A 20-year-old college dropout says he made $225,000 in sales last year reselling sneakers. Here's how he grew his business without a degree.

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A 20-year-old college dropout says he made $225,000 in sales last year reselling sneakers. Here's how he grew his business without a degree.
Moose read sneakerhead

Moose Read

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Read also has a YouTube channel where he discusses aspects of his business.

You don't always need a college degree to make money. Ethan "Moose" Read is living proof of that.

The 20-year-old, who is known by his friends and family as "Moose," dropped out of Bellevue College near Seattle about a year ago to pursue selling sneakers full-time after growing his business in high school and part of college.

"I've definitely come to where I want to be and I want to keep growing from here," Read said, estimating that he made around $225,000 in sales last year from his sneaker resale business.

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He primarily runs his business through his website, Moosetraxshop.com, and his social media accounts. Today, he ships out about 10 to 15 pairs to customers a day, on average.

Read's sneaker business began as a side hustle. He started selling sneakers as a way to fund his own sneaker collection as a freshman and sophomore at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington. But his business quickly grew from there.

"It got to the point where I was getting in trouble every class for being on my phone because I was trying to buy or sell something," said Read.

The turning point came the summer before Read's senior year of high school, when he went to a sneaker show in Las Vegas, Nevada. He brought about 10 pairs of sneakers to the event and sold them all in a matter of hours, earning enough capital to purchase a bulk order of sneakers to start reselling more vigorously. That's when his business started taking off.

"One shoe turned into 50 shoes, 50 into 100 and, you know, there on," said Read.

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Read's sneaker business was on the rise when he started college in the fall of 2018. But after he skipped class to consign a pair of sneakers for $8,000, he realized the potential of his enterprise.

"It really hit me there like, wow, this is kind of crazy," he said. He decided to drop out of college a few days later, requesting that his parents give him 18 months of leeway to try and make it in the business.

A little over a year later, Read