AUSTINTOWN, Ohio – With its owner now walking in a new direction, SneakerVille has reopened.
The shop, which specializes in collectible and hard to find athletic footwear, is at 1502 S. Raccoon Road, in the Teri-Mar Plaza.
Dominic Mashorda made news when he opened the shop in downtown Youngstown in 2014. Only 18 years old at the time, he was taking a chance on both a niche product and in bringing retail back to downtown.
Mashorda closed his original shop after three years. Then his life choices began to go very wrong.
He became addicted to drugs and was imprisoned three times for felonies that stemmed from that lifestyle.
He emerged from prison late last year and is now two years sober and ready to reclaim his original life and business.
The new SneakerVille shop opened in October.
It continues to sell new and used footwear – much of it with splashy or urban style – and also streetwear, including unique jackets and T-shirts. Mashorda has also added leather restoration services to his offerings.
His foot products range from rare items – which are sought by collectors and sell for up to $2,000 – to everyday pairs that fetch around $50. He has also added leather cleaning services.
The biggest change in the business is Mashorda.
The 30-year-old was sentenced to prison three times, spending a total of about four years there.
Now in recovery, he is turning his energy back to the sneaker business.
“This is surreal to be back in my store,” he said. “I went through drug addiction. I went through prison. I went from 18 years old and on top of the world, doing almost a half a million dollars a year in sales, to 25 years old and homeless.”
Pausing for a moment to fend away tears, Mashorda said he wants other addicts to know that there is hope.
To help them, he is cooperating with the private prison operator CoreCivic to offer discount-price shoes to former inmates who are reentering society.
“For anybody who’s a felon or going through addiction or can’t see a way out, there is hope,” he said. “It’s real; it’s possible.”
Mashorda gets help at the shop just about every day from his fiancée, Kaylie Grimm; his mother, Victoria DiMartino; and sometimes his children, Gianna and Dominic.
The core product line at Snearkerville is unusual. Mashorda obtains used and new high-end, rare and designer sneakers, cleans them and then sells them. Many of the shoes have never been worn and are sold to collectors who will never wear them, he said.
They are often coveted as something other than footwear. “They hold their value,” Mashorda said.
The high-price shoes are actually part of a collector’s market, like trading cards or comic books. Prices rise and fall on a daily basis, and Mashorda keeps his eyes on them like a stock trader eyes the market.
He keeps his prices as low as possible.
“Ninety percent of the items in my store are under market value,” he said.
For example, he pointed out that on one recent day, new retro Air Jordans were around $250 on the online market, but he had them at his store $20 cheaper.
Unlike at his original store, Mashorda no longer sells shoes on consignment.
But he has obtained leather cleaning equipment and supplies and can restore shoes, boots, purses, hats and anything that is leather or suede. The new service accounts for about half of his business.
SneakerVille is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; and by appointment on Sundays.
Pictured at top: Dominic Mashorda in the showroom of his shop in Austintown.