From Prison to Shop Owner: How LA’s New Sneaker Impresario Turned $200 Into a Growing Business

Bottom Bunk Sneaker House is not just another shoe store. For founder and creative director Cole Richman, the new shop on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles is all about his personal story of redemption. Still relatively new to the footwear and retail industry, Richman’s path to the sneaker game was anything but direct when he started what would eventually become Bottom Bunk after his release from prison in 2020. “For a lot of my life I’ve struggled with drugs and alcohol,” Richman admitted to FN on a video meeting. “And with that struggle came a revolving door of me going in and out of jail. My most recent sentence was my longest. I went in for eight years at the age of 27.” Upon his release in May 2020, Richman was sent to a halfway house as part of his conditions of parole. While he was in the house, he noticed his roommate was making money reselling shoes that he purchased on the SNKRS app. “Out of boredom, I asked him what he was doing, and he kind of showed me and told me how he was doing it.” CREDIT: Courtesy of Bottom Bunk So, Richman made a risky decision to spend the $200 provided by

Follow Footwear News on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

from Footwear NewsFootwear News https://ift.tt/F7MPsgd