When you walk into Burn Rubber, a sneaker shop outside of Detroit, you wouldn’t think that the store hadn’t had any new inventory for six months before this past February. The boutique’s walls are decked with colorful, rare name brand sneakers, and clothing from the likes of exclusive companies like 3Sixteen, 10 Deep, and Crooks & Castles.

But the store’s new owners, Roland Coit and Rick Williams, have made the most of their time since taking over the shop earlier this year.

“We just wanted to take it to the next level,” Coit says of their aspirations while taking over the new shop.

For Coit and Williams, owning a sneaker shop was a natural progression. Each of them are vicious sneaker heads: the duo drove 11 hours to New York City, only to shop at the Bathing Ape store and promptly turn back around. Coit would later coordinate the pink and gray kicks he purchased there with his wedding tuxedo. Williams was a business major and a manager at Finish Line, while Coit was an employee at Puffer Red’s clothing store. Having become friends after being in a band together, the two had already discussed plans to open a shop, but Burn Rubber opened shortly after.

“Literally the week I got finished with my business plan [for a shop], my wife was telling me, ‘I was riding through Royal Oak, and there’s a shop that’s about to open that’s what you want to do.’ I was like, ‘Dang, somebody got to it before I could,’” Coit remembers. “And then[I thought], let me sit back and see how it does. Because everybody that I was trying to go to, to get money was like, “This is not going to work in Detroit.” And basically…it was the spot for everything, for that couple of years.”

But later, the owner of the shop got a promotion at his primary job, stopped ordering new shipments, and decided to sell the shop. Williams and Coit expressed interest, and after going through various legalities and planning with their investors, they finished the final paperwork on Valentine’s Day. The duo stresses the importance of hiring the right people to handle areas that were outside of their expertise.

“Attorneys and accountants are expensive, but you’ve got to have it. You could be spending a lot of money right now, but you could be saving a lot of money in the long run,” Coit attests. “When you’re in a situation like that, you see the good, you see the opportunity. And you kind of forget the negative stuff that could go down.”

“[But] we know in our heart that we can flip it,” Williams chimes in. “We would be leaving a meeting and be like, ‘We can do it.’ We know we can do it.”

They’re off to a good start. Since they’ve taken over the store, Williams and Coit have attended sneaker and clothing shows and established relationships with representatives for Nike, Adidas, and other brands. Williams says that they have limited accounts with several of the companies, which helps get them exclusive or rare material. For example, their account with Adidas is the second highest that’s possible to attain from the company; the top level, he says, is limited to only 12 stores nationwide. Coit says that their intriguing collection has helped them succeed in their opening months.

“We may just get ten of a shirt, some of the shirts we only have four or five of,” he says. “We’re the only store in Michigan that has that, other than people going on the Internet. At most, if you ever see these other four people [laughs], you’re pretty much the only cat you’re going to see with that on. And that’s pretty much what it’s about: being an individual, and doing you the best that you can do you.”

While building their own wardrobes and getting the jump on new gear are obvious perks, Williams and Coit emphasize other positives from owning Burn Rubber. They say they’ve been told that the store emulates a barbershop with its friendly, talkative atmosphere—it’s not unusual for them to throw on a DVD like Krush Groove or Beat Street, and Williams challenges any visitor to a game of Double Dribble on the original Nintendo set up under the hanging TV. They also enjoy the flexibility to be able to indulge in their other loves: Williams is a professional tap dancer, and Coit is a member of the heralded Michigan rap collective Subterraneous Records. Coit sells copies of his album with fellow emcee Illite from behind the counter.

“I think it’s the best part of owning any business,” Williams says. “We’re talented cats, and we can’t do what we love to do if we’re working for somebody else. We’re trying to get freedom so we can help our families.”

And stay fly while doing it.

www.burnrubberdetroit.com

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Store Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.