GEMS Sneaker Shop

Stark would be a good way to describe the contrast between the look of a new holiday season candy store and the permanent collection deeper inside Gems. From the street, the sneaker dealer looks like Santa’s sweet tooth workshop, and those who don’t know to ask about the actual shoes won’t even know that behind the wall of Swedish fish and gobstoppers, limited edition New Balances, the latest by Timberland (Mooney’s former employer), and the kicks that came out of the collaboration between Alexander McQueen and Puma are treated like, well, gems in a climate-controlled museum setting.only those in the know will ask where the kicks are at, and when they do, he’ll give them the same set of suspicious instructions (the are-you-setting-me-up? feeling only lasts for a second) that got me to the showroom. It’s a bit like the board game Clue and the movie Willy Wonka inspired the whole thing.

The buzz-generating pop-up is kind of an odd juxtaposition with the secret society-angle on that which is actually Gems’ bread and butter. But then that complexity goes hand-in-hand with how Mooney does business — not many shop owners purposefully seek out practically hidden locations on the lost end of town.

written by Laura Cassidy Seattle Metropolitan Magazine