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The business of sneakers: Q&A with teenage entrepreneur Noah Vitale - Anaheim High School Sports There's something unearthly magical about having a pair of limited-edition, rare or highly sought-after sneakers. It comes the minute you crack open the lid on the quality-crafted shoebox, peel back the uncrinkled tissue paper and lay up your eyes on your fresh kicks (don't even get me started about the glorious give an impression of new leather, blended with rubber and Velcro!). Pretty near heaven, right? One individual that knows this exact feeling is Noah Vitale, a sophomore at Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga. The 16-year old has found a way to capture that bit of sneaker-heaven and produce it to sneakerheads around the world through his upstart company, Vitale Kicks. Not only is Noah an honors student, maintaining a 4.5 GPA and an affiliate the Grizzlies' football team, he's also a consummate professional who is able to be found hours before school starts at his desk submitting orders, answering customer emails and searching for exclusive sneaks for a fanatical subculture of sneaker aficionados. In just few months time, Vitale Kicks has earned over $250,000 dollars in revenue, due to a low-supply-high-demand market and plenty of hard work and commitment from Noah. Recently I sat down with all the young entrepreneur to chat about how he turned his or her own sneaker obsession into a thriving business. Quesiton: I love your small business logo. Who designed it? Noah Vitale: My brother Nick designed it. He's 18 along with a senior at Los Osos. We sat down together 1 day and just assemble it. People apparently like it therefore it worked out effectively. Q: So what exactly is Vitale Kicks? Noah: Basically it's this - Nike and Jordan brands will to push out a series of limited shoes whether its shoes from Air Jordan or Nike Running or anything like that. And because they're limited, there'll be a huge demand for them. So we find a means to buy them from shops and then mark them up after we have them in your hands. So, say we have a shoe that retails for $160 dollars, and it's really sold out in shops all across the United States. We'll take that shoe then sell it for maybe $230 dollars on our website. We are capable of doing this because there's such an enormous demand and you can't go in to a retail store and get them. So, the only choice is to purchase it from your so-called reseller, which is somebody like us. Q: So, if Nike drops a small edition Air Force 1, and I don't wish to sit facing Undefeated for two days, I can contact you up? Noah: Yeah, exactly. We actually have people who do sit outside of stores on release day then once they get the shoes we'll sell them a bit over retail. So yeah, definitely any kind of shoe as an Air Force 1 we can do the same exact thing. Q: As a consumer, I think that's really worth the mark-up there because who may have the time to sit facing a store for the days? Noah: Yeah, definitely. Q: So do you employ people to sit down out looking at stores? Noah: Yeah occasionally we all do. I'll pay friends say $20 bucks for one night to camp out with us. That's one of the many ways we're able to get the shoes. Q: What are another ways? Noah: We purchase them online and direct from retailers like Footlocker or NikeTown. We'll enter raffles. They're not the easiest to get. It's a complicated process. Over time we've accumulated friends and a network of folks like store managers etc. Q: It actually sounds fun. Noah: It is fun because you're meeting new people and it is thrilling every weekend to try to have as many shoes as you possibly can and at once I'm wonderful my friends. It's a good experience, in addition to making a good profit every weekend. Q: So basically, you've made a business from the hobby. Noah: Definitely, because it all started with an interest of these type of limited-edition shoes. And then realizing that there was clearly a big potential opportunity to create a business and make a little money. But it all originated as a spare time activity of collecting and wearing these sneakers. So, it definitely is a business along with a hobby at the same time frame. Q: When do you start it and just how old were you? Noah: Well I was many years old and I started the organization in April of 2013. Q: Do you remember the exact moment the theory sparked? Noah: It started when my father and I were outside a Finish Line one night, where these folks were doing a raffle and now we were able to pick up two pairs of Air Jordans. As soon as we walked out of the store some individuals stopped us and offered us a tremendous $150 dollars over-retail for them. We were like, 'Wow did that basically just happen'? It motivated dad too because usually when you tell a mother or father about doing similar to this they might say, 'Nah, there is no way! You can't go obtain a shoe that's in a store and resell it for further.' But after somebody on the sidewalk stopped my father and said, "Hey, I'll take those for $280 dollars at this time," I think that truly kind of lit the spark for everything. Q: It really really helps to have your dad on your side right? Noah: Yeah it definitely did help have my dad on my side. When someone how old irrrve become is starting off they're not going to have the revenue to be able to buy 100 pairs of shoes. So having my dad to help me out (with his fantastic credit card) was definitely a huge help. But, my parents will almost always be supportive of whatever I do. When I told my dad I wanted to accomplish this, he was all correctly because when I would be a younger kid I had another business anf the husband saw how well I did with that. Q: What's the most costly shoe you've sold? Noah: Nike includes a foundation with Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon. At the first in the year they released a shoe called the Nike Air Doernbecher that retailed for $250 dollars and that we sold it for $1300 dollars. So that would be a very large profit. It was sort of tough to look for a buyer while we found one for your price it was satisfying. And we were able to get a couple pairs of the. That was definitely our biggest sale. Q: What's been the most interesting shoe you've sold? Noah: We're working on that at this time. We have a very shoe called the Nike Air Yeezy which can be a collaboration between your hip-hop artist Kanye West and Nike. The shoe retails at $250 dollars and it is currently reselling while on an average of approximately $4,000 to $5,000 dollars. We have one pair within our hands right now so we're just waiting to find the right buyer who will pull the trigger. But that's definitely our most beneficial shoe that we've had. Q: How do you attempt selling a shoe that's worth a great deal? It sounds almost dangerous. Noah: Right! We've had it within our possession just a little over a month along with the challenge with a shoe such as this is you