One Pair Clothing and Shoe Store Combines Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Mentorship

The website for One Pair, the sneaker and clothing store owned by Kansas City’s Jerren Thornhill, boasts that it’s “More Than Just a Shoe Store. It’s a Lifestyle.”

That’s not just an advertising slogan; it encapsulates Thornhill’s belief that the company can change lives.

Thornhill, who’s 31, describes One Pair as “a shoe store, a clothing store, and an education center.”

His employees are teens and young adults between the ages of 14 and 22, who sell the shoes and clothing, but they are also involved in cleaning shoes and creating new designs for sneakers brought in by customers.

The store also sells pieces from six locally owned clothing companies, which are allowed to showcase their clothing lines without added expense of renting a storefront.

The kids who work at One Pair are budding entrepreneurs “who create their own businesses, they learn entrepreneur skills, they learn life skills, they take what they learn in school and apply it back to their real life,” Thornhill said.

He opened One Pair in November 2020, finding quick success in the middle of a pandemic.

Thornhill had been involved in mentoring teens for a few years, but “I was losing kids to violence and things like that. All they wanted to do was make money and be creative, the same things I wanted to be as a kid, but I had no one pushing me. So I wanted to create something where kids can be the forefront of it, be creative, and make some money and create generational wealth for them and their families.”

For the shoes, customers will bring in their own footwear – some of it collectible sneakers – and ask to have it customized. One Pair’s designers have created breast cancer awareness designs, customized work boots for Amazon employees, and much more.

A few companies have commissioned them to design special footwear for employees, shoes that double as “walking billboards,” as Thornhill describes it.

The store has about 10 employees, as well as college students who are working as interns, and the employees work out the store’s budget and expenses as well as serving customers and creating the designs for the customized shoes.

Thornhill is hoping to expand the business to other cities, starting with his hometown of St. Louis.

In addition to helping teens and young adults gain experience in running a store and creating something new, the business also keeps them off the streets, Thornhill said.

“They’ll be so tired from work that they don’t want to do anything,” he said. “It’s not even physically; it’s mentally. Keeping them busy, being there for them. It’s a safe haven that allows them to be creative, be safe, and just be a kid and learn about life.”