Jerry Henson was a frequent customer at ColaKicks in Columbia. Now, he operates a store of his very own at 3310 Washington Rd.
ColaKicks is owned by two former University of South Carolina students, Adam Patrick and Josh Kilgore. They started their first store in Columbia, later expanded to Charleston, S.C. and now Augusta.
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“They had a great concept, and we talked over the last two years about me opening my own store,” Henson said. “Throughout those conversations, the Augusta store was born.”
Henson said he’s from Athens, and he is “a dawg, through and through.”
Drawing on the rivalry between the two universities, he said he told the owners, “This store is going to be painted red and black, and we needed a store like this where all the good people live.”
The world of buying, selling, trading and collecting specialty sneakers is a complex one, and Henson said it can be very competitive.
“When some shoes get released, you have to enter a raffle to even be able to buy them. Other than that, you have to go buy retail, and that’s where we come in,” he said.
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When a customer comes in looking to trade or sell a pair of shoes, the retailer examines its condition and can track its value via shoe databases like StockX that operate as an encyclopedia of market information for shoe enthusiasts and retailers alike.
The most popular brands people are interested in are Air Jordan, Yeezy and Nike Dunk, according to Henson.
“There are other resellers here but not of this size. We have bought a ton of shoes in the past few days, but we’ve sold a lot as well,” Henson said. “Word is out that we pay well for shoes, and we know their value. We’d rather the customer come in and feel like they’re getting a good value. We mark it up so we can make a small profit, but we aren’t trying to gouge anybody. We want to just continue growing our collection.”
Henson said people used to commute from Augusta to Columbia to visit the store there, and the business has been robust at the new location in the past week it has been open.
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“We love our customers. They are the only reason we’ve been able to have a third store,” Henson said. “I love the culture and community. A sneakerhead is a sneakerhead. It doesn’t matter what race, what sex, anything. Everybody is welcome.”
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com.
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