The exclusive sneakers that the Guardiolas sponsor in Dubai

BarcelonaThe most widespread definition of the English word bang It's "cop," but in American street slang it has another meaning. It's also used as a synonym for "buy" and is used quite a bit in the underworld of sneakerheads, when they debate whether to spend the money on the latest exclusive model from their favorite brand with their staff. In a business that turns over almost seven million euros a year, Newcop is the company that grew out of what he started doing when he was just 16: buying limited-edition models in stores or online and then reselling them at a higher price.Companies.

He continued doing so in the following years, until in 2019 he decided to start a company and opened a warehouse from which he intended to start the new project. At that time, he was still coming "where he could," in other resale shops or directly to individuals through platforms like Vinted. The pandemic gave him the perfect excuse to grow the company: "It was a coincidence that e-commerce experienced a boom and the entire sneaker sector exploded enormously. That's when the business volume increased," says Camprubí. The Barcelona native added a Chinese partner with whom he shared that fervor and who now handles all the logistics and product aspects of the business. In April 2022, they opened their first physical store very close to Barcelona's Portal del Ángel, an area that has been filled with establishments of other Catalan brands with a vocation to attract young audiences. like Nude Project either TwoJeys.

With the opening of the first store, they also began to change their strategy: "Before, we might have bought 500 pairs at once. With the store, you now buy the 30 pairs you can sell that week," Camprubí notes. 9,000 euros and they were a pair of Nike Air Jordans in collaboration with Dior. Often, these are models that don't even make it to Spanish stores or can only be found in a few outlets around the world.

turning 25. vintage Adidas have been one of their latest joys, with a very intense resurgence in popularity in recent years.

Shortly after opening the first store in Barcelona, they debuted in Madrid, and a year ago they made the leap abroad with a store in Paris. Last February, Newcop went a little further with the opening of a store in the Dubai Mall, the largest shopping center in the world located in the luxury city of the United Arab Emirates. "We hadn't planned it, but the opportunity arose to open there, where it's almost impossible because there's a waiting list of businesses wanting to enter. A contact managed to get us a spot and we decided to go, although it's a quite complicated challenge," says Camprubí. This foray into Golf has also been made with the help of the Guardiolas, since one of the Catalan football manager's sons - Màrius Guardiola - is "close" to the brand. This led to a collaboration with Pep Guardiola, with the Manchester City manager acting as an ambassador for Newcop at an event in Dubai. where he recalled that "football is like life, it goes in streaks".

Looking for financing with 20 years

So far, the company's growth has been "super organic." "We've been fortunate that we've done very well since last month's launch, and we've been reinvesting the resources we've generated," says Camprubí. He got his first injection of capital to launch the company from the resales he did as a teenager, although he has also sought financing through banks and admits that he has occasionally had to ask his parents for financial help. "Being very young is an impediment in some ways, because in the end, you lack a lot of experience, but I've been fortunate that since I was little, I've been a fairly mature and responsible person," says the CEO of Newcop. He does, however, recall the time he asked the bank for a loan when he already had a turnover of one million euros and realized that he would have trusted a 40-year-old man with more money than he had. "Now I'm still finding it, but less," he laughs.

Currently, Newcop has 35 employees and they expect 2025 to be a year of consolidation, although growth will be less intense: they want to go from billing almost 7 million euros to 8 million. Instead, they will focus on adapting to the drop in the average ticket—previously around 300 euros, but now it's around 300 euros. "Although it may not seem like it, until now it hasn't had a significant impact; the website only accounts for around a million euros," reveals Camprubí.