About Us

The Journey

The journey begins in the bedroom of our owner, Taylor. Who began buying and selling exclusive trainers online in 2016, aged just 13 years old. For the next 3 years, Taylor would secure limited release trainers on drop day and sell them on online marketplaces for a markup to the people who had missed out on the original limited release.  After spotting a growing demand for these exclusive trainers among Glaswegians, he started our Instagram page, Empire Glasgow, in March 2019. We quickly built a customer base due to being one of the only places in Glasgow you could secure a pair of Yeezy’s or rare Jordan’s.

We continued to grow our stock and clientele, with Taylor doing meet ups and drop offs in between school and work. In August 2019, we hosted our first Pop Up Shop in Glasgow’s merchant city which was a huge achievement considering our business was only a few months old. We done the same again on Boxing Day 2019 where our event was the talk of the town and attracted well over 1000 people with a queue outside all day. We sold out of every item within 2 hours and knew at this point that a permanent store was our goal. 

Covid19 held back our store dreams by a few years but this time allowed us to build our following and clientele and continue strengthening our service before opening our 12 Week Glasgow Christmas pop up store in October 2021. Based in Glasgow’s Princes Square shopping centre we were Glasgow’s first ever exclusive sneaker store. Focused on providing a premium service and stocking shoes which you couldn’t find elsewhere, it was an instant hit!

Due to the unprecedented demand of our pop up store, we decided to go permanent with it. In April 2022, Taylor packed in his career in aeronautical engineering to chase his dream of having a sneaker store and we moved into our permanent home in Princes Square to continue building our sneaker Empire.

In November 2022, we opened our 2nd retail location in Silverburn Shopping Centre. This festive season pop up was yet again, a roaring success. The announcement post alone getting over 1 million impressions on Instagram and the sales which followed were a real turning point in the businesses success. We returned to Silverburn again in 2023's festive period with an October to January pop up in the hottest location, working wonders for the brand recognition and festive sales.

We have continued moving from strength to strength, recently celebrating the 4th anniversary of our flagship Princes Square store. In those 4 years we have supplied over 40,000 items to more than 20,000 different customers. We have built a community around our brand and made a huge impact on the Scottish streetwear and sneaker scene but most importantly we have loved every single day of it. 

We are excited to see what lies in the future of Empire and hope you can be part of it. Without the support of everyone who has followed, shared, visited or purchased, none of this would have been possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making that little guy selling trainers from his bedroom dreams come true. 

Taylor