Sneaker Repair/Customizer business? Viable

[trstar]

How viable is a Sneaker repair/ customizer shop?
My nephew has a wide foot (4E) and the only basketball shoes that fit him well are New Balances. Well, NB is slowly exiting the bball shoe business, and now he's stuck with only the beaters he has. He was looking into doing a sole swap to extend the life, but there aren't many 4E donors to choose from.

I started looking into the youtube vids on customizers and the work is nice. But are these one offs?

Plus looking into how shoes are deconstructed for repairs, It my be wise to investigate creating a brand of wide basketball shoes.

your thoughts?

 

[dwnsouth]

this actually sounds like an really good idea. You mentioned one target market that you could focus on.

i am going to strongly suggest you keep this going. making a wide shoe that is somewhat affordable...then give some away to get brand recognition, etc

 

[trstar]

I am searching alibaba for the shoe bottoms now. Gluing uppers to a bottom shoe seems too straight forward.

 

[Zyin]

sounds interesting and there is a market that needs to be served
maybe you can get something started and sell to a division of one of the majors and design for that segment

 

[Adam Knows]

no. that's come and gone unless you can get the traffic guaranteed.

do you remember the time when customizing air force one's and other shoes was big with the louis vutton, prada, dolce, gucci, etc? died out just as quickly too.

 

[trstar]

There's a company called sandalboyz that started with custom sneakers now they are producing slide sandals. They are expensive but have a good buzz about them.