We recently connected with Roman Khachaturyan and have shared our conversation below.

Roman, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

One of my biggest first risks in life was becoming a business owner. My wife and I traveled a lot and we would visit sneaker stores all over the country. I knew it was something that I wanted to eventually do myself. One on particular trip to LA, my wife told me she was tired of hearing me talk about it and that I was going to start the business as soon as we got back. From the minute we got back from that trip we started looking at locations all over the city. We secured a tiny 600 sq ft store front that was an old Italian restaurant. We remodeled the shop and opened it within 3 months of returning from that trip to LA. I started out with only 20 pairs of shoes in my shop. I scaled my business quickly, within 3 years we had 2000 pairs. We grew so quickly within 2 years we had to move around the corner on Broadway, to a space that was 6 times the size. I didn’t start out with a crazy amount of start up capital or product. I started slow and small. I had a family to provide for, so I think knowing that this plan had to work and grit that I put in, is what made it so successful. The support from the city has been overwhelming and we are forever grateful.
I am happy I took the risk.

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 am a streetwear sneaker shop owner. I have a passion for vintage clothing and cool sneakers. I pride myself on my store being a place where everyone feels welcome. I think what is so cool about the streetwear community is that you can connect with someone you would normally probably never talk to because you both are into sneakers. When you step in my store, we are all on the same level and we all have something in common and something to talk about. We have the largest and widest variety of sneakers in the state of Missouri when it comes to selection.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I believe it is all about personality. We have some employees with some big personalities at our store. Everyday at work is interesting – to say the least! People might think our instagram skits are not our real personalities but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you have ever been in the shop you there is always something going on. Big shout out to Chance Dubinick for all his help teaching us the social media ropes!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Easily it is having customer service. You would be shocked how many streetwear stores I have been into all over the country and you walk in and no one talks to you. Not even a hello. I pride my store on customer service and building relationships with my customers. Majority of my customers I would consider good friends and they started out as total strangers that would shop with us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dvapercent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dvapercent