This weekend, Manchester streetwear brand Drama Call opens a pop-up at 70 Tibb Street in the Northern Quarter.
The queues will form. The limited edition Adidas Superstars will sell out. Aitch will likely be seen in the fit. And 500 people will walk away with a free key ring and north compass.
Here’s what most of them won’t know……
They are walking on sacred ground.
( left to right; Tasl, Zeds, Chris Hamer, Femi )
Thirty-two years ago, at this exact address, something happened that made this weekend possible.
On February 5th, 1994, a man named Chris Hamer opened The Sheep Store at 70 Tibb Street. It wasn’t just a shop opening. It was the first fashion retail store in what would become Manchester’s Northern Quarter. And it was the first place in the entire UK to stock brands like Stussy, Supreme, Carhartt, and The North Face.
The unit was later taken over by Oi Polloi, who continued to shape boutique urban fashion in Manchester.
But Chris did something else. Something that matters more. Especially this weekend.
He was the first person in the UK to connect Adidas with skateboarding.
The Shell-Toe: A History You Think You Know (But Don’t)
Before Drama Call. Before Aitch. Before the third Adidas Superstar collab. Before the hype and the resell markets — there was a basketball shoe that couldn’t stay on the court.
The Adidas Superstar launched in 1969. A shell toe for durability. A herringbone sole for traction. Leather that didn’t rip. A man named Chris Severn perfected it in the Adidas workshop, solving problems that canvas shoes couldn’t handle: ripped toes, unstable heels, slippery floors.
But here’s the thing about culture. You can design a shoe for basketball. You cannot control what happens next.
In the 1980s, three kids from Hollis, Queens – Run, DMC, and Jam Master Jay all started wearing Superstars without laces. Not because they lost the laces. Because it meant something. It meant you were from the streets. It meant you’d seen things. It meant you were tough enough to survive New York City when “broken glass everywhere” wasn’t a lyric – it was the walk to school.
Run-DMC wrote a song called “My Adidas.” Not because they were paid. Because they meant it.
“My Adidas walked through concert doors / And roamed all over coliseum floors.”
In 1986, at Madison Square Garden, Run told the crowd to hold up their Adidas. Thousands of shell-toes rose in the air. An Adidas executive named Angelo Anastasio watched from the wings and realised: this isn’t marketing. This is a movement.
Adidas signed Run-DMC to a $1.6 million deal. The first time a sneaker company truly partnered with Hip Hop. It saved the Superstar from a sales slump.
Run says it best: “It’s magical because we wasn’t hired to promote Adidas; we were just doing us. That’s the DNA. Authenticity before commerce. Culture before contract.
From Queens to Manchester: Chris Hamer’s Vision
While Run-DMC was raising shell-toes at the Garden, a professional BMXer in Manchester named Chris Hamer was watching. And thinking.
Chris understood something most people didn’t. He saw that skateboarding, graffiti, BMX, Hip Hop, and street fashion weren’t separate things. They were one thing. A culture. A way of life that hadn’t been packaged or sold in the UK yet.
In 1990, he opened The Sheep Store in Afflecks Palace. The first streetwear boutique in the north of England. Maybe in the country.
In 1993, he moved to 70 Tib Street. The shop launched in February 1994. And that’s when the real history happened.
Chris Hamer became the first person in the UK to introduce Adidas to skateboarding.
Think about that. Today, Adidas Skateboarding is a global powerhouse. Pro models. Global teams. Nike SB’s biggest rival. But in 1993, Adidas wasn’t thinking about skateboarding. The shoes were on basketball courts, on hip-hop stages, on street corners in Queens. Not on skateboards.
Chris saw the connection before the brand did.
He worked with Michael Kopleman ( the godfather of street wear), purchased deadstock Adidas Superstars, shipped them to Japan (where the early streetwear scene was exploding), and planted a flag. He told skateboarders: these shoes work. The shell toe gives you durability. The flat sole gives you board feel. The Three Stripes give you something else: identity.
The same ruggedness that made Superstars perfect for New York streets made them perfect for coping rails and concrete parks. The same shell toe that survived broken glass survived razor tail and grip tape. The same leather that Run wiped clean after a show wiped clean after a session.
Chris Hamer didn’t just open a shop. He opened a bridge between worlds that had never been connected.
Last week, at Aries in London, a book launched. It’s called Elsewhere – The History of UK Skateboarding 1987 – 2002 by Neil Macdonald ( inst @scienceversuslife ). Neil spent six years travelling the country, interviewing the pioneers of UK skate culture, digging through archives, and documenting scenes that went undocumented in the pre-internet era. Elsewhere explores the lasting influence of UK skate culture on fashion, film, photography, art, and media – as told by those who lived it.
And The Sheep Store at 70 Tib Street is in the book… telling the story of black & white shell toes & the North Face Sheep Store T ( housed in the GM Hip Hop Archive).
What The Sheep Store Brought to the UK:
The Sheep Store at 70 Tib Street was the first UK stockist of:
- Stussy
- Supreme (the same year Supreme launched in Manhattan — 1994)
- Carhartt
- The North Face
- Girl, Real, and Chocolate skateboards
- Nike ACG
- And Adidas ‘Shell Toe’ deadstock for skaters
Very young Greens at the counter (wearing Jason Orange’s ( Take That) double goose leather wastecoat) in front of the one-of-one imported 3-stripe adidas copy tracksuit, by X-Large, the LA based streetwear brand endorsed by Mike-D ( BeastieBoys ) & Kim Gordon ( Sonic Youth). In the shot – Sheep co-owner James Harrington, with Dudley Hall ( Founder of UK graffiti supplies distributor SuspectPackage).
The shop became the street culture catayst for fashion, music, graffiti, and skateboarding inspiring individuals who have shaped generations,
Fro
m that tiny shop on Tibb Street, Chris helped birth careers that still shape British street culture today. Guy Gerald. Goldie. DJ Semtex. Jabb. Tom Henshaw. Dan Henshaw. Dudley Hall. Blacklodge. Sefton Madface. Tasl. Femi. Chop. The Wolf Brothers. Butty. Rick Cooper, and Greens, from Unity Radio….. and influenced Paul Harrison & Paul Rogers.
Just a handful of independent street culture pioneers born from Sheep. Architects of the scene today.
The Sheep Store opened at 70 Tibb Street on 5th February 1994
Drama Call opens at 70 Tibb Street this weekend (30.05.26)
Elsewhere tells the story in between. The circle is complete. The legacy is recorded.
