LANSDALE – Sneakerhead culture has been booming since the mid-80s when the infamous Air Jordan line of shoes was released and hip-hop music began to evolve. The upsurge of these signature basketball sneakers became relevant amongst sneaker collectors, while the hip-hop movement gave them their street cred and inspired a variety of colorways and designs. But besides looking good on foot, an extensive sneaker collection can also look good to your bank account.

North Penn senior, Peter Laurens, turned his love for sneakers into a lucrative business.

“When I was like fourteen or fifteen, I wanted more money to buy shoes and I was looking at shoes that I wanted on eBay and they were like four or five hundred bucks, but that wasn’t gonna fly with just mowing the lawn anymore,” expressed Laurens. “I originally looked into getting just a regular part-time job, applied to a couple [but] never heard back. So I just decided to start buying and seeing what would happen if I tried to sell [the sneakers] after on eBay.”

After a few failures, Laurens soon began to learn the ropes of the sneaker-buying and reselling process.

“I failed a couple of times definitely, but once I started to figure out what shoes to get, how to get them, what they went for, and the whole process, I realized that it was a valid business idea,” said Laurens.

Starting off as a hobby, he soon turned his passion for sneaker-collecting into a legitimate business and is now an entrepreneur at the mere age of seventeen. Laurens is the proud owner of Established III, an “all-in-one webstore that offers the hottest footwear” in brands including: Jordan, Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and Asics. Not only does he sell footwear, he also sells the latest apparel, accessories, video games, and other “gizmos”. Established III is completely registered as well.

“Uncle Sam’s gotta get his share!” he declared.

Laurens has received a lot of support from his family and friends within his seventeen months of being in business.

“Currently, [my parents] are definitely very supportive” he said. “I’ve proven to them that it’s a valid, legitimate business. At first they were like ‘what are you talking about?’, but after a couple of sales they kind of caught on and now they’re very supportive. They help me with certain releases when I’m in school, stuff like that. I do have some close friends that I kind of work with [as well].”

Not only is Laurens an entrepreneur, he is also has a key role in FBLA here at North Penn.

“I’m currently president of FBLA. Last year I was co-treasurer and this year I decided to take up the president spot to help lead the club,” he expressed.

Much of Laurens’s business knowledge comes from his involvement in FBLA. Despite not advancing in the regional competition, Laurens submitted his business to the national level where he, along with a dozen other North Penn students, traveled to Chicago, IL to present at The Launch Pad at the national leadership conference last summer.

“There [were] twenty-five businesses, including myself,” explains Laurens “[and] we had to create a presentation describing our business [and] some of our numbers. We pitched our business to some current business leaders [who] were either current entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs and after that they asked us some questions. [We] then got to go around to different mentors and ask them current problems that we’re facing with our business.”

These experiences allowed Laurens to learn about practicality and different techniques on how to legitimize his business. Since then, he believes that Established III has vamped up into a legitimate business considering its current registered status.

In the future, Laurens is looking to study finance and marketing. He is currently looking at University of Richmond, Temple University, American University, Villanova University, and University of Virginia. As for the future of Established III, Laurens is considering transferring it back into a hobby when he goes to college.

“You really have to think about what you’re passionate about because I actually really do love what I’m doing. I work my own hours, I make however much money I want to work for, I love what I do, I meet great people. . . I don’t think I’ve worked a day so far for Established III.”