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From collection to global business: Frank sells his sneakers worldwide
What started with a small shelf in his bedroom has grown into a collection of around 5,000 sneakers. Frank Klerks (34) is now one of the biggest players in his niche. Or “niche within a niche,” as Frank himself puts it, because he focuses on just one model: the Nike Air Max is everything to him. “It’s truly a statement on your feet.”
Frank’s office in Apeldoorn could easily be described as a sneaker paradise. From here he runs Outsole, an international platform for some of the rarest sneakers in the world. He was twelve years old when he bought his first pair of Air Max with his pocket money. “It’s a bold sneaker that you see a lot in hip-hop and gabber culture. I loved that. And the shape is amazing. I always say it looks like a fighter jet.”
A cool store inventory
His first pairs were worn down so badly that they eventually had to go, but after a few years Frank started keeping his sneakers instead. “When you get older and can buy more pairs, they don’t wear out as quickly,” Frank explains. “At some point I also started buying pairs even if they weren’t in my own size, simply because I wanted that particular model. All those different sizes together eventually formed a pretty cool store inventory.”
Frank studied Business Administration because he didn’t see himself selling shoes forever. After graduating, a colleague from one of his ‘grown-up jobs’ suggested he should finally build that webshop. With some help, he did exactly that: Outsole.nl went live in 2015. Since then things have grown quickly, although Outsole is still a one-man business. “I’m not the type of entrepreneur who is constantly focused on scaling up. I really just do what I’m good at and what makes me happy. I always say: stick to what you know best, and things will work out.”
From America to New Zealand
His attention to detail goes very far — so far that Frank even started producing his own shoelaces. “When I started, perfect laces simply didn’t exist. The structure or thickness was never quite right, and as a purist that really bothered me.” Today he has the right laces for almost every sneaker, available in various colors. “It really makes a world of difference to the look of a shoe.”
Although sneaker enthusiasts sometimes travel to Apeldoorn to visit his space and see the sneakers in person, most of the real business happens online. “It all starts with being visible online. Half of the visitors to the website aren’t from the Netherlands; we sell sneakers worldwide. From America to New Zealand — outside of Africa I think we’ve reached about 90 percent of the continents. Everything has always been online: in the past through eBay and blogs, and now through the webshop.”
Special finds
A stable and fast connection is the engine behind his business. “You want to help customers quickly and ship orders right away. I try to prevent questions as much as possible, but if they do come in, I answer them immediately — even if I see a message while I’m out at night. That’s the beauty of always being online, because the trading never really stops.”
Despite his enormous inventory, Frank still enjoys hunting for that one special pair. “In the past it could take a long time before I finally found a ‘holy grail’. When that happened I was incredibly happy. These days those special finds come my way more often, because people know how to reach me when they want to sell their collections. I especially love the very first models from the early Air Max years. I’m still hoping to find a few more of those vintage pairs.”
If the business were ever to stop, would Frank already have a new destination for his beloved “Maxies”? He laughs. ““Then I’ll just go back to being a collector — the biggest one in Europe probably.”
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