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Ever wonder what it takes to be a shoe designer or start and run your own business? Andre Scott knows exactly what it’s like as he has done both with his custom design sneaker company, PMK (Perfectly Made Kicks) Customs. In a relatively short amount of time, Scott and his business partners, Kelton Crenshaw and Emory Jones, have taken PMK from a start-up company to one that has designed shoes worn by Jay-Z and Beyonce among others, and collaborations coming up with some of your favorite brands. We got a chance to speak with Andre about what it takes to make it in the shoe game.
You’ve said before that you’re not the biggest sneakerhead out there, so what made you want to get into the shoe-customizing business?
At the end of the day I’m an entrepreneur, so it’s like as an entrepreneur you always find ways to find an open market and I felt like the market was open. Shoes are never going to go anywhere. It’s almost like what I went to school for, because I was going to become a funeral director, and you know at the end of the day it may sound a little morbid, but someone is always going to need a funeral home to go to for a burial.
You’re always going to need sneakers, shoes, sandals or whatever to wear outside to be cool and live up to your outerwear. So, something that I wanted to start, but unique to the shoe mind and something that we can create for a Nike or Reebok or something, I felt like that was an open market for us to create and do that with. So, with me being an entrepreneur I felt like there are people around who are dope at what they do, and I think I have two great partners in Kelton and Emory who add to and spark me along when it comes to the sneaker game and getting up to speed, plus they’re dope at what they do on that side, so us bringing it together is just dope.
Was PMK your first big business venture, or have you done other things outside of it?
PMK is my first big venture. Diddy used to be one of my favorite moguls coming up and everything with Bad Boy Entertainment, and I had a friend who is an artist and raps and I tried to set up my own label, but that definitely didn’t pan out too well. So I would say PMK is my first big venture on the road to being an entrepreneur.
As far as partners go, did you always want to work with Kelton and Emory, or was that something that just happened?
I never knew neither one of them. It all happened organically, and I think that’s why I think our relationship and our partnership is so great. My childhood friend introduced me to Emory first and he’s a great down-to-earth guy who knows his business and the culture. He asked what’s your vision for PMK and what are your goals and where can I help, so we had some conversations out in NYC and he was excited about the opportunity and that’s when he came on board.
Then later on about five months later, I was introduced to Kelton who was also from the city of Cleveland with me. For some reason, we never crossed paths before, but I heard about him a lot because he’s definitely a mover and shaker in the city. So he came by the office and kept coming around for a little while keeping tabs on us and I pretty much just kept at him with what we got going on. He finally wanted to get on board too, so we collaborated together and now I have two great minority partners.
What are the main roles for each person on the team?
At the end of the day, we each play our own lanes, but we all come together and make sure everything is coming along. My main role is more of making sure things are going down the right road and what’s our next move and next step as a company. I’m more marketing and sales wise. Kelvin and Emory are great with our company, but everybody has other s*** going on at the same time, so we all have to fit in where we can. Pretty much, overall we all do things together. As far as the vision and everything, I kind of roll with that and kind of direct that going forward. As far as networking and designing and collabs and everything we all kind of put our heads together and handle that.
The company seems to definitely be more about quality over quantity. Is that the concept that you had going into the business and why?
That’s definitely it. You can focus on quantity, but that doesn’t bring a difference and doesn’t set you apart in the game. But, our stuff is different. Our price range is $2000 and up, so you can’t really expect quantity on those types of sneakers, but what you can do is make sure that the quality is top notch.
We call ourselves the Maybach of shoes. You know you have your Toyota Camry and Nissan Maxima and there are plenty of those, but you don’t see many Maybachs out there driving around. When a person gets a Maybach, they spend a lot of money for it and it’s something that’s dear to their heart. Maybach is definitely a rich company as well, but that’s not saying there’s anything wrong with Toyota or anything like that. That’s why we say we stay in our lane and don’t get in anybody else’s lane because there’s enough money out here for everybody to make, and we feel like with luxury shoes the quality is looked at before anything.
How prepared were you for the notoriety that came when Jay-Z wore your customized Air Jordan 1s (Brooklyn Zoo’s) to the Nets Opener?
Pretty much overall we knew what was going down. Emory Jones is our business partner and that’s Jay-Z’s best friend and right-hand man, so we were prepared for pretty much everything just like when we dropped the shoes that Beyonce had. We actually got more buzz off of her shoes than we did off of the Brooklyn Zoo’s, so that was beyond great when that dropped. When we put ourselves out there we said we were only going to make ten of them, so regardless of how crazy the press went, we were only making ten sneakers.
You also have the new collaboration with Billionaire Boys Club working on a t-shirt for them. How did that come about?
Overall, with everybody being able to network and everybody feeling like the Brooklyn Zoo was a great shoe and concept, we sat down and talked with BBC’s creative director and put together a design for the Brooklyn Zoo t-shirt with them and it just worked out. So, with that it’s only being sold in Unkwn in Miami and the BBC flagship store in New York City.
So how do you plan to follow up on the success that PMK has had so far?
We deal with a lot of things and a lot of corporations. You’ll see a lot of products coming out from us with Puma especially because we have a great relationship with them. There are also a couple of other brands that we’ll be working with that I can’t talk about right now.
Photos: Andre Scott
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