Sweetfeet, a performance sock brand from New York’s Lower East Side, has no store of its own. For NYC Marathon weekend, from October 29 to November 1, 2026, it turned the corner storefront at 213 Bowery into the Sweetfeet Candy Shop: a retro candy store selling socks and running gear, with two shakeout runs leaving from the door. Here is how a brand without a shop used one room to meet a city full of runners.
When we filmed at 213 Bowery on Friday, October 30, the Sweetfeet Candy Shop was on its second day. “Ain’t Life Sweet” runs in script across the back wall. SWEETFEET is spelled out in pink letters across the floor. There are disco balls, a pink counter piled with candy, an I ♥ NY wall of floating shelves stacked with candy jars and caps, and a poster that reads “Your feet got you this far. Thank them.”
“I’m the founder and owner of Sweetfeet, and we’re here at 213 Bowery at the Sweetfeet Candy Shop,” Declan told us. “We are doing a pop-up for the New York City Marathon weekend.”
Sweetfeet is, in his words, “a performance sock company and athletic apparel brand.” What it doesn’t have is a shop. The brand has no retail storefront of its own, so it shows up in rooms like this one instead. Its earlier pop-ups have transformed bodegas and corner pizza shops. For marathon week it built its own spin on a retro New York candy shop, open from Thursday, October 29, through race day, Sunday, November 1.
“It’s just such a special weekend in New York City that we wanted to create a candy shop, which is a theme we haven’t seen another brand do yet.”
Declan, Sweetfeet
A candy shop for NYC Marathon week
The idea was to do something nobody else was doing on the city’s biggest running weekend, when tens of thousands of runners and their supporters are in town. Declan calls the team “outliers and trailblazers” in what they’re trying to do, and the candy shop was the theme he says no other brand had done yet.
The theme runs all the way through the room. “Over here on the sweet side, as if that wasn’t sweet enough, we’ve got a full candy wall and aesthetic built out,” he said on a walk-through of the space. The wall mixed gummies from Create, “which are creatine gummies,” with “a ton of different fruit assortments and Skittles and Starburst.”
The socks come first
Under the candy is a running brand. “Our focal product at Sweetfeet are performance socks,” Declan said, gesturing to the display. “But we built out an entire athleisure and performance line to showcase what we’ve got for the New York Marathon.” At the Candy Shop, he said, “we’ve got a full performance and athletic apparel collection, some of what I’m wearing.”
The socks are compression socks made for athletes and movers: moisture-wicking, with true compression. The newest release, the V2 Flame sock, is a limited run that Sweetfeet describes as built for race week in New York. The brand also runs a buy-a-pair, give-a-pair model. From September 21 to December 31, 2026, its No Cold Feet program matches every pair sold with a donation to the Bowery Mission, a short walk up the street at 227 Bowery.
Why a pop-up on the Bowery
For a brand that could have popped up anywhere for marathon weekend, the address was an easy call. “Sweetfeet is a Lower East Side brand,” Declan said. “It’s very much in our identity, the grittiness, the grunginess, the beauty of it. It’s just a part of our aesthetic, so it only makes sense that we’re right here.”
213 Bowery is a 750-square-foot corner storefront at Bowery and Rivington Street on the Lower East Side, visible from both streets and steps from the New Museum. For a brand that describes itself in terms of its neighborhood, it is a room on home turf.
“Sweetfeet is a Lower East Side brand. It’s very much in our identity, the grittiness, the grunginess, the beauty of it.”
Declan, Sweetfeet
A starting line as well as a shop
Marathon week gave the pop-up a second job. Two shakeout runs left from the door. On Friday, October 30, Sweetfeet, Takeoff and STORM hosted a free shakeout, meeting at 7:30 a.m. and setting off at 7:45. On Saturday, October 31, Create and Sweetfeet hosted a 5K, with warm-up and Create sampling from 8:30 a.m. and the run at 9. “We have some awesome events that we have planned here with other brands and run activations for the marathon,” Declan said.
New people through the door
That is what a pop-up does best for a brand without a store: it puts the product in front of people who haven’t met it yet. “The pop-up has been great. The space has been awesome,” Declan said. “We have a lot of foot traffic and new people to our business that have been coming in and seeing Sweetfeet and exposed to the brand for the first time.”
From our side, that is the kind of week a space is for. Sweetfeet arrived with a clear idea, built it out down to the candy scale on the counter, and filled the calendar with runs and partners. Declan’s own sign-off on camera was simple: he was “excited to showcase the awesome clothing collection that we built.”
- Brand
- Sweetfeet, performance socks and athletic apparel, Lower East Side, New York
- Pop-up
- The Sweetfeet Candy Shop
- Space
- 213 Bowery, Lower East Side — 750 sq ft corner storefront
- Dates
- October 29 – November 1, 2026 (NYC Marathon weekend)
- Events
- Shakeout run with Takeoff and STORM, Fri Oct 30; 5K with Create, Sat Oct 31
- Category
- Running, athletic apparel
What other brands can take from it
For brands that live mostly online, Sweetfeet’s Candy Shop points to a few lessons.
No store doesn’t mean no address. A pop-up gives a brand a room people can walk into, for exactly the week that matters most.
Pick the moment. Sweetfeet built its pop-up around the one weekend when the running world comes to New York.
Commit to the theme. A candy shop is a long way from a sock wall, and that’s the point. The theme gives people a reason to come in, and the socks are there when they do.
Choose a neighborhood that tells your story. For a self-described “Lower East Side brand,” a corner on the Bowery was the natural fit.
Bring friends. Shakeout runs with Takeoff, STORM and Create turned the shop into a starting line and gave other brands’ communities a reason to visit.
The candy wall came down after race day, and the room reset for the next brand. Sweetfeet still doesn’t have a store. For four days on the Bowery, it had a room of its own.
Frequently asked questions
Where was the Sweetfeet pop-up in New York?
At 213 Bowery on the Lower East Side, a 750 sq ft corner storefront at Bowery and Rivington Street held by Parasol Projects. Sweetfeet turned it into the Sweetfeet Candy Shop.
When did the Sweetfeet Candy Shop run?
From Thursday, October 29 to Sunday, November 1, 2026, the four days leading up to and including the TCS New York City Marathon.
What is Sweetfeet?
Sweetfeet is a performance sock and athletic apparel brand from New York’s Lower East Side. It makes moisture-wicking compression socks for runners and athletes and runs a buy-a-pair, give-a-pair model; its No Cold Feet program donates a matched pair to the Bowery Mission for every pair sold from September 21 to December 31, 2026.
What happened at the pop-up?
The storefront was built out as a retro New York candy shop, with a candy wall, a pink counter and disco balls, selling Sweetfeet socks and its performance apparel line. Two runs left from the shop: a free shakeout with Takeoff and STORM on October 30, and a 5K with Create on October 31.
Can I book 213 Bowery for my own pop-up?
Yes. 213 Bowery is one of eleven Manhattan storefronts Parasol Projects holds the lease on and rents by the week, Tuesday to Monday. Live availability and weekly rates are on the space’s own page, and bookings can be requested on the site.
