After a few nights at KAM’S, many students return home with wet, dirty shoes that eventually become labeled as “bar shoes.”

Because of this, Brandon Lehman, Champaign resident, and Julian Carter, junior in Business, have started a shoe cleaning service on campus that caters to students.

Lehman and Carter came up with the idea for Shoe Refresh last May, after going to bars on campus and realizing it was impossible to keep their shoes clean. Less than a month later, they had their first paying customer.

“It was one of those ideas that didn’t take a lot of critical thinking. It was like, let’s put two and two together,” Lehman said.

“A lot of college students with dirty shoes and no transportation. Let’s offer them something that nobody’s offering them in town, and that’s where Shoe Refresh came from.”

Carter said their business is structured around convenience for their customers — the biggest thing being lack of transportation for college students.

This factor is why Carter said they do pickup and delivery as a part of their services.

Shoe Refresh offers more than just cleaning; they also provide restoration services and shoe customizations.

In an effort to increase their market share, Shoe Refresh offers $10 cleans for the first three pairs of shoes to all new customers.

After that, shoe cleans are $10 if the pair is under $100, $20 if they are $100 to $200, $30 if they are $200 to $300, and for more expensive shoes, 10 percent of their market price.

For customizations and repairs, Shoe Refresh charges $30 an hour.

Rachel Lee, a customer of Shoe Refresh, said her white Converse high tops were caked in mud and covered in cranberry juice stains. After sending them to Shoe Refresh, she said she was astounded by how clean they were.

“I thought they just bought me new shoes. I don’t want to sound like an ad, but they were seriously spotless,” Lee said.

She also commented on the convenience aspect of Shoe Refresh, saying how Lehman was really accommodating and came at a time that worked for Lee, getting her shoes back to her right away.

Lee said she has already recommended Shoe Refresh to her friends and plans on being a repeat customer. Of her overall experience with Shoe Refresh, Lee found it to be really nice that they’re able to pick up and drop off your shoes whenever it’s convenient for the customer.

“It’s such an easy and casual process,” Lee said.

Lehman said customers don’t have to be fearful of wearing their nice shoes out. 

“They can live exactly how they want to live, feel at their best because they have their nicest things on and know that if something happens, they can come to us and get them looking exactly brand new,” Lehman said.

“It is shoe cleaning, but on a bigger scale. I would say the Shoe Refresh customer can be more comfortable in life.”

Lehman estimates that Shoe Refresh gets around three cleaning orders a day, and if customers place orders before noon, they can expect their shoes back that same evening.

Carter said he and Lehman easily spend over 40 hours a week each working on fulfilling orders and improving Shoe Refresh.

Lehman also said outside of the cleaning, it’s a lot of marketing and data entry for their customer logs. He said they are always trying to expand on what they can offer to their customers.

“We’re all about execution; I think that’s one of the major things about Shoe Refresh is that we sit and we plan everything out and then we try and execute it,” Carter said.

Both Carter and Lehman said their motto is, “macro-patience, micro-speed,” meaning they want to be patient when it comes to goal-setting, and have micro-speed when it comes to getting things done on a daily basis.

Lehman and Carter have big plans for Shoe Refresh. They hope to maintain the upward growth of their company after they graduate and eventually sell it to a shoe retailer such as Adidas or Nike. After Shoe Refresh, the two friends wish to continue starting businesses together.

“If we take it day by day, we win every single day. Then after six months, there’s no doubt our goals will be achieved,” Lehman said.

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