Shared Obsessions is a Rotterdam-based cultural brand turning niche interests into real-life belonging.

Not a friendship app. Not a exclusive social club. A designed system, built on the idea that the best connections start with shared obsessions.

The numbers say more than we can:
→ 90% of people arrive alone
→ 70%+ come back
→ 250+ members. 25+ nationalities. Built in 5 months.
→ 40% of communitiy co-creates with us

How it works:
We design cultural rituals around chess, fashion styling, music listening, and embed them in the fabric of the city. Local cafés, vintage stores, listening bars become what we call fourth spaces: places where community and commerce reinforce each other.
Every hangout is intentional. Every detail, from how people are welcomed, to how conversations start, to what makes someone return, is designed.

Why Rotterdam:
Rotterdam doesn't wait. It builds. This city's energy, experimental, unpretentious, multicultural, is the right soil for what we're growing. We're starting here. We're not staying only here.

Who we are:
Matthijs Huijbregts and Julie Arkes, both brand strategists & experience designers.  We started Shared Obsessions because we saw todays flaw: too many passionate people, too little real world belonging.

What we're looking for:
Creatives who care about belonging as much as they care about craft. Brands and venues that want to be part of something culturally meaningful. Journalists and curators who are watching what's next in social design.

shared obsessions

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shared obsessions

Org chart

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