Sneakerville is a street-wear and sneaker boutique located in Youngstown Ohio. Dom Mashorda, the owner and founder of the store is a millennial Entrepreneur who is only 19 years and decided pursue his passion and open his own shoe store. I personally have an interest in shoes and was able to follow the progress of Sneakerville through Instagram and even consigned multiple pairs of my own shoes with the store and developed a relationship with Dom in doing so. Dom stands out to me as being unique because he knew early on in high school that he did not want to go to college but instead start his own business, this takes a lot of courage and comes with lots of risk but can also result in great rewards and returns.
Sneakerville is one of the only sneaker boutiques in Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other surrounding cities and that is why it has been so successful. The store does not operate like any traditional shoe store at your local mall, but it instead offers specialty shoes that sell out instantly at other stores, and they also offer different types of clothing, hats, and accessories. People (like I did) are able to consign their shoes through the store which takes 15% of the sale price and lets the owner of the shoes keep the remaining 85% which also makes the store unique.
It is important how passionate Dom is about shoes and making his business last because without passion it is hard to have longevity. I have always dreamed of opening my own shoe store someday and getting to meet Dom and deal with Sneakerville inspired me keep pursuing my dreams.
This is a really encouraging story to read, simply because it makes the entrepreneur seem real and relate-able. I admire that this is a young man who is interested in fashion, and isn’t hesitant about what others may think of him and his own fashion sense and fashion design.
I also really admire that this company accepts other designers sneakers and items, and even gives them an extremely generous amount of the profit.
As a young student who is looking to open my own small business I find much encouragement from this story! Dreams will happen if you pursue them and make them happen!