About SOLE 2 SOLE
A little story on how it all started.We believed that the right pair of shoes – or the right bag – could genuinely make someone’s day. Happiness in a bag. That was the idea. Turns out, it was also a business.
Andrea Claire, Hair Stylist & Makeup Artist
Our Philosphy
We chose brands that had something to say.
SOLE 2 SOLE is more than just a shoe shop. It’s a lifestyle shop. While shoes and bags are our core products, what is actually important to us is this: we choose brands that are quirky, fun, and have good design. Comfort is key, as well as being value for money.
We brought in labels that were new to the Singapore market – French Sole, Lulu Guinness, United Nude. Over the years, we watched their management teams change their thinking, and we were very proud to have been part of introducing these brands to a new audience.
Every purchase that left our shop went out in a bag. And we took that seriously – because what’s inside that bag is a little bit of happiness.
In 2004…
We started small. Then we grew. Then we grew again.
We started as a serviced office showroom – no shopfront, just a space and a lot of conviction. Our first proper retail store came soon after, a 300 sq ft unit at Mandarin Hotel Arcade. Small enough that the shoes had to earn their shelf space. A year later, we moved into a unit twice the size in the same arcade – still not enormous, but enough to breathe.
Then in 2008, with the arcade’s redevelopment plans underway, we moved to Millenia Walk. That became our home for the next six years.
Those were genuinely fun years. We knew our customers – many of them became regulars, then friends. We knew their shoe sizes. We knew who would make a beeline for the United Nude heels and who would spend twenty minutes deliberating over the French Sole ballet flats before buying both colours.
The little conversations and giggles in the shop – those were what made it worth showing up every single day.
The Shift
The market changed. We had to change with it.
By 2010, customer behaviour was shifting. Shopping was moving online, and we moved with it – launching our ecommerce store and building a hybrid retail model. At first, it worked well. The two channels complemented each other.
But over time, the underlying structure of the business became more complex than we had anticipated. Managing retail and ecommerce simultaneously, with an independent labels model, meant we were being stretched in multiple directions at once. And as the brand owners began launching their own online stores, the competitive landscape shifted in ways we hadn’t fully prepared for.
What had once been a clear, simple idea – find beautiful things, bring them to Singapore, make people happy – had become considerably harder to execute.
The Decision to Step Away
Sometimes the most honest thing you can do is know when to stop.
Between 2013 and 2015, I made the decision to wind down the business. It wasn’t a sudden moment – it was a gradual recognition that the model we had built was no longer sustainable, and that continuing would mean compromising on quality in ways that felt wrong.
There were personal factors too. My mother’s health meant I needed more flexibility than a physical retail business could give me. Life was asking me to pivot – and I listened.
I don’t look back on it as a failure. I look back on it as eleven years of an education that I couldn’t have bought any other way.
We closed the physical store, ran through some concession and pop-up formats, and stepped away properly by 2015. The bags stopped going out the door. But the happiness we’d delivered – that stays.
Our Founder
Lynette Lim founded SOLE 2 SOLE in 2004.
Her background was in brand management, retail operations, and merchandising – and all of that shaped the way she built and navigated the business across multiple phases. What SOLE 2 SOLE taught her most strongly, though, wasn’t about products or buying trips. It was about structure: what happens when a business outgrows its systems, and what it takes to fix that.
Rather than approaching business through isolated tactics, her work now focuses on structure, systems, and how different parts of a business connect – so that growth feels like progress rather than chaos.
A Note
SOLE 2 SOLE is no longer operating as a retail business. This site stays up as a record of the journey – the brands, the customers, the fun, and the lessons.
If you’re exploring this site, chances are you’re interested in how businesses evolve, and what can be learned from that process. If that resonates – especially if you’re a founder whose business is growing but starting to feel heavier than it should – I’d love to connect.
Visit Pollyanna Consulting → www.pollyannaconsulting.com