cultural fluency that connected deeply with Gen Z. It was based in Montreal, but felt super global, and for many of us in retail, it looked like one of the winners. So when the news broke of its demise, it hit me quite hard and landed heavily. Ssense, once valued at US$4 billion in 2021, has filed for bankruptcy protection, citing the newly imposed US tariffs of 35 percent on Canadian imports, coupled with the removal of the “de minimis” exemption that previously allowed packages under US$800 to enter the US duty-free. Both these policy changes came into effect a very short time ago, yet the truth is that Ssense’s demise had already begun. Sales were down 28 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2025, and more than 100 employees, around 8 per cent of its workforce, were laid off in May. We can pretty confidently say that tariffs were not the cause, but they were the final blow. The much deeper issue was fragility. Loopholes cannot be strategy Like many retailers, Ssense benefited from the de minimis exemption, which gave Canadian exporters an unusually smooth pathway into US customers’ homes. Packages under US$800 skipped duties and glided through borders, creating the impression of a domestic experience an international scale. But it was never sustainable. The new tariffs didn’t just increase costs; they actually removed the illusion. Suddenly, the experience felt slower, somehow heavier and way less magical. This is a hard lesson of global e-commerce; if your business model relies on policy loopholes, then you really don’t have a model. What you have instead is a gamble, and the moment external conditions shift — and in this case, they shifted overnight — the entire foundation collapses. The collapse of the middle The demise of Ssense is not an isolated failure, but rather caps off an extraordinary sequence of exits in multibrand online luxury over the past 18 months. Farfetch, once valued at over US$5 billion, sold for $500 million. MatchesFashion has been shut down entirely. YNAP was sold off to Mytheresa after years of staggering losses, and LuisaViaRoma entered protection. Now Ssense joins this sad list. It also leaves Mytheresa as the final major player standing in this category now. But even here, I question how long it can hold the line. Part of the problem is structural; consumer behaviour has shifted, and the so-called “luxury middle” is fast disappearing. For many years, multibrand platforms carved out a space between ‘accessible’ and ‘aspirational’. Today, that space is being hollowed out with younger customers, particularly Gen Z, fragmenting in two directions: some now trading up into pure luxury houses that deliver rich heritage and credibility, others trading down into fast fashion and streetwear where immediacy, affordability and identity expression carry more weight. What that means is that curation is no longer enough. Offering 500 brands instead of 1400 may look strategic, but if customers no longer see multibrand platforms as the go-to destination for their luxury journey, then the model itself quickly loses its relevance. A personal memory I still remember seeing and running into the Ssense buying team in Paris during my time with Australian luxury streetwear retailer Sneakerboy. The team from Ssense moved through showrooms with a quiet sharpness, confidence and cultural attunement. I always looked up to them, they weren’t just buyers; they were interpreters of culture, pulling the best of global fashion into a digital space that felt alive. That’s why this collapse stings for me. It is the unraveling of a team that once set the standard, and it is a reminder that even the sharpest instincts can falter if the emotional bridge to customers is not reinforced time and time again. Economics decides the stage. Emotion decides who survives Let me start by being very clear: economics here mattered. Tariffs increased costs overnight, and financing became more constrained. Supply chain realities only added friction, and these are not minor factors. But economics alone can’t explain why the model collapsed so quickly. What the tariffs did was expose an absence of resilience. When shipments slowed, customers didn’t stick around; they started shopping elsewhere. When friction appeared, the bond they had evaporated, and when external pressure arrived, the nervous system of the business froze rather than adapting. This nervous system, as I call it, is the space between impulse and action. Strong nervous systems in business adapt while the fragile ones always seize up. What we saw with Ssense was a nervous system simply not being ready. What it means for customers For consumers, the impact will not be measured in financial filings but, as always, in experience. It’s the quiet disappearance of choice and the loss of a platform that once made discovery so effortless. The rising costs and slower deliveries that now characterise cross-border shopping. For the broader market, there is also a shift in expectation. Younger consumers don’t view multibrand platforms as their default for luxury discovery anymore. Instead, they trust the direct-to-consumer experiences of the brands themselves and lean into local heroes. They also find inspiration on TikTok before they look at curated assortments. Don’t get me wrong, this does not mean there is no role for curation. But it does mean that curation must be layered with memory, community and identity if it is to be resilient, and curation without emotion has proven brittle. Making Ssense of it all What we are witnessing here is not just the fall of a wonderful retailer but the end of a model. The VC-fuelled era of online multibrand luxury has ended, and growth-at-all-costs has been replaced by a demand for unit economics that actually make sense. Loopholes no longer provide insulation and curation without emotional allegiance no longer commands loyalty. Making Ssense of it all means recognising that survival in modern retail requires both economic fundamentals alongside emotional architecture. As I always say, speed or assortment alone will not guarantee success, and neither will loopholes in trade law. As brands and retailers, we will see success when we design for emotional resilience, create memories worth defending and build an internal nervous system that’s capable of withstanding shocks. In the end, economics will probably always decide the stage on which we play. But it is emotion that will decide who survives when the ground shakes.