PARIS — Swedish cult brand Nudie Jeans is set to open its first store in Paris this April, as the company accelerates its direct-to-consumer expansion following a strategic retreat from wholesale.
Last year the Gothenburg-based brand opened seven new stores globally, shuttering larger flagships in favor of smaller, more financially viable retail spaces it calls “denim kiosks.” The move marks a pivot after years of wholesale-driven growth that diluted pricing control and brand positioning.
“We decided to end the partnership with many of our biggest accounts, and now, a few years later, we’re in the financial position to actually start opening up the stores, and we want to keep them small,” said Nudie head of marketing Bettina Krohn.
In Paris, the brand is taking over a former jewelry store in the Marais, at 19 Rue du Pont aux Choux, which it previewed Wednesday night. The roughly 450-square-foot space was discovered after years of searching for a Paris location that offered the right neighborhood and didn’t require too much of a revamp.
Rather than overhaul the interior, Nudie is preserving original architectural elements such as raw stone walls, while repurposing used lighting and fixtures from other stores. The design is intended to feel like a home rather than a minimalist Scandi space — warm and woodsy, more “bored in a small town” kind of vibe, joked chief creative officer Martin Gustavsson.
The store will also double as a repair hub, a service key to Nudie’s circularity model. Working with a partner in the U.K., customers can have jeans repaired for free and trade in old pairs for 20 percent off new purchases. Nudie is currently looking for a repair partner in mainland Europe to meet a surge in demand.
A display of denim inside Nudie Jeans’ space.
Resalable items are sold secondhand, while unsellable or damaged stock is repurposed into furniture or tiles in certain markets. The brand is exploring partnerships to repair other labels’ denim, though it currently focuses on its own fabrics to ensure quality.
In Australia and New Zealand, it achieved 100 percent circular operations in 2024, ensuring that all jeans are repaired, resold or repurposed.
The Paris opening follows a period of reflection for the brand. After rapid U.S. expansion in the 2000s and a push into broader apparel beyond denim, Nudie Jeans lost focus on its core DNA, resulting in a downturn from unfocused product offerings. The company has since pared back to concentrate on denim as its anchor category, complemented by a tightly edited range of T-shirts, belts and leather jackets.
“We see denim as our album, and apparel as the merch,” said Krohn.
“We are very protective of our brand,” she added, noting that previous external collaborations pushed Nudie toward more trend-driven fashion. “We want to keep doing what we’re doing. Today, the brand loyalty is so fierce, and we have such a strong community. We just had to conclude that not everyone will like us, but those that do actually stay with us.”
That reset has reinforced Nudie’s emphasis on long-term brand integrity and community engagement.
“I don’t want to say we are cocky, but we’re kind of cocky — but in a good way,” said Krohn. “We are earning the community that we have based on integrity of product and our principles.”
Globally, Nudie operates stores in the U.K., Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, the U.S., Spain, and its home country of Sweden, and hopes to keep pace at roughly 10 openings per year. Paris will mark Nudie’s 35th global store, with Australia and New Zealand its largest market, counting 12 stand-alone locations.
