DK’s Sneaker Blog

  When it comes to the building of a sneaker boutique, there are many ways that an entrepreneur can go about this. They can choose to focus primarily on the physical appearance of the shop or they can direct their attention on the content within it. This means that they are more concerned with the sneakers that will occupy the boutique.

  Growing up in New England, two brands of sneaker shops that I spent a good amount of my time at were Eblens and Expressions. These are shops that are distinct to the East Coast. These two boutiques usually carry the hottest releases from Jordan brand, Adidas, and Nike. Some friends myself would oftentimes visit them to see what was hot. The physical appearance of Eblens and Expressions are very similar. They often tend to use brick buildings in the around urban areas with black glass. The store logos are usually posted in huge letters at the front. This grabs attention of people that are walking by. It does not take very much effort to spot these boutiques.

   In Boston, there is a sneaker shop that is hidden inside of a bodega shop within the city. Only those who know what they are looking for can spot it. The decision of the owners to keep this is so that the store remains quite exclusive. Only the top sneakerheads know about it. Cameras are strictly forbidden from being used within the boutique. From a business perspective, many people would question this decision. It would appear that by remaining hidden, the store would not attract as many customers. Therefore it would not generate enough revenue. This is actually the opposite. The store known simply as Bodega, attracts lots of huge sneakerheads due to the fact that it has the hottest sneakers past and present.

Hello my name is Dk, thanks and welcome to everyone who has taken their diligent time to visit my blog! If you do not know know much about sneaker boutiques, by the end of this series, your knowledge will be heightened. The aforementioned are basically small stores often in urban settings that sell the hottest sneakers from top brands such as Nike, Air Jordan, Adidas, along with many other manufacturers. Stores like Footlocker, Champs, and Finishline are all examples of boutiques. They are just often located inside of malls.

  During the early years of my youth, I was always fascinated with sneakers. I still am honestly. Looking back, I remember in elementary school staring at kids feet when they would arrive with the newest kicks on their feet. I thought to myself wow those are so nice. I have to hop on the wave. Back then, when I would buy new shoes I would make sure to keep them as pristine as possible. I even kept the boxes along with the wrapping papers that were placed inside the shoes to prevent creasing and I also cleaned all my sneakers after wearing them. Those are habits of mine that still remain to this very day.

  Another thing I would do too was to closely follow the release of the Air Jordan sneakers on this website known as 23isback.com. The information they provided was always legit. Once you saw the release date of what you wanted, it was just a matter of going out early on that day and then waiting in line to make your purchase. Within the sneaker community, this is known as “camping”. Throughout this blog series, I’ll be talking about my favorite sneaker boutiques to visit growing up in New England along with other famous ones across the U.S. and around the world. As we look at these boutiques, one thing we’ll observe is how the entrepreneurs went about starting their businesses. This is an essential element because through that we will take into considering successes and failures to help those that might want to enter the industry.

   Over the last decade, the sneaker industry has grown tremendously according to Forbes Magazine. From the time period between 2004 and 2014, the market grew by almost 40%. This comes out to an estimate of about $55 billion. Looking at those numbers, I think it makes sense to see why entrepreneurs would be interested in joining the business by creating boutiques. It is a market that they can capitalize upon. The way things currently are, the popularity of sneakers will continue to rise. Large producers like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour have seen huge increases in revenue since 2007. For example, those three companies saw sales improve by nearly $25 billion. As one can see, there is a vast amount of money to be made here.

  When an entrepreneur wants to build a boutique in the present day, they must have means of attracting members of the millennial generation. This is because these are the folks that spend the most amount of cash on sneakers. As members of the youth, we all want to look our best always. This is why we are willing to spend our hard earned money to satisfy our hunger. During the year 2014, millennials spent about $21 billion on footwear. The majority of that money is spent on sneakers above the $100 mark. Why is this you ask? That is because this is where the best looking sneakers are found. Some of the most popular footwear in this category include the Nike Air Jordans and the Adidas Ultra Boosts. These shoes tend to be eye popping and come in a variety of styles and colorways. They also offer great levels of comfort for your feet. When I was in the 9th grade I remember waking up early one Saturday morning to be in line to purchase a pair of Grape 5s. These were shoes that I had wanted for a while. I spent several months saving up. When I finally completed the purchase, it was no doubt one of the greatest feelings. This is why millennials continue to spend so much on sneakers. We enjoy that feeling!