Fixtures found on Craigslist, materials bought at Home Depot and help from friends and family: the account of Laced Up’s first shop sounds more like a hands-on building project than a grand opening. That beginning gives the Albany retailer’s story its texture.
According to the company’s history, Andrew and Phillip Pevzner opened in June 2016 with fewer than a hundred pairs and no previous retail experience. Their trajectory provides a way to watch a collection become a business, with demands quite different from those of a hobby.
Building the shop was part of the work
The story of the original fixtures places Laced Up at a concrete scale. Before thinking about a network, the founders needed somewhere to display products and serve customers.
That detail often disappears when business histories are told only through growth figures. Here, it recalls practical decisions behind a shop’s environment: arranging boxes, displaying pairs and making the selection understandable to someone entering for the first time.
For sneaker enthusiasts, the transformation is recognizable. A personal collection reflects individual choices; inventory has to make sense to people with different tastes, sizes and expectations.
Between the screen and the counter
A report in The Gordon College Tartan described the brothers’ division of work. Andrew handled digital and administrative activities while studying, while Phillip managed the shop’s daily work with employees, shipments and customers.
That record provides a useful counterpoint to the idea of a store running on enthusiasm alone. An interest in sneakers can start the project, but continuing it requires coordination, service and work that rarely appears in product photographs.
It also shows that physical and digital operations were not separate worlds. Work on a computer had to connect with inventory and the experience at the counter. That relationship belongs to Laced Up’s earliest documented chapters.
Sneakers and streetwear in one selection
In a Starter Story interview, the brothers described collectible sneaker and streetwear resale, bringing together references such as Jordan, Yeezy, Supreme and Bape. Their aim was to present that selection in a retail setting where people could encounter the products.
The combination broadens the conversation beyond one category. Someone interested in a pair may also want to understand its relationship with a graphic shirt or other visual codes associated with a particular period.
Telling the story of starting
The Started from the Bottom podcast added another way for the company to present itself. Its first episode brought team members and founders together to discuss Laced Up’s beginnings and building a business while still in school and college.
The format shifts attention from the object to the experience of constructing the shop. That is another dimension worth knowing for people interested in sneaker culture: behind a wall of pairs sit decisions, routines and learning.
Laced Up offers a story of movement between collecting, work and retail. Albany remains a useful reference because it makes that trajectory tangible, before any slogan about scale or recognition.
Sources and further reading
The Pevzner brothers discuss the business
Started from the Bottom podcast
The Gordon College Tartan: entrepreneurship and Laced Up
Related store histories
YankeeKicks
RIF LA
