store itself is smaller, it is representative of a much bigger vision where execution will be everything. A Glue Store with Seoul Glue Store has invested heavily into the fitout’s design and materials, leaning into soft gender-neutral tones to create a more refined store environment that matches the new product curation. “We’ve moved away from our traditional bright orange mixture set and implemented a more natural tone throughout the store to allow the product to do the talking,” Cohen said. Rather than try and mimic what its competitors are doing, Glue Store is leaning more into its brand portfolio as a distinguishing factor. “You can’t find brands like Carhartt, ADLV, Ksubi and Polo Ralph Lauren in our competitor set,” Cohen stated. “The guys continue to work closely with new brands, particularly coming out of Korea, that we’re going to launch in the coming months as well,” he added. Cohen returned just last week from a trip to South Korea’s Seoul and Japan’s Tokyo, where he was looking at what’s next in fashion and the Glue Store’s new creative direction. “Seoul is the benchmark for where fashion retail goes in the future,” Cohen insisted. Cohen confirmed that, after his sourcing trip in South Korea, the skinny jean is not coming back any time soon. However, he did admit that denim is an area that Glue Store has let slip, and the streetwear retailer is taking this opportunity to get back into a category in which it was once thought of as the leading retailer. “Everyone’s doing denim in the market right now, but for us, it’s doing it in a curated way, with different silhouettes, and making sure that we’ve got an assortment,” Cohen explained. “Right now, in the space, you’ve got baggier denim trending or barrel denim trending – and our job is to make sure that we’re leaning into a fashion lens as it relates to denim,” he added. “The beautiful thing about denim is that the category is timeless, but the shapes and the colours and the finishes on denim are constantly changing.” Success is in the curation The hope is that the new Glue Store flagship will encourage customers to experiment with the brands, styles and fabrications they purchase. “It’s incredibly challenging to be a house of brands with a broad men’s and women’s offering. Customers no longer just want choice – they want curation,” Cohen shared. “They’re looking for retailers to inspire, to lead with a clear point of view. It’s a powerful opportunity, but also a huge responsibility,” he added. Its ability to play across multiple categories while maintaining its newly adopted ethos around only offering premium brands and a curated edit should set it apart from other multi-brand retailers. “That head-to-toe look is something that we don’t think any of our competitors can do like we can… there are no rules when it comes to fashion anymore,” Cohen said.  “You could have a customer wearing a pair of Birkenstocks with a pair of adidas track pants and a blazer – and we don’t think that there are many retailers that can touch all of those items under one roof,” he continued. If the opening of the new Glue Store Emporium flagship is successful, Accent Group will see how it can replicate the new format across its other stores. “This store will be a test, and like anything we do at Accent, we will assess what our customers are saying and make the necessary changes and take on their feedback around brands that they would like to introduce to the mix,” Cohen explained. According to Cohen, Glue Store will be rationalising its door count to align with Accent Group’s new strategic vision to ensure that it shows up as the number-one choice in the space. ​​”I think that the ultimate test for me is, can we put ourselves in a position where customers see us as the authority in premium streetwear and denim, to a point where our store becomes a destination,” Cohen concluded.