French Montana’s New Auction Site Lets You Buy Memorabilia Directly From Athletes and Other Stars
The sports, music, and movie memorabilia markets keep reaching higher highs—and a new auction platform just launched to help fans acquire clothes, sneakers, and other items directly from their favorite athletes, musicians, and celebrities.
Launched Wednesday, the site was created by former StockX employees and is led by chief executive officer Yasir Malik, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Grammy-nominated musician French Montana is a co-founder, and the business has received financial backing from Courtside Ventures.
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The platform launched with a collaboration with Miami Heat basketball star Jimmy Butler, who offered two varsity jackets from his time at Tomball High School in Texas and Marquette University in Wisconsin. They’re expected to sell for $10,000.
Malik told WWD that he came up with the idea for the marketplace during his time at StockX, where he served most recently as director of strategy and innovation. “I couldn’t help but notice just how massive of a market sports memorabilia was,” he told the trade publication. “Although it was very competitive, I always thought that I would love to break into that market.”
In a separate interview with Boardroom, he explained that French Montana has played a big role in helping the platform grow. “[He] was the first person we pitched this idea to, and after we started working with him, we decided to onboard him as a co-founder of the company. French opened up his network and brought a ton of different talent for us to engage with,” Malik said.
Currently, Top Drwr has decided to pursue luxury apparel items from its celebrity clients. But Malik told WWD that many items will start at an inexpensive price.
“The idea is to start the auctions really low and let the market decide where they go,” he said. “There’s 10 total lots and I would say half of them are starting at $1. We’re really letting the users decide how much they want to give us. We want something that’s more attainable at different levels, like even the $10,000 jacket for example, that’s not going to be accessible for everyone, but there will be sneakers that you can probably snag for a couple hundred bucks.”
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