One pair of running shoes, bought for around a hundred euros and resold the same evening on Vinted. Five years later, a shop of more than a hundred and fifty square metres next to the Centre Pompidou, and customers queueing to sell him their own pairs on camera.
One distinction to keep in mind for the rest of this profile: the commercial brand is now SWAVE, but the company is still registered under the name SWAVEKIQS, with share capital of €15,000. That company, and only that one, is what appears in the official records.
He says he started with about a hundred euros, enough for one pair of running shoes that he resold the same evening on Vinted at thirty to forty euros of margin. He pays himself nothing: it all goes into the next pair. That is exactly the mechanism our reselling method describes, except held for years without drawing a salary.
He registers a sole trader business under the name SWAVEKIQS on 3 January 2022. It is closed at the end of that same year, when the activity changes scale. One year of existence, just long enough to go from a student who flips pairs to a registered trader.
His record shows PPA Business School between 2021 and 2024. An apprenticeship is offered to him; he chooses to give everything to the sneakers instead. It's the kind of trade-off that only tells well afterwards, once it has worked.
SWAVEKIQS becomes a simplified joint-stock company, articles signed on 10 January 2023, with €15,000 of capital. A detail that matters: the stated purpose doesn't cover only buying and selling footwear, it mentions e-commerce and audiovisual and web content production from the start. The channel isn't a side project, it's written into the articles.
The business sets up on rue de Montreuil, in Vincennes. The concept is already no longer buying a Jordan to sell it for more: you can buy new and used there, collect an online order, and above all sell your own pairs to the team, who authenticate them.
"SwaveKiqs is over. Welcome to Swave." The shop opens on Saturday 17 January 2026 at 24 rue du Renard, a few steps from the Centre Pompidou, across more than a hundred and fifty square metres, with 113 pairs given away to the first arrivals. The registered office officially moves there on 15 July.
This is the cleverest part of the business, and what sets him apart from the mass of sneaker resellers. He depends neither on wholesalers nor on the Nike release calendar.
The shop runs buy-back sessions: customers come in with their collection and negotiate the price face to face. The site still advertises those sessions. While a normal reseller hunts for stock, he receives it — and he buys it at the price he sets.
Those negotiations are filmed and make up most of the brand's short videos. A negotiation lasts a few dozen seconds, gets watched to the end, and makes the viewer want to come and sell their own. The content doesn't advertise the shop: it is the shop.
A hundred and fifty square metres in the Marais is rent. It's also a permanent studio, a meeting place and an events room: in May 2026 the Brouillon tour stops there with an exclusive screen print. The floor space works on several fronts at once.
Put end to end, that makes a loop which feeds itself: the community brings the pairs in, the buy-back becomes a video, the video brings back sellers and buyers, the pairs go out through the shop or the auctions, and the sales fund the next buy-back. Lucien Cupif applies the same idea to cars and clothing, Akram Junior to car dealing. The common thread: owning the channel that brings the customers, instead of renting it.
Six channels, three of which didn't exist as a trade five years ago. The figures below are public readings from September 2026 and move fast.
24 rue du Renard, Paris 4e. More than a hundred and fifty square metres of new and used, collection of online orders, and the buy-back sessions. It's the only channel where the customer leaves with the pair in hand.
Over 150 m²New sneakers, used sneakers, gift cards, buy-back and click and collect. The promise comes down to one word: every pair is checked by the team before it goes on sale. That check is what lets him sell used pairs at the price others charge for new.
Authenticity checkedAround 53,300 followers, roughly 5,600 items sold, 4.9 out of 5 across 1,237 reviews and a one-day average dispatch. The usual format: over a hundred pairs, bidding opening at one euro. The account was still around 42,000 followers and 3,754 sales a few months earlier.
Bidding from €1Partner channel, around 21,400 followers. The "bring us your pairs" sessions run at roughly 560 to 585 average viewers, peaking around 700 to 800. Customers literally watch the shop buy its own stock live.
Twitch Partner3,652 followers, 133 items sold, twelve hours of live streaming and 4.93 out of 5 across 68 ratings. The platform served as a training ground for the auction format, but Whatnot has largely overtaken it in the current strategy.
Secondary channelA sneaker cleaning and restoration partnership, with ten euros off for Swave customers and a joint t-shirt. It isn't a gimmick: the more worn pairs you resell, the more restoration becomes a working part of the model.
Extends the used lifeReadings from September 2026. Read them as an acquisition channel, not as a revenue source: platform advertising weighs little next to the margin on a single pair.
582 videos since January 2021, around 79.4 million cumulative views according to public trackers, which puts the historical average close to 140,000 views a video. The content turns on collection buy-backs, negotiations, rare pairs and the back rooms of the shop.
Close to 470 videos and about 3.95 million likes. This is the format that suits him best: some negotiations regularly pass 200,000 views, sometimes half a million. The TikTok account is bigger than the YouTube channel, which is rare for a physical shop.
In March 2025, Inoxtag hands him the job of finding several pairs: the video is now past 340,000 views. In March 2026, the Paris opening is filmed with Bigflo & Oli and passes 160,000 views. Another, with Camino, is approaching 190,000. He no longer waits for sneakerheads to find him: he goes and gets other people's audiences.
Three amounts circulate about him. None of the three comes from an accounting document, and it's worth knowing which says what.
His personal wealth therefore can't be established, and we won't put a number on it. In sneaker resale more than anywhere, revenue says almost nothing: you have to buy the stock before you sell it, and two million taken in may have cost one million seven hundred thousand. What is solid, on the other hand: an active company, a shop of his own in the 4th arrondissement, a salaried team and four selling channels that run.
Hugo Tiago Carvalho, born in January 2004 according to the official registry, so 22 years old. He runs SWAVEKIQS SAS, the company behind the Swave sneaker brand, a shop in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, an online store and several live selling channels.
It isn't public. SWAVEKIQS SAS files no consultable annual accounts, and the company information sites show revenue as not disclosed. A figure of around two million euros a year circulates, but it comes from a case study published by one of Swave's suppliers, not from an accounting document.
Unknown, and no serious figure is in circulation. The company is young, publishes no accounts, and in sneaker resale revenue says very little: you have to buy the stock before you sell it. With no known margin, costs or salary, any amount put forward would be invented.
The change was announced in early 2026, after roughly four years under the SwaveKiqs name, to move away from an Instagram reseller identity and build a retail brand. The SWAVE trademark had already been filed in September 2025. The company itself is still registered as SWAVEKIQS.
At 24 rue du Renard, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, next to the Centre Pompidou, since 17 January 2026. The shop was previously in Vincennes, on rue de Montreuil. The Paris address became the company's registered office as of 15 July 2026.
Through the buy-back sessions held in the shop, where the price is negotiated face to face with the team, and through the buy-back form on the site. Those negotiations are filmed and feed the brand's short videos: the seller becomes part of the content.
A niche, an audience, then revenue you turn into assets: the principle behind these profiles is set out step by step in the member area.