A pair of young entrepreneurs opened a new storefront for their sneaker repair business blocks away from Florida A&M.
Aaron Goodwin, a senior architecture student from Cocoa, Fla., and his business partner, Reenard Smith, who is from Miami, have taken their sneaker restoration business, A Good 1 Retro Repair LLC, from house visits and parking lot meet-ups to a central store at 2027 South Adams St.
Goodwin and Smith started their business out of pure love and respect for cool kicks. They consider themselves sneaker connoisseurs.
They started out by buying materials and repairing their own sneakers instead of spending loads of money to replace what they could easily fix themselves.
They figured they could make money providing this same service to their friends and networks for a small fee. So they had a logo designed, hopped on social media and began promoting their services.
Their promise to their customers, according to Goodwin, is that they will “bring your shoes back to life.”
Goodwin said they have a unique angle to the sneaker restoration business that separates them from local competition and keeps the referrals coming in.
“We specialize in exclusive kicks that are hard to find, so we wind up saving people a lot of money,” Goodwin said.
Naomi Morency, a senior allied health student from Miami and former Champs employee, attested to how limited some sneakers really are and how that creates a high demand along with a high price.
“They only send us a limited amount of exclusive releases,” Morency said. “On top of that, some people reserve their pair beforehand, making it hard to just walk up the day of a release and get the pair you want. I’ve seen people argue over their position in line just to get a pair of Jordan’s they’ve already bought before.”
According to Morency, sneaker companies use different release strategies to maximize their profits. Most stores receive 50 pairs of an exclusive sneaker per release. In a mall such as Governor’s Square, that means there are less than 300 pairs in the entire mall on release day, with varying sizes.
Smith said there are multiple reasons their services come in handy to sneaker collectors.
“You may have a pair of very rare shoes that cost $300 and are hard to come across, or a favorite pair that has sentimental value, or maybe you just have a small scuff on a brand new pair of sneakers,” Smith said. “Either way, A Good 1 Retro Repair is the place for you.”
Their main motivation to move to a central location from doing house visits and parking lot meet-ups was due to negative feedback from their customers and friends.
“When you are meeting up with strangers there is always a possibility of danger,” Smith said.
They were told people felt like they could be getting set up for robbery and didn’t trust that they would see their shoes again.
The two owners decided that the only way they could increase their customer loyalty and create a trustworthy brand was to open a storefront in town where people can drop off their sneakers, receive an order ticket and come back to pick them up when they are ready.
Their first attempt to open a shop was unsuccessful, but it didn’t stop the pair from striving to achieve their goal. Goodwin said that it was a blow at first, but when they finally found a suitable and affordable location, he was reminded that nothing could hold them back.
They plan on using this time as young business owners to perfect their craft and their business operations. They eventually have aspirations of franchising their brand and opening locations all throughout the state.
For more information, follow @Agood1RetroRepair on Instagram, email agood1retrorepair@gmail.com orcall 321-750-2825 for quotes.