Like any business starting out, Shoe Shine Customs needed an opportunity to get their brand known to the public to generate more customers and more success. For business founder and NHS senior, Drew Bollenbacher, that opportunity presented itself in the bakery aisle at the grocery store.

    Early in the summer, Bollenbacher and NHS graduate Blake Braun launched Shoe Shine Customs. This fledgling business is currently taking commissions for personalized shoes and found that aforementioned breakout exposure in that old arena of entrepreneurial enterprise: the bread section of a Noblesville grocer.  

    “I saw a guy with some red Air Force 1’s and I just asked him where he got them,” Bollenbacher said. “Then we started talking about shoes and what Blake and I do as a business and he said he was interested, that he wanted to mix up his shoes. But he wanted to give us a chance.”

    That man in the bread aisle happened to be kCAne MarkCO, a St. Louis native and MTV-licenced rap artist who tours all over the midwest.

     “Meeting kCAne actually helped a ton,” Bollenbacher said. “Most people that do this stuff don’t get a huge start right away. Things kind of took off faster than we expected,” Bollenbacher said.

    The formulation and rapid success of the duo’s business is the manifestation of an idea between two friends.

    “We had a class together last year. We both like shoes and we were both into arts,” Braun said. “Over the summer, I just bought leather paints and that was the start.”

     The initiative shown by the boys of Shoe Shine is admirable by standards of business teacher and DECA sponsor, Dan Nicholson.

    “We have so many students here that have great ideas in what they want to do in the business world,” Nicholson said. “To have someone in [Bollenbacher and Braun’s] position, where they took their passion and what they love in shoes and turn that into a business is amazing.”

    With years of business credibility under his belt, Nicholson can attest to the importance of that fateful meeting of kCAne MarkCO.

“[Shoe Shine Customs] is going to grow a lot more out of word of mouth,” Nicholson said. “With any business owner, regardless of age, the people you know and the networks that you have are critical to your success. I think that with younger entrepreneurs that might be even a little more important because they lack the name recognition.”

    In commemoration of his first commission with Shoe Shine Customs, kCAne posted on social media about his new St. Louis-themed Air Force 1’s, encouraging his 110 thousand Twitter followers to consider Braun and Bollenbacher for their next shoe design.

    “A new client, JM Entertainment, is from kCAne,” Bollenbacher said. “They’re all  in the entertainment industry. A lot of people are just giving us a chance.”

    The chance Braun and Bollenbacher have been given, the chance to flourish is just what they need to take Shoe Shine Customs to the heights just within reach.

    “We want to move the business onto a college campus,” Bollenbacher said. “We know we can get it hyped up on a campus because college kids like to spend their money. By the time we’re twenty five, we’d like to start a pop-up shop in a major city. We would want to get into retail and sell streetwear and other exclusive clothing you can’t find just anywhere.”  

    In just around three months of operation, Shoe Shine Customs has already completed over ten commissions of their wearable art, creating a healthy profit for the duo but, for Braun and Bollenbacher, the money is just a pleasant bonus.

    “We’re getting to work with what we love; shoes and art,” Bollenbacher said. “I would consider Blake my best friend so I get to hang out with him and do what we love. That’s the best part.”