When Parke Pops Up, Gen-Z Comes Out

NEW YORK — They came by the hundreds to the corner of Greene and Grand Streets. Some woke up as early as 3 a.m. to be there, taking trains not just from across New York, but the suburbs in New Jersey and Connecticut. Most wore athleisure or wide-legged jeans, and stood in groups with friends, carrying iced coffees and scrolling on their phones. All were after one thing: the perfect sweatshirt — and maybe, a pair of jeans, too.

This was the scene on the opening morning of Parke’s three-day pop-up in SoHo. By the time the doors opened at 10 a.m. on Friday, the line spread across nearly two blocks. For those near the front, the hours-long wait was a necessary price to pay for the brand’s sweatshirts, even though many already owned at least one.

“I’m committed,” said Anna Rodriguez, 26, who arrived at 7:20 in the morning, waiting over three hours before she was able to enter. “I came last year, but on the last day everything had been picked over, so this time I tried to get here early.”

The frenzy continued throughout the weekend: The lines continued into Sunday, and Friday ended up being the best sales day in the brand’s history.

Parke’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pop-ups (last weekend’s was the brand’s third) are all part of the plan, according to founder Chelsea Kramer, who started selling sweatshirts in 2022.

“I would love to have it open for weeks and weeks, but keeping it shorter definitely builds hype,” she said.

Kramer is an expert. Parke has become synonymous with its sold-out sweatshirts, the signature of which has a mock neck and is emblazoned with the brand’s logo. The brand rose to fame on social media, as fans clamoured to shop its streetwear-style drops and posted their hauls on TikTok afterwards. Opportunities to shop its products in person are rare; its only wholesale partner is the online-only Shopbop. Plus, pop-up visitors get access to special versions of its sweatshirts (as well as hats, totes and even matchbooks) featuring illustrations of New York icons, including yellow taxis and soft pretzels.

To predict inventory, Kramer and her team considered the top-performing products from previous pop-ups, scaling the numbers to anticipate higher demand since its last pop-up in September. Still, fans anticipated scarcity, a mindset that propelled many to wait in line for hours for a chance to shop in the first hours.

Inside, sweatshirts filled floor-to-ceiling shelves along the back wall. But the focal point was denim. Like its past two pop-ups, this served as a preview of its upcoming denim drop, set to be released online in June, with new pieces including jeans (both long and short) with an elastic waistband, pairs whose waist can be adjusted with buttons and denim rompers and dresses.

“I’m trying to make a really cool denim brand, and I want people to know that,” Kramer said. “People will come for the sweatshirts, but then hopefully stay for the denim.”

There’s also a station to create DIY bag charms, a coffee and matcha bar courtesy of the Montauk General Store, as well as a selection of shoes and clothes from vintage seller Nou and pieces from Parke’s recent collaboration with Aureum Collective, a social media-favourite accessories label with another influential founder, Cass DiMicco.

The frenzy — and crowd demographics — called to memory the pop-up (also on Greene Street) hosted by Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand Rhode last summer. The difference? The founder is not the wife of one of the world’s best-known pop stars, but someone who didn’t even have much of a following on social media when she launched the label in 2021. (Today, she has just over 80,000 followers on Instagram.) Still, Kramer herself is a major element of the appeal: Since founding Parke (her middle name), she’s become something of a Gen-Z it girl. She was in-store from open to close all three days.

“We love Chelsea, her team and all their style,” said New York high schooler Emma Kauffman, who attended both of Parke’s past pop-ups. This time, she got in line at 9 a.m., and brought two friends with her.

Kauffman noted that this was the longest line she’d ever seen for a Parke pop-up, as the brand has gone from insider favourite for those in the know on TikTok to mainstream must-have, at least for women on the cusp of Gen-Z and Gen Alpha. From February 2024 to February 2025, it charted a 950 percent increase in sales. Its influence extends beyond the coastal bubble, too: 18-year-old Texas Christian University student Isabella Mouracade said that the brand is “big in the South” and omnipresent on their campus.

Recent weeks, however, have exposed Kramer to the downsides of that attention: The TikTok account “Sustainable Fashion Friend” made two widely viewed videos alleging that Parke sources its products — including sweatshirts priced at up to $140 — from Alibaba, which Kramer denies.

“We do everything,” she said. “We produce all of our own products.”

To further underscore that point, custom-built cases in the pop-up displayed fabric swatches, design sketches, fitting photos and more. She also frequently shares peeks at production on Instagram and TikTok (a practice that pre-dates the allegations), which she said contributes to the sense of community around the brand. That was evident at the pop-up, which was a social outing for many customers, several of whom were on summer break.

“If you’re wearing a Parke sweatshirt, you’re automatically cool,” said 20-year-old Waverly Fogel.