Isom Lowman has owned an athletic shoe store in Atlanta for more than two decades and now wants more Black people to follow his entrepreneurial journey.
Lowman and an employee at his Athlete’s Foot store spear a new program aimed at encouraging young African-Americans to become store franchisees, particularly in the sneaker industry. THE StAARTThe program, or Strategic African American Retail Track, is also designed to give budding entrepreneurs access to capital, business mentors and contacts at major suppliers.
Owning a business with StAART’s help will hopefully push Black Americans to start building generational wealth, Lowman told CBS News correspondent Elise Preston.
“It’s a shame that there are only a handful of African-American retailers in the sneaker industry worldwide,” Lowman told Preston.
Athlete’s foot
StAART is the brainchild of Atlanta’s Darius Billings, director of retail brand marketing for Athlete’s Foot. Billings said Black applicants who enroll in the program will be matched with a Black mentor and can help them become a franchise owner. Mentors include Karla Duncan, director of sales at Puma, and John Scipio, CEO of Schuykill Valley Sports.
Capital for their startups will come from the black-owned Citizen’s Trust Bank of Atlanta, Billings said.
Billings and Lowman said shoe stores are a potentially rich avenue for black entrepreneurs because of the country’s burgeoning sneaker culture and because sneaker sales are expected to grow 5% each year and eventually become a $95 billion industry globally by 2025, according to Grand View Research data.
Athlete’s foot
Lowman opened his first shoe store at age 22 and said other black Americans could do the same. It’s simply about showing today’s young people that entrepreneurship has real benefits, he said.
“When you own black property, not only does it help them economically, but it helps other people believe that they can become black owners, too,” he said.
