story

You know the old saying, "If you love what you do, you never actually go to work?" So, if I figured I can build a brand, make a living for myself as well as others, there's no way we could lose. So, I figured why not build a community in sneakers?

I'm Dr. Greg Grovey. I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, moved to Austin, Texas in 2004, and I am the founder of Kicking It here in Austin, Texas.

My name is Raven Anderson, and I'm the social media coordinator for Kicking It. My name is Colin Teagle, and I'm the general manager and NIL coordinator here at Kicking It.

Kicking It is actually a double entendre. So, we decided to go with the words kick referring to kicks as in sneakers, but also the verb of kicking it, like hanging out. So, we want you to do both. We want you to come cop the kicks and hang out as well. So I figured Kicking It would be the perfect name.

If you travel overseas and somebody asks where you from, it's not the United States. I'm from Texas. I wake up chomping at the bit every morning to get here because I love sneakers, and I love the environment that we've built here in our community.

So, I wanted to create an environment like nothing else anybody has ever seen in a sneaker store, so much so we don't even call ourselves a sneaker store. We call ourselves a sneaker social, and we encourage you to come in and be social. 

You can't go wrong with any conversations you want to have. The best part about working for Kicking It is always going to be the environment for me. We're a sneaker social, so when you come in, you feel that experience. Even though you're working, you're working hard...

...you can sit, you can talk to your coworkers, have a good time as well. So, it's more than a job. It's honestly a lifestyle. We're actually the first sneaker boutique or sneaker social to have active NIL players.

Our goal is to collaborate with each other. Like the athletes work with us, we work with them in efforts to build our brand as well as their personal brand, help them become better people off the field and off the court and in their community as well.

I would say my favorite part of working with student-athletes is the different personalities that come through the door and partnering with them to build their brand. I think if we can grow and expand our brand to different cities...

...that allows us to grow and expand our brand to different communities. Expansion in the near future is coming really soon. When you think about the latest and greatest in shoes, we want it to be Kicking It. My life journey, in a few short words, it's only a crazy dream until you do it. 

It's an awesome testimony for me to be able to stand in front of the masses and be like, "Hey, Greg from Dallas, Texas, was able to create a sneaker store and have an actual account with Nike." And it's something that people thought wouldn't even happen in my wildest dreams, but...

...we're here to prove that anything can happen, and as cliche as it sounds, the hard work will pay off. I'm Dr. Greg Grovey from Kicking It. Thank you for watching Talking Shop.