have to be careful about how you flip it because with such a huge demand, it's dangerous in order to meet up for a shoe that's worth $4,000 dollars. So you ought to be careful. But we're definitely keeping it safe until we find the right buyer. That will be nice once we let that go. Q: Nice payday! What do you generally do with the profits you earn? Noah: I'll occasionally buy myself clothes but most of the money is store in my bank-account and saved up for college. Also, I just bought myself an Audi. So, that's one helluva first car for me. But apart from that, I just use it away for college. Q: How amazed are you when you sit back to see the success you're able to create from reselling sneakers? Noah: It's amazing. When I was driving home from buying my Audi, I was just thinking, 'Wow! This thing that I'm doing has led to me having this car.' It's just great to see efforts pay off. Q: What do your friends think about Vitale Kicks? Noah: You know my buddies are actually people who I'll bring when camping to pick up shoes and I'll pay them for coming when camping. I'll text them some nights and say, 'Hey all of you down to check out Los Angeles beside me this weekend to pick up some shoes? I'm paying everybody so-and-so quantity of dollars.' And sometimes, they do not even desire to be paid given it's just a thrilling experience to go down to these populated areas and also to be around these people that are crazy for sneakers. And it's fun just to walk out in the stores with exclusive shoes and everybody's considering us saying, "Oh look, look, look, they got this or that." So my buddies have definitely taught me to be be where I am today and still have been a source of support and have taught me to be throughout everything. And an important feature about it is, some of my friends have actually started their unique sneaker reselling businesses with a smaller level. It's cool to determine that influence spread throughout all of the group of my buddies and to view them have success too with what they're doing. Sometimes they'll ask me for help and I'm happy to help them. Q: Are your customers surprised once they find out you're a senior high school kid? Noah: Well, I only tell people I'm near but when I do let them know I'm 16, they're very surprised. If anything they believe it's really cool that someone younger than them may be doing something similar to this. Q: The testimonial page on the website is merely photo after photo of super-stoked people revealing the shoes they purchased from you. How satisfying is that? Noah: The customer appreciation is fairly cool. That's one in the best parts is to see the customer testimonials. They're really a large help to our company and its rewarding if we get those back. Sometimes we'll even provide discounts if customers post a testimonial because that draws a lot of other those who haven't purchased from us. People will look at that and say, 'Oh those guys are legit ' they know what they do.' Q: What's the biggest challenge you've faced as being a young entrepreneur? Noah: My biggest challenge is maintaining school and the company at once. I'm taking all AP and Honors classes and hold a 4.5 GPA. When I go back home I usually have 3-hours of homework and when I'm playing soccer I won't go back home until 5 p.m. Then I'll have 40,000 people on social media that are emailing and contacting me relating to order or about these comfortable shoes that are being released and asking if I'm getting certain shoes. So that's definitely hard trying to balance all that. But I think I've form of found that balance. I take time out in a certain hour to resolve emails, to obtain back to customers, also to post up on social media. Then needless to say, I sign up for other time and energy to do school work and other things which can be more important. Q: Time management is surely a skill don't you find it? Noah: Yeah, it's something I've learned to perform. Q: What are your plans after high school graduation? Noah: I don't know what college I want to head to yet, but I plan to look right right into a 4-year school. I also consider hopefully running multiple businesses when I'm out of senior high school. But I definitely will visit college with whether Business or Computer Science Major and hopefully have other businesses on my own hands during those times. Q: Who are several of your influences or people that have inspirited you? Noah: I would say a business owner like Mark Cuban. Or if you watch the show Shark Tank, those people on the website. It's inspiring to see how successful they are and exactly how they're capable of help people out with businesses and stuff. Q. Ever consider taking Vitale Kicks on Shark Tank? Noah: Not really. You know, there's over 10,000 those who do the same exact thing as Vitale Kicks. It's not like we're some unique thing. We've just found a way to be successful. Q: What have you learned is probably the most important facet of creating a successful at-home business? Noah: How big social websites is in relation to its how it can help an enterprise. I started a year ago with one follower on Instagram now I have over 40,000 followers. Social media has really helped grow my business and it is definitely one of the most important factors for virtually any business these days. Also the importance of good customer support is huge. Like I said earlier, because the sneakers are so expensive, everyone is sometimes afraid to spend so much money. I will be nervous too if I was spending $400 dollars or higher. When you talk to a customer, you are making them feel comfortable regarding purchase. So, without a doubt social websites and good customer service are the two most crucial things in having a company. Q: A lot of young people think about starting their very own business or doing something entrepreneurial as if you. What kind of advice could you give a young person who has a excellent idea and wants to go on it to the next level? Noah: I would tell others to take a look around and see what other people are doing. Because when I was starting the business enterprise, I researched to other resellers and learned from their store. So one with the most important things is always to take advice and learn from others and build upon that. And also, do not be afraid of just how to get started. Get out there and get it going. Because you can have countless thoughts when creating a company and be thinking, 'I want to accomplish this and I want to perform that.' But you just have to travel and get it done. Eventually all this works out. So my advice will be learn and take advice from others and rely on yourself and do not be afraid to merely start. Take a chance and just start. Q: Just do it! As the famous shoemaker says! Noah: Exactly! Just do it! To find out more on Vitale Kicks and take a look at their extensive number of limited-edition shoes, take them into consideration at Vitalekicks.com. And connect with Vitale Kicks on Twitter and Instagram. |