Sabah Shoes, a Lower Haight high-end shoe store, will step away from San Francisco on Sunday after a more than three-year run in the city.
The brand offers handmade Turkish slippers, exclusive clothing and goods, beverages and welcoming hospitality. Slippers from the store cost around $200 per pair.
According to the store’s website, founder Mickey Ashmore began Sabah from an apartment in New York City’s East Village in the spring of 2013. He previously worked for Microsoft and lived in Istanbul, according to the website. Ashmore was profiled in a Wednesday article by the New York Times Magazine.
“I didn’t have a plan, or any fundraising, just several boxes of handmade shoes I loved and a desire to chart my own course,” wrote Ashmore on the website.
A hand-written sign on the Haight Street storefront between Pierce and Steiner streets listed its last days’ business hours as 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
“Dear Sabah friends, we’re saying goodbye to our SF store but not without a last hurrah!” a sign posted on its front door and seen Wednesday night by The Standard said. A listing on Sabah’s website says the closure is temporary. The store will throw a social gathering from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
“Looking forward to celebrating with you all at the end of the month,” the sign said.
Ashmore was contacted for comment but did not respond by publication time.
Hoodline reports the store chose its 663 Haight St. address after weighing locations in the Fillmore, Hayes Valley and Mission District. The store is Sabah’s first Bay Area outlet, following other stores in New York and London. A November 2022 blog post laid out the store’s plans to host events, showcase local artists’ creations and foster community.
Despite challenges suffered by some business owners, the Haight Street experience still draws on a rich cultural history and continues to thrive with murals, art centers, lunch spots and style-stuffed thrift shops.
In recent months, Sabah worked to raise thousands of dollars in the wake of February’s devastating earthquake in Turkey, where dozens of workers assemble some of its line of leather footwear at an Istanbul tannery and a Gaziantiep workshop. Sabah means morning in Turkish.
San Francisco Bay Area customers seeking products from the store’s Sabah and Baba shoe lines may call (929) 810-2034 or email portal@sabah.am.