At just 19 years old, Joshua Marin, a Mexican-American entrepreneur and sneakerhead, stepped into the shoe industry, and opened his own shop.
Marin’s Lincoln Square store, Fix Your Kicks, located at 4542 N. Western, was inspired by his father’s cobbler shop, where Marin worked as a kid.
But in addition to the standard shoe shining and repair, Marin’s shop turns “beaters into heaters”, taking worn out vintage Jordans, Nikes and Adidas, and refurbishing them according to his own designs. Following in his dad’s footsteps and with an eye for ‘fresh kicks,’ Marin has turned his passion into a business, without a college degree.
“People told me that I should go to school… but school wasn’t for me. I knew how to work with money, I was a good investor,” Marin said. “I thought ‘I have a skill so why don’t I take my trade and my sneakers and go for it?'”
The north sider graduated from Nicholas Senn High School in 2015. On November 5, 2016 Fix Your Kicks opened its doors.
Marin said he often works with students from a nearby high school. They notice the shop’s graffitied facade from the sidewalk, he said, and come in to ask him questions.
“I mention to them, ‘I was 19 when I opened up this shop and you guys can do it too, you just have to work for it,'” he said.
Marin learned the old-school shoe trade while working at a vintage clothing shop and at Red Star Cobbler Shoe Repair, in Chicago’s Humboldt Park Neighborhood. Vintage sneakers like Air Jordans routinely sell for hundreds of dollars, and can stretch into the thousands.
While Marin does all the cobbling at his shop, two of his close friends help with detail work like painting and cleaning the shoes. Marin said sometimes turns to his dad for help on difficult projects, and his mother also occasionally lends a hand.
Although he is his “own boss,” the entrepreneur is constantly at the store, often putting in 11 hour workdays.
Along with the standard day-to-day challenges of running a business, Marin said he has also experienced weariness from neighborhood residents.
“I’m in a white neighborhood and I am a hispanic teenage kid trying to open up this shop. People come in sometimes and ask me what I’m doing,” he said.
But despite some skepticism, Marin said he has had steady business since opening 10 months ago. Repairs and customizations range from $15 to $250 and can take a few hours to a week or two to complete.
With his business growing, Marin has his sights set on opening a Fix Your Kicks 2, especially since it would allow him to employ more youth with the same passion, he said.
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“It would be great to open up another shop and to open up opportunities for other people,” he said.