We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ray Corley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ray, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The beginning of this journey wasn’t your typical beginning of a business. It started out from my love and passion for sneakers. I got into some trouble and left a lot of sneakers sitting for a long time. And I thought to myself what if I could clean these shoes to where they are wearable again. At first everyone told me I was crazy for thinking that I could clean sneakers and make a living. After I clean my first pair I think to myself how many people actually throw their shoes away. So in the beginning I literally was cleaning shoes for free. Then I did my research and found out that you can literally refurbish a sneaker from almost any detail of damage. So the part that had me most excited was the fact that I could never ever lose my shoes.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got it to this industry because it saves people a lot of money, plus my love for sneakers. I seen it was avenue no one was doing where I’m from so I would literally be the only person doing it. It taught me patience with anything and everything that I do…

Just like back in the days no one wanted to shine there shoes..now a days no one wants to clean there shoes.
We refurbished your whole sneaker. So it’s like getting your car washed you love a good smelling clean car. You will definitely love good smelling clean shoes.

I’m most proud of my customer service…one thing you will always get with US is a smile. You will always get a laugh with US that’s the biggest IsShoe in the world people don’t smile enough.
Whats better then a good smile with some clean shoes NOTHING.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The pandemic was a big pivot for my business. There was no where to go. No one was wearing shoes to get dirty. We was in the house. I really thought my business was going to drown. During the pandemic. I had no orders coming in I had to tap in to my marketing side and figure out a way to stay a float. So I literally created projects that would keep me going and better my skills as a restorer. All in all I learned a lot about having a back up plan and keeping something to work on.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

It all started with a 9-5, I started working at Walmart distribution. At first I was just working and working but I knew I had a plan. I started cleaning shoes as a hobby. As I got better and did more research I noticed it was a high demand for my services. So every check I would put up one hundred dollars. And I worked overtime every week to add more if needed for the back up if I mess up someone’s shoes. Then I created a plan to make the shoe money replace the overtime money. Then it grew to where the shoe money replace the job money and I was able to leave my 9-5 and run my business full-time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @isshoes11
• Facebook: Unofficial IsShoes