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A Message from SoleSavy Co-Founder DP

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DP

I wanted to make sure that you all heard from me first and from my point of view before you saw the news about it in a Tech Crunch or a High Snobiety article. It’s really important that I talk directly to the community and that’s what I wanted to do here today so excuse my long ass post. You can also take this all in via audio or video as well.

TLDR; I spent 9 months raising money to give SoleSavy the backing and support it needs to make a world class product and community. I want to change sneaker culture and the industry for the better and this is the beginning of that. Later today the news will go out that we’ve raised $2 Million USD and I want everyone to know why and what that means! None of this would be possible without all of your support and I’m excited to build the future of sneakers with you by my side.

Keep reading the thread for the full text or listen/watch below.

Audio stream: https://membersonly.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-40-the-future-of-the-sneaker-industry

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I have been busting my ass for the past nine months, right about when the pandemic hit I made a decision that I wanted to focus on how can I take SoleSavy to a place that gave the company an opportunity to really have an impact on the sneaker industry and culture as a whole. The timing of making that decision around the pandemic really made me second-guess myself because I was I was unsure as to what this would mean and would this be something people cared to be a part considering everything else going on in the world. And what I learned quickly was not so much sneakers that were important to your lives but more so the community and the people that you were engaging with on a daily basis. 

That ability to connect with someone else or multiple people who understand a passion of yours with no judgments, regardless of whether that might be Sneakers or something else, is something that a lot of us value and struggle to find in real life. I don’t know a lot of sneaker heads personally until I started this company and then now I can say I probably know 20 or 30 people in Vancouver. And I’m sure a lot of you have experienced the same thing in different cities where are you might be from, the pandemic has obviously made that more challenge but it’s opened up all of our worlds. I know we have members right now that live in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, UK, Mexico and more and you’re able to connect with other people from around the world who have that same passion as yours. 

When I first started SoleSavy my goal really was how can we bring a new member into the fold and improve their personal sneaker experience. Save you money, make you happier, let you participate in something that you love and ultimately make that overall experience something that you look forward to doing every week versus the money greedy time sucking shit show that it can be on Sneaker Twitter.  While that’s still the case for us as a company, what I realized  with having all of you as members is that it’s opened my eyes up to the fact that real sneaker heads are out there and you want to be apart of the real culture, not the shit portrayed on Twitter. It exists, there’s just no where to foster that and have the support you need to really enjoy and love sneaker culture. 

Right now we’re in a place where all of the innovation, products, and progress in sneakers has been around areas that, for the most part are focused on resell. Essentially charging you as much money as possible for something that you want. You all know that is not what I’m about or what SoleSavy stands for. It is frustrating to know that all of that innovation has been in marketplace, consignment stores, resell this, resale that, bots, cook groups etc. No one was fighting for you and for me, for people like us who just want to wear their shoes. 

I didn’t think I had the capability to change that on a global perspective. I always thought my impact would be more small scale because I just didn’t think I had the resources to do that right. When we started the company, myself and Justin both put in had $12,500 from our savings and got to work. We’ve always just reinvested back in the business, over, and over, and over again, trying to make it better. Ultimately that comes with a ceiling because I know my resources are are not endless and there’s there’s a finite amount at my disposal. 

So that brings me to what I’ve done this past year and with that new mindset that SoleSavy can make an impact for the better, for all of sneaker culture. So I went out and started trying to raise money for SoleSavy. 

For those of you who are not aware or don’t really understand what raising venture-capital means, simple put is a form of private financing where we went looking for people to invest in SoleSavy, in return for buying a piece of the company that would then allow us to grow, scale and build what we need to make this an even better company. So for the past nine months I went and did that. I joined a business program and really started learning about how can I create a better SoleSavy, be a better leader and to how can I get the funding that we need to be able to do all of those things. 

The first four months of trying to do this I got a lot of no’s lol. A lot of people just looked at me sideways like you’re fucking insane? Sneakers? Community? A sneaker community?! I had people tell me why would we support a company like yours when resell is booming and is now a $6 billion market. It was incredible to me to see how many people just didn’t give a fuck about actual consumers who were spending their hard earned money to pay resell. I got into arguments with people who invested in GOAT that resell was “good for sneaker culture” which is just some backwards ass thinking.

That all changed in the summer and into the fall. So…I am very happy and excited to announce to you all that SoleSavy has raised 2 million USD from an incredible group of investors. That includes a variety of angel investors who come from different walks of life, who ultimately believed in my my vision of fighting for the real and consumer and building through the power of community. People who I could surround myself, and create my personal community, to help me lead SoleSavy and create a better company. We got the backing of some incredible firms as well, two that come to mind our Canadian based Panache Ventures and US based Bedrock Capital. If you look at their portfolio investments, you’ll see the likes of massive companies such as Lyft, Cameo, Wish, and The Athletic. To get the support from firms of that stature, that have had such success believing in founders and companies that a lot of people thought had no hope of succeeding (everyone hated The Athletic) really makes me feel great about the opportunity we have ahead of ourselves.

So what does that mean to you and your membership? I know it’s easy to get lost in the $2 million number and I just wanna make it clear that money is not going into my pockets or anyone’s pockets lol that’s going into the company bank account so that we have the financing we need to do anything that we want. And that’s where we’re at right now. What can we do, for you as a customer to make this membership even better. I’ve pieced this together with what limited resources and money we had. I love that everyone’s enjoying it but I do know we have been restricted in regards to what we can do and at what speed we can do it. That all changes this year.

