Walking from the underpass toward the South 40, perhaps you’ve noticed a glowing neon sign spelling out the words “Prolific Kickz.” Nestled between the familiar Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center and fan-favorite Beary Sweet Shoppe, rows of Nikes, Jordans, Dunks, and Yeezys line the shelves of the newest Student Enterprise Program (StEP) business on campus, blurring by as students hurry to their dorms or Bear’s Den for a meal.
However, if you take a moment to pause and enter the storefront, you will be greeted by junior Kevin Chen, the founder and CEO of Prolific Kickz — a name with a particularly unique origin.
“I asked ChatGPT to help me come up with some keywords, and ‘prolific’ was one of them,” Chen said. “I liked that term, and then I [put] ‘Kickz’ on the end of it, and here we are now with ‘Prolific Kickz.’”
It’s an atypical start to the story of an atypical campus business. But Chen is no stranger to the world of shoe sales. He started his online business, KC Resells, in high school. The business now has over 10,000 followers on Instagram and made over one million dollars in sales in 2023.
“My sophomore year of high school, I had a friend introduce me to sneakers,” Chen said. “He resold sneakers at the time, and I thought, ‘Wow, maybe I could do this too.’ And then over the past few years, even in applying into college, I just kept scaling that business.”
However, Prolific Kickz marks a departure from Chen’s past work in business to business sales, where he orders directly from the shoe manufacturer to supply stores in bulk. His goal with the storefront is to eliminate the middleman and sell directly to the consumer — WashU students.
“One of my primary goals with opening this store in the first place was really just seeing cool shoes on a lot more students here around campus,” Chen said. “I thought it would be really cool to be able to provide another opportunity for students in the WashU community to be able to buy these sneakers.”
His main argument for why students should visit his storefront, rather than shopping online or through a larger retailer, is simple: The price is right.
“I’m able to sell to a store who then marks up the shoe again to sell to the end consumer. If the end consumer is buying from me in the first place, they’re going to end up saving money. A lot of sneaker stores tend to upcharge their price a bunch, but I try and be very reasonable relative to that market price to ensure that customers aren’t overpaying.”
According to Chen, connections are key to a successful business. He described meeting the owner of a shoe store in St. Louis through Instagram. What began as a transactional agreement led to the owner becoming one of his biggest role models and mentors.
“Whenever there was anything I kind of was uncertain on as I was kind of scaling my business up, because he had more experience than me, I would be able to ask him, and he would just be able to point me in the right direction, give me the advice that I needed, and that was really helpful.”
Chen describes the success of his business as having met expectations, despite a seeming lack of foot traffic.
“Going into this, I knew foot traffic wasn’t going to be a huge number, because we’re all college students — not everyone’s looking for sneakers to buy all the time. But I think it’s still been pretty good and near[ly] meeting my expectations, on track for breaking even from all the startup costs and bringing in more people.”
To all of the students who hesitate, even for a split second, before walking past his business, Chen has one message to deliver:
“Please come in. I’m a friendly guy. I’m here to help. And if you want to just come look at shoes, you’re not pressured to buy anything. You’re always welcome to come in and take a look.”
This article was written by Kritika Maheshwari (LA ’28), contributing writer for Student Life, The Independent Newspaper of WashU, and originally posted on October 23, 2024.
The Student Enterprise Program (StEP) is facilitated by the Skandalaris Center and provides a unique opportunity for students to own a business on campus that serves the Washington University community.