CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — There are a number of tremendous ideas to unite people in the St. Louis area and one shop in Chesterfield is taking a unique approach.
The owners are using sneakers to tie the community together. Chase Callahan and Gerad Ewing felt so strongly about their idea, they started their company during the pandemic.
“The time do it. The time to start bringing people together,” Ewing told 5 On Your Side.
The shop is called the Sanctioned Sneaker. They think of it as a pair of laces intertwining people.
“We get people from the ages of 60 down to the ages of 9. We get every racial demographic,” Ewing said.
They are all people with a similar interest.
“They coexist in this world with a shared experience,” Ewing said.
The experience is finally finding the sneaker of their dreams.
“It’s like a treasure hunt,” said Callahan.
There is plenty of sneaker treasure in the store. They maintain a rotating stock of more than 1,000 shoes.
“Finding the shoes is the hardest part. We’re with everybody else. We’re logging on our phones. We’re entering raffles. We’re getting on apps,” Ewing said.
The finds are wide ranging from Air Jordan’s to Yeezy’s. Some of the sneakers are new and some of them are new to the pair’s new owner.
“Cleaning up someone’s old pair that was sitting in the closet and now it is someone’s new favorite pair of shoes,” said Callahan.
Some of the sneakers will never have a foot inside of them.
“A lot of collectors who have probably thousands of pairs of shoes but never wear them,” Callahan said.
They are pairing their customers with coveted sneakers.
“Everyone has something special to them. And knowing that we can provide it really means a lot to us,” Callahan said.
They’re also pairing one side of a culture gap with another.
“Together we rise,” said Ewing.
“We want to rise with you,” added Callahan.
People rising together inside their shop keeps their doors open and they are grateful.
“Keeping us motivated and giving just us the ability to do this during a pandemic,” said Callahan.
But they are doing more than selling sneakers.
“The reason I got into shoes, the diversity,” Ewing said.
They are trying to lace up a community one sneaker at a time.
“If all the shoes disappeared but all the people stayed, I’d be really OK with that,” said Ewing.
The Sanctioned Sneaker is located inside the Chesterfield Mall. For more information about the store, click here.