Two rooms full of sneakers. One culture.
Before 2nd Culture existed, it was a bedroom stacked floor to ceiling with pairs, a bar conversation that changed everything, and almost eight years of chasing the next great piece across three stores in Amsterdam.
It started with too many shoes
Jeldi's love for sneakers started on a BMX. Tearing through pairs meant paying closer attention to materials, shapes and colorways: Vans, Osiris, DVS. When he stopped riding and a pair suddenly lasted more than three weeks, a new world opened up: Nike SB.
Soon he was full-time on Marktplaats and NikeTalk, driving to meet-ups, studying release books to track down the rare stuff. By 2014, with the Air Max 95 Halloween QS, it had truly escalated. Over 150 pairs stacked around his room, much to his mother's despair. There was no business plan yet. He just flipped pairs to fund the next pickup. Wearing a pair for six months without losing a dime was the win.
Jeldi had just left his job at Nike and was ready to travel the world. Then Hans sat down next to him at a bar and asked him straight: what do you actually want? Jeldi described it on the spot: a physical space where sneaker heads could come and see rare pairs in person, all in one place. They called about a location that same night. Two weeks later, the first store was open.
While Jeldi was building that first wall of sneakers, Bram was building something of his own, at the exact same time. Football had already given way to clothing years earlier: camping out for the Jordan 1 “Bred” in 2016, chasing every Supreme drop between classes, then falling for vintage band tees sourced through Marktplaats. By the time Jeldi opened his doors, Bram was already running his own pop-ups, meetups and temporary events around Amsterdam, years before the two of them would ever cross paths.
Almost a decade, three storefronts, one growing collection
We've never treated a move as a fresh start. Every location has been the same story: outgrowing its walls. Here's the route so far.
Rosmarijnsteeg
Born from a bar conversation and opened within two weeks. Small, sneaker-focused, and the first proof that Amsterdam had room for a space like this.
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal
The second store opened right in the middle of the biggest boom the sneaker industry has ever seen, the same hype Jeldi had been chasing since his Marktplaats and NikeTalk years. Then it started cooling off, fast. By now, Bram's own hustle had grown into Pre.ownd, his Instagram page and website for reselling vintage and streetwear. Jeldi started buying pieces from him, and the two slowly began working together.
Haarlemmerdijk 144
What started as buying pieces from each other slowly turned into something bigger. Jeldi and Bram finalized the collaboration and shook hands on it: from here on, they were doing this together. That decision led to the biggest step yet, a 100m² store on Haarlemmerdijk, big enough to finally hold both their collections side by side. It was a huge leap for both of them, and a process they're genuinely proud of. This is where sneakers and vintage streetwear, hand-picked and graded, finally live under one roof.
Two collectors, one shop
Bram brought the vintage and high-end streetwear eye. Jeldi brought the sneakers. Together, they cover the full spectrum 2nd Culture is known for.
Jeldi Maas
FounderStarted on a BMX, ended up 150 pairs deep in his bedroom. Flipped sneakers to fund the next pickup for years before a bar conversation with Hans turned the idea of a physical sneaker space into 2nd Culture. It opened within two weeks.
Focus: sneakers, and the exclusive Japanese streetwear brands that shaped the culture from the start.
- Nike Air Max 95 OG Lux (Italy Made)
- Nike Air Force 1 (Uslu Airlines World 1 Pack)
- Nike SB Dunk “Heaven's Gate”
- Nike / Nike ACG, Acronym, Rick Owens, Wacko Maria, 1017 ALYX 9SM, Maharishi
- Acronym J125-KI
- Alyx x ROA Hiking Chelsea Boots
- Rick Owens Waxed Torrance Cut Jeans (Black)
Bram Hanselman
Co-ownerStarted on the football pitch, not on the sneaker line. When football's pull faded, clothing took its place: camping out for the Jordan 1 “Bred” in 2016, chasing every Supreme drop between classes, then falling for vintage band tees sourced through Marktplaats. During corona, that hustle became Pre.ownd, his own resale page and website, and the pop-ups and temporary stores that followed led him straight to Jeldi.
Focus: vintage, curated band tees and streetwear.
- Stone Island Heat Reactive President Knit
- Vintage 1995 Stone Island Jumbo Corduroy Overshirt
- Stone Island, Prada, Maison Margiela, Umbro, vintage art tees
- Nike Air Max 95 OG Lux (Italy Made)
- Stone Island Reversible Knit
- Maison Margiela trousers
How we work: hand-picked, checked, graded
Almost ten years in, this is the process behind every piece that makes it onto our racks.
Hand-picked
We work with a fairly recognizable, defined set of streetwear brands, the names most people in the culture already know. But the real question when we pick a piece is never just “is this cool”. It's “is this unique, or does it have a story someone out there is looking for”.
Sometimes that means stepping outside our usual brands entirely, if something has real character and a story behind it. But that's the exception, not the rule.
Our lineup: CP Company, Supreme, Nike, Jordan, Adidas, Yeezy, BAPE, Billionaire Boys Club, Nike SB, Stussy, Palace, Patta, Stone Island, Undercover, Ambush, Maharishi, Kapital, Acronym, Moncler, Gucci, Margiela, Alyx, A-COLD-WALL*, New Era, and more.
Jeldi and Bram both select stock, leaning on each other's specialty and learning from one another along the way: Jeldi for sneakers, high-end and technical wear, shaped by the same collector's eye that once filled his bedroom with 150 pairs; Bram for vintage, curated band tees and streetwear. A second set of trained eyes on every piece, before it's even authenticated.
Legit checked
At the big resell chains, authentication is a numbers game: staff are trained to clear fifty pairs an hour. We don't work that way. If a piece needs three days, or a week, it gets three days, or a week.
Every item is compared against pieces from our own archive, built up over almost ten years. When something's outside our expertise, we call in help: a denim collector of 25 years, a contact in Japan who's been authenticating longer than most people have been reselling. UV lights, databases, stitching, materials, hardware, we check it all. But nothing replaces a real person looking at the real thing.
Graded, honestly
Every item that passes gets graded by hand. No algorithm, no guesswork. And we don't sell anything below 3-star, period.
Unworn, tags on, original box.
Like new. Barely visible wear.
Solid condition, light use.
Visibly worn, plenty of life left.