Now it’s really up to our imagination. I’ve been thinking a lot about what can we do to make this community  and this membership better. I have tons of ideas and I look forward to sharing all of that with you, and chopping it up and getting feedback. Ultimately your membership is something that only gets better from here. From creating a marketplace for members to allow you to buy, trade, and sell with each other, to our system allows you to manage and organize your collection digitally, to things that simplify your your shopping habits such as raffle entries and alerts for specific models and a sneaker finder tool. Really ANYTHING, big or small, that we can do to make your life easier and better I want to do that.

How do we become the future of retail? Nike, adidas and New Balance should be selling shoes to us for wholesale so we can sell it to our members, who are not resellers and make sure they get the product that they want. How do we change the distribution model for Nike? So that we are the next KITH or undefeated because we have 10,000 or 15,000 members around North America. All who are real sneaker heads. That is the potential that I’m trying to bring forward is that we are STRONGER in numbers.  I need to create that opportunity to present to the Nike‘s of the world that these people are here and you should listen to them. This is what they want. 

Prior to this funding we literally had to buy every sneaker on my credit card and it was a matter how much I can stretch my AMEX limit and how much money I can take out of my bank account to pay for it if we needed to hold it. That was stressful. It was hard knowing I was holding onto $30,000 or $50,000 worth of sneakers for retail. As you have seen in the last kind of 60 days I’ve had flexibility to take more risk and purchase more inventory. We have purchased $150,000 worth of sold out sneakers since that that we’re gonna sell back to members for retail. I could’ve never have done that even three months ago.

At the same time, how do we push Sneaker culture forward? From content and media experiences and just overall moments that impact the culture in a way that’s not focused on resell. Because that is what has been so frustrating to me. That all the sudden all these major companies and publications that we put our trust into have decided that resells is just something we all have to live with and that’s that’s it too bad, so sad, there’s nothing you can do about it. Fuck that. I disagree completely and I believe that the resell industry is going to a bad place because at some point we are all going to be so frustrated and sick of it that will just stop and give up. I don’t want anyone to stop caring about something that they love just because someone else is trying to profit off them and trying to make $20 by flipping the Jubilee 11 because StockX is doing 50% off seller fees.

But for that to be the case, someone needs to be fighting for the real consumer like yourselves and there’s nothing out there. I feel like I am personally in a point in my life and a place where this company is right now, that we can make a serious impact on the sneaker industry and the culture is a whole. That when we all look back at SoleSavy from 2018 and in 2028 that we’re gonna say holy shit that changed the trajectory of sneakers for ever and I’m so glad that happened. And that is what motivates me every day. It’s not the money, it’s not the success. It’s just genuinely knowing that what we as a company can make an impact on real people like yourselves day in and day out. That motivates me to get out of bed and to say fuck StockX.

That’s where we’re at right now I am geared up and have the support that we need as a company to seriously change sneaker culture forever. Everything we’re doing now is focused on how can we make your experience better and that’s what we’re gonna do. Having the money gives us the stability to say that we can comfortably hire people like Dean, Eddie, Juan, Heard, Braeden, Robert full-time and give them the stability of knowing we’re gonna be business for 3,4, 5 years at least because we have that runway now to do that. 

What  I envision the future of SoleSavy looking is an app, website, platform etc that from end to end, your entire experience in sneakers happens through us. So from the first time you see a photo of a sneaker or read content around it, to when you talk to people about it through the community, to when you ultimately go to buy that product at retail, to the point when you decide I don’t want this anymore I’d like to sell it to someone else. We want to be their for that journey because we’ll create something with the mindset of a real collector and sneaker head in mind, and non of this resell mentality. Which is drastically different. 

This is the start of that. We are now in place where we have 4000 members around the world. I thank everyone of you for your support that you gave us to to prove that we’re doing something that’s worthwhile and something that we should continue doing. Because if it wasn’t for every single one of you, this company wouldn’t exist. We wouldn’t be able to do what we’re about to do next. So 100 billion times over: thank you, thank you, thank you. It means the world to to the entire team to have your support month over month. A lot of you have been with us for over two years since we launched Beta. To those of you who joined a year ago, to three months ago, to a month ago; everyone of you are a part of what I’m going to call a speaker revolution. It starts today. I am putting the sneaker industry and sneaker culture on notice because SoleSavy is here, we’re here to stay and we’re not fucking around anymore!

quotes

Sole Savy is unreal! With a busy schedule it’s hard to keep up on shoes, and the group keeps me up to date on releases, tips on how to manually cop, and a marketplace with killer deals from fellow like minded collectors. It’s changed the sneaker game for me!

@SoleSavy is the truth. They've helped me cop kicks I never would've imagined getting at retail. Members always willing to assist on drops too. And most of all, a REAL community of REAL sneakerheads. These guys should be the gold standard for sneaker communities! #LifetimeMember

My membership paid for itself three fold by being solely responsible for my union 4’s, mesh sacai waffles, sacai blazers, court purple aj1s, glow in the dark yeezy 350s, travis scott lows (which I traded to get desert ore ow’s), air max 1 londons, bc3’s for way under retail etc.

Can't say enough about SS. The stellar help with copping shoes is a given but it's the community that makes it extra special. Hands down one of the best decisions I made as a wannabe sneakerhead.

The community of sneakerheads and resources available to help manually cop are great and really will help you get more Ws. The Zoom calls for hyped drops like Union Jordan 4 only adds to the camaraderie while providing real time instruction

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