LORAIN, Ohio — Two best friends from Lorain have fulfilled their childhood dreams of opening a shop together.


What You Need To Know

  • Sneakerhead definition: A person who collects and trades sneakers as a hobby and usually knows about the history of sneakers
  • Sneakerheads do a booming business on resale sites like eBay

  • “Sneakerheadz” plans to expand their shop

Chris Lopez and Isaiah Brown met on the basketball courts at Fulton Park in Lorain. Now, 13 years later the friends are making their childhood dreams come true.

“We’ve been in love with sneakers ever since we were kids and it’s just nostalgic to us,” said Chris Lopez, co-owner of Sneakerheadz.

Over the weekend, Lopez and Brown opened up the store in Sheffield Village. It’s a barbershop that also sells new and used vintage t-shirts and sneakers.

It’s a new type of experience that helps men stay a step ahead of fashion trends.

Brown and Lopez are not barbers, so they bring in the certified professionals to handle the haircuts. That allows them to stay focused on fresh styles.

“We love barbershops, we love getting fresh, we love getting kicks and why not put the two together since you can make it a one-stop-shop," said Lopez.

Besides the fresh cuts, they stock cool kicks that you can’t find at sneaker stores at the mall.

Sneakerheadz is stocked with unique shoes, so their styles constantly change and stay up to date.

“We have a low stock but big hype behind them, they usually sell out pretty quick because they are harder to get. We usually try to get them and sell them again,” said Isaiah Brown, the store's other co-owner.

Now that Brown and Lopez have opened their first store they are not stopping there.

“Just expansion, keep on pushing to what we have now and eventually grow from where we are now and get a bigger place and constantly expanding the whole Sneakerhead industry pretty much for us,” said Brown.