is there anything you want to tell your
mom okay mama I made it a culture where
high price kicks means status power used
Nikes and Adidas can sell for hundreds
sometimes thousands of dollars the size
of the athletic shoe market has more
than doubled to 21 billion dollars a
year I'm holding you know that no one
because nobody I'm gonna do stands at 27
years old I'm the co-founder of focus is
a buy sell and trade sneaker boutique we
did five million last year in singles
this is my hustle my goal for projected
sales is to be over 15 or 20 ml of this
year people will always buy sneakers
that's just that late for you we always
planned on coming to LA cuz the culture
and sneakers and clothing and everything
is huge in LA the population is much
higher here as more money out here
tons of sneaker shops out here people
say having more sneaker stores around as
compared up it's actually draws more
attention to like the food industry
there's ten restaurants on the same
block but all of them were make the
money it's same thing with sneakers this
culture as long as you had a product
that people want people always shop with
you welcome you try to put organize it
by like brands this whole case is like
Yeezys we have the first generation
Easy's up top these are the original
sneakers you made luckily we actually
have the whole set these end up going
for like three thousand movies a brand
new these the hard shoes basically five
brand new we have all three of them all
right the most expensive shoe in here it
would be closer to the red Octobers
right here that we have only seen like
maybe ten pairs ever now we're in the
stockroom we'll probably have over 3,000
pairs just at this location the old band
ones such a gem shoe these are basic
fall back from Nike they have an X on
the back it's never released this is
easily over like 1500 hours with the
shoe right there just sitting right
there cuz I love older releases we've
just bought a collection last week
they're bunch of older stuff the old flu
games brand-new this is one of my
favorite shoes at cherry 1204 shoe brand
no you never know what you could find
back here that's the best thing about it
it just literally shoe so I'm good the
ground literally all the way to the
ceiling investor products would you
rather not have money in your bank
account rather invest something that's
gonna grow in value it's like having
stock invest in resting
tortoise what'd you sell for a living
invest in it he's about a big collection
of 60 pairs of rain storms we spent over
$10,000 for the one throw right now I'm
just trying to make sure everything's
legit any time of steve comes in we have
Ron and Curtis are our main two buyers
that try to authenticate it
the codes different look at that
something will slip through the crack
like a number on the size tag will make
your face if we're not a hundred percent
sure we'll pass on it because we want to
keep our reputation clean but I want to
be known as selling a fake pair of shoes
so that's he in a business nezzie eight
times finest I think we're real
successful is because you really do it
for the people for the culture not for
anything else just for the actual love
and passion of the sneaker world our
district and we're really active with
our followers and we trash the love we
try to get free giveaways
so 2018 I posted our Instagram not only
are we buying shoes now we're buying
clothing in the 30 days you probably
would be spending three to five hundred
thousand dollars just in clothing and
accessories we need to have nowhere to
store it my partner's have a little
penthouse and we use the top floor
literally it's a whole inventory for our
other shop so after 30 days of seeing
how much inventory we had I was like Ari
this time we wanted to be close by to
our current store and Melrose is just
growing and growing so two blocks away
well there's a shoe pouch there and a
debate there and I was like if I opened
a store on that block I know I can bully
the block whenever shoe releases come I
can just be on that block I won't let a
shoe leave I can just literally just buy
everything and everyone has to come to
me so we ended up signing that lease
welcome to the cool by Sun trader
clothing supreme off YV loan babe etc me
and my co-founder MOOC was it'll cool
let me show you some real trip from
rappers to a please - your favorite
Instagram are they all come here because
they want to shop for something to wear
for the night or something to add to
their drift and the most popular item is
like baked shark hoodies
everyone likes these hoodies we some
about like 350 to 4 we always say
real-life Instagram we put on shirts
with popular blends everyone likes our
blend away the number one street wore a
brand of literally all-time supreme
everyone's favorite supreme thing is the
Box logo the most expensive item we have
in store is this pastel jackets from
Kanye West's line he was going to
release this jacket but never released
so it's like a few flowing around we
have this about eight to nine thousand
dollars right now but it's gonna be
technical most offensive item is that
factory defect go toe Jordan one we're
not here for the money but it's dope it
adds our little unique thing to our
store there's one thing in here that's
like almost priceless someone said this
to me the other day we've hosted it for
$1,000 but I hid it because I know it's
way worth more than that
so we're gonna keep this and put this in
a glass case just no virgin to pillow
body pillow coming soon 6 a.m. I wake up
and I had 70 missed calls surveillance
video is showing the bandits first
attempting to break into cool kicks LA
using cutters when that didn't work they
turned to a motorized saw before
settling on a sledgehammer shattering
the storefront window rush again coming
out with
for the clothes and other merchandise as
far the most devastating I literally was
heartbroken like that day was stressful
I to close down the store for like a
week we lost so much money in sales they
stole it was more than a quarter of a
million dollars worth the inventory it's
not about the money it's more of
obtaining these items these items are
not easy to get looking back at it kind
of made it stronger it kind of made me
more hungry I was like guys don't take
stuff for granted they're people gonna
hate people gonna hate success is just
what it is people are looking for a
come-up consumer motivators my family
I left them I don't see them often maybe
three times a year and just being cross
country really motivates me because I
don't want to come here and not be
successful I'd rather just go back home
and is get a corporate job I was
actually scared to tell my parents about
this being pressured my family being a
doctor Baltimore brothers are doctors
and it's just pressure being from a
middle-eastern household is tough
telling them you're moving across
country to sell shoes that's a slap in
the face like what do you mean you just
got your masters and you want to move
three days later and that was probably
the hardest thing that was the most
pressure I've ever had it was tough and
then when they both came out here and
they saw both of my store they're like
damn it says is unique because people
don't understand the culture of selling
shoes there's different levels to it and
as long as you can sell it with a
storefront with a brick-and-mortar
people don't get how much money is
really into it now I just after telling
my mom everything's her seeing the
success two lines the money coming in
now I'm making more than a dentist and
now she's proud of me
well we work 60 plus hours a week being
up there to shoe stores on Melrose we
love to balance our life by playing some
basketball and relieve some stress
now everybody challenged each other with
a two on two quick Matt Joe in 20 years
I think I see myself still live in LA
I'll probably don't see myself still
selling shoes or clothes I think I'll
probably going on a bigger flip like
houses or properties and I also plan on
owning a lot of restaurants still have
that entrepreneurial mindset though I'll
probably see myself doing that in 20
years my main advice I would tell
anybody it's trying to be an
entrepreneur always reinvest what you
have don't be greedy if you see million
dollars of sales doesn't mean take that
million in spending on personal items
and stuff put it back into the business
and grow your brand because if you don't
put the money back in the thing that you
built nothing will ever grow well that
so really means to me is hard work never
start grinding to me you never want to
get comfortable in the field that you're
at so that's probably hustles the grind
can never stop you got to keep doing
what you're doing never get too
comfortable