Musinsa Kicks to open 10 stores in 2026

(Musinsa)

Musinsa Co.’s newly launched store brand Musinsa Kicks is expanding its presence in South Korea’s multi-brand shoe retail market, with plans to open 10 stores this year alone.

According to Korea’s leading online fashion platform Musinsa on Monday, its first shoe multi-shop, Musinsa Kicks Hongdae, which opened near Hongik University Station in Seoul on January 9, generated cumulative sales of about 360 million won within its first 10 days, signaling strong early momentum.

The store attracted over 33,000 visitors during the cited period.

On its first weekend after opening, more than 100 customers lined up before doors opened. Its limited-edition sneakers and first-come, first-served packages sold out in less than an hour after sales began.

Industry insiders view Musinsa Kicks as the company’s flagship offline project.

Musinsa began in 2001 as an online community called “a place with tons of shoe pictures,” gradually growing by sharing sneaker-related content.

Musinsa plans to rapidly expand Musinsa Kicks to 10 stores by the end of this year, starting with the Hongdae location.

It aims to open a standalone store in the trendy Seongsu area in the first half of the year and shop-in-shop locations within major retail chains in the second half.

The company also plans to expand beyond Seoul into major commercial districts nationwide.

By operating both mega-sized stores and target-specific specialty outlets, Musinsa plans to flexibly tailor its expansion to local market characteristics and quickly increase its offline market share.

If the expansion plan proceeds as planned, annual sales from Musinsa Kicks are projected to grow to around 50 billion won ($33.96 million).

Japan-based ABC-Mart currently dominates Korea’s offline multi-brand shoe store market.

According to industry sources, the market size in 2024 is estimated to have grown by about 5 percent year-over-year, surpassing 1 trillion won.

The industry believes that ABC-Mart accounts for more than half of the market.

Data from the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system show that ABC-Mart‘s domestic sales in 2024 reached approximately 659 billion won.

It was followed by S-Market at around 120 billion won, Folder at about 100 billion won, Schumacher at roughly 88 billion won, and Foot Locker at about 51 billion won.

Foot Locker is in the process of withdrawing from the Korean market and closing its stores.

If Musinsa Kicks achieves sales of 50 billion won this year, it is expected to challenge ABC-Mart’s dominance in the shoe multi-shop market.

“Musinsa, which dominates the online space, is now challenging ABC-Mart, the top player in the offline multi-brand shoe store market, by tightly linking online and offline channels,” said an industry insider.