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Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

By Jean Grant| Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani
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Cousins Kara and Reagan Kennedy were fed up with dropping huge coin on clothes their kids would outgrow in a matter of weeks. They decided to ditch their corporate careers (Kara was a marketing manager and Raegan was a lawyer) and launch Little White Sneakers. They started with an online shop in December 2015, and opened their first storefront near Mount Pleasant and Eglinton earlier this month. Local moms will find both high-quality second-hand pieces (“We only sell Gap and above,” says Raegan) and new, locally made stuff from Toronto designers. Right now, LWS has more than 500 different brands in stock, including designer gear from Burberry, Baby Dior and Stella McCartney, all in excellent condition and priced at a fraction of the cost of buying new.

The space was a flower shop before they moved in. The pair installed walnut floors and stark white fixtures:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

A chalkboard wall displays style tips for Toronto’s neighbourhood-hopping toddlers:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

Plush animal puppets from Cate and Levi ($25) are handcrafted from repurposed sweaters, making them all one of a kind:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

Patterned leggings from local brand Ollie Jones ($39) are made with 100 per cent organic cotton:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

Baby Dior moccasins are comfortable luxury for little ones. And at $33 (regularly $85), they’re a steal, too:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

These Brooks Brothers patent-leather oxfords are like-new and on sale for $40 (they’d be $100 full price):

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

The Kennedy cousins feature some of their Instagram-famous clients—wearing their clothes, of course—on the wall:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

You can snag dresses for as low as $10:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

For parents who don’t want to pay full price for a pretty flower girl dress that will almost certainly be worn only once, this one is only $75 (originally $180):

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Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

Most shoppers come in during the day, with their kids. This play table has apparently prevented many a tantrum:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

The shop has had to restock Ollie Jones’ popular Toronto onesie a few times ($24):

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

This practically new Lisa Perry dress (selling for $99, down from $220) is great at camouflaging finger-painting disasters:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

Torontojewellery label Marmalade’s necklaces ($25) are all handmade in a downtown studio using sterling silver and bronze:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

Playjamas’ organic cotton PJs ($38) double as cool costumes—making getting your kids into them less of a struggle:

Inside Little White Sneakers, a designer consignment store for kids

597 Mount Pleasant Rd., littlewhitesneakers.com

Jean Grant has been a freelance writer since 2015, covering a range of lifestyle topics like shopping, interiors, wellness and culture for publications like Maclean’s and Toronto Life. She also enjoys working with brands to develop custom content, and shares personal essays through her Substack newsletter, Nobody is Thinking About You.
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