Devin Lay carried boxes upon boxes of high-end sneakers into Johnson Obear Apartments on campus during the first half of his freshman year at UTC.
An interior architecture and design major at the time, Mr. Lay worked round the clock on the shoes when he wasn’t in class, embellishing them with intricate and colorful hand-drawn art, characters, logos and monograms for clients who paid top-dollar for the wearable art.
Mr. Lay started customizing sneakers as a high school sophomore in Memphis—selling both online and in-person—and was growing his fledgling business at UTC when his business coach (yes, he had a business coach as a college freshman) pointed something out.
He told Mr. Lay that his merchandise, while popular and expensive, wasn’t providing optimal return on investment.
Selling luxury sneakers was a good market to…
