The formation of a creative economy in Russia, which is becoming a trigger for the economic transformation of “second-tier cities” into integrated creative spaces, requires revision of the existing theoretical and methodological approaches to the classification of creative cities. The purpose of the research is to analyze the existing typologies for creative cities in terms of the appropriateness of their use for the formation of a classification of second-tier cities engaged in reindustrialisation. The content analysis of foreign and national scholarly literature on creative cities enabled the authors, first, to systematise the existing typologies for creative cities, and second, to propose an original classification in accordance with the criterion of a possible implementation of the selected pool in the typology of Russian second-tier cities. The authors set the directions for further research towards the formation of a classification of second-tier cities based on the concepts of a creative city, creative cluster, and second-tier cities involved in the process of creative reindustrialisation aimed at subsequent practical application. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.