Field Notes From Manchester
Field Notes From Manchester
Vintage cravings, must-eat sandwiches, classic football shirts, and a culture of sound; Field Notes touches down in Manchester.
ICYMI
Field Notes is a content series where we explore the luxury retail landscape in cities worldwide. They’re meant to be anecdotal; we’re sharing and observing what we see.
The idea is that we’ll take a neighbourhood or city with a strong luxury retail presence and dissect what we like about the retail establishments there.
PS – Check out our Fields Notes from LA.
Got an idea? Let us know where we should visit next!
For the latest edition of Field Notes, we swap sunny Californian skies for Manchester’s characteristic rain.
While the avid sun seeker may do well to avoid the rainy city, Manchester is for culture lovers. A centre point for some of the nation’s most impactful contributions to music - from Joy Division to The Smiths to The Fall to The Stone Roses - the city is steeped in heritage.
Rich in creative spirit and energy, Manchester has birthed a retail scene that puts curation at the forefront, paving the way for an excellent line-up of vintage stores and a new era of homegrown talent that’s keeping eyes on the city.
Manchester, while often overlooked in favour of London, possesses many of New Luxury’s fundamentals, spotlighting the growing trend of football as fashion through Classic Football Shirts and sustainability as a hotspot for vintage clothing.
Whether you’re seeking an opportunity to buy into the ever-expanding CLINTS universe, grow your music library, build a New Luxury-laden wardrobe, or indulge in mouth-watering bites, Manchester has got you covered.
Let’s tuck in!
CLINTS
One of the most exciting parts of Manchester’s style culture is undoubtedly CLINTS.
Like many young brands leading the charge in a new era of streetwear, most of CLINTS’ business is done online, with new drops quickly flying off digital shelves before password protection clicks back into place ahead of the new release.
Fortunately, the brand has a physical footing in the heart of the city centre.
Unlike the bold apparel and signature sneakers that have earned the brand its cult status, the store offers a minimalist approach that allows the small product collection to speak for itself.
The devil is in the details: wooden fixtures, clean lighting, a carefully assembled arrangement of each product category, a standout display of the brand’s iconic sneaker silhouettes, and custom branded vending machine, neon lights, rug, and sunglasses display bring the space to life.
Suzylovesmilo
Sometimes, the best thing about a retail space isn’t the stock or space but the people running the show that make it worth your time. Fortunately, Suzylovesmilo ticks all three boxes.
The Spear Street concept store will pull you in and not let go—a feeling attested to the wall-to-wall stock of Supreme, Stüssy, Burberry, Nike, Ralph Lauren, and more. It’s all handpicked by the passionate, streetwear-obsessed team.
This love of all things streetwear presents itself visually while providing the opportunity for a guided experience through the store and its stock. The team is keen to engage with everyone who steps inside. Oh, and it smells great, too!
Gone Fishing Vintage
Compared to the ultra-busy, time-consuming, and at times hectic aura of other vintage stores around the Northern Quarter, Gone Fishing gets straight to the point with a concise but impactful offering of designer pieces covering menswear and womenswear.
Despite its modest size, Gone Fishing prides itself on an excellent line-up of late 90s-early 2010s Stone Island, Nike, CP, Burberry, Oakley, Moncler, and more.
You’ll also find a selection of streetwear must-reads, Supreme skate decks, and an arrangement of photography decorating the walls.
Even if you don’t buy anything, you’ll leave having Shazamed a new track or two—Gone Fishing’s playlists don’t miss.
Classic Football Shirts
In the retro football shirt market, Classic Football Shirts is leading the charge.
Recently, the store found a new, considerably bigger home on the Northern Quarter’s Dale Street.
The new space serves as a mecca of football history, spotlighting some of the greatest kits the sport has ever seen, offering particular attention to the blue and red of City and United.
Large screens playing old football clips and an incredible array of matchday scarfs dress the walls, taking you out of reality and into a footballing paradise.
What makes this large, open space so special is its downstairs social space, offering the local community a place to kick back, grab a drink, and play video games.
The Streetwear Studio
One of the newest editions to Manchester’s retail scene, The Streetwear Studio is one of the first stores that welcomes you into the city when approaching from Salford.
Much like the vintage retail grails of the Northern Quarter, this spot speaks to the curation expertise at play in the city.
If you find yourself hunting for more contemporary designer pieces from Stone Island, Prada, and C.P., alongside a class line-up of football shirts and streetwear classics from Supreme, Cortiez, Drama Call, and Palace, you’d do well to pop your head in.
As it stands, it already boasts the most diverse streetwear selection the city has to offer, yet the space is due to expand in the coming weeks, providing a better retail experience and even more stock.
Fat Pats
Every major city has an “it” sandwich shop. Having lived in Hackney, Dom’s Subs is a difficult place to beat—until you get familiar with Fat Pats.
A “less is more” approach leaves little room for error where food is concerned, as pleasing everybody’s palette with minimal options is a difficult art to perfect, yet Fat Pat’s has cracked the code with three sandwich options (two meat, one veg) and standard side of fries.
It’s a location you’ll often hear the city’s residents rave about, and for good reason. Tucked away down Portland Street, the take-out window delivers delicious milk rolls freshly baked every morning.
The Hot Honey Fried Chicken sub is a must for any sandwich connoisseur.
Gooey
Flicking through the rails of the Northern Quarter’s vintage shops is hungry work. Luckily, one of the city’s best brunch bites is well within walking distance, serving up a selection of sweet tweets and unbeatable egg sandos.
Gooey’s cookies are to die for if you’re in the market for something quick and sweet, but I tucked into the Thai Fried Chicken special with a side of hashbrows—some of the best hashbrowns I’ve ever had!
Thanks to Gooey’s cult status and Tik-Tok virality, you’ll want to get in early to avoid queues on the weekend—but trust me, it’s worth the wait.
END.
END. found its way to Manchester in 2022 and quickly established itself as one of the city’s key retail destinations, serving as a great starting point for any shopping trip before progressing into the NQ.
The space largely follows the blueprint of London’s Soho store, with bright lighting, greyscale decor, and ample space to allow product room to breathe, with sections carved out to cater to different market levels and product categories.
Like its sister stores, END. Manchester’s standout has to be the sneaker section that sits on the first floor alongside high-end designer brands—which offers the best arrangement of sneakers you’ll find in the city outside of resale stores like Kersh Kicks and Kick Game.
Vinyl Exchange
Audiophiles will always feel at home in Manchester. The city boasts some of the best music history you’ll find in Europe, let alone England, and its retail scene speaks to this.
In the same vein as vintage clothing’s growing dominance, lovers of high-quality, experiential audio (ticking those New Luxury boxes!) have seen vinyl’s explosion in popularity.
Although I don’t own a record player, I always find myself getting sucked into Vinyl Exchange for the best part of an hour.
The rows (and rows) of vinyls spread across two floors offer an opportunity to lose yourself in music. Everything is organised to an incredible level of detail, making it easy to dig around for your favourites or go on a genre-bending journey.
Whether or not you intend to buy any music, Vinyl Exchange is the perfect way to get a feel for Manchester’s deep roots in music.
Hungry for more?
If you’re keen to get familiar with some of the best spaces that the global retail scene has to offer, you won’t want to miss out on any of our Field Notes. Subscribe to Commerce Thinking below to see which city we visit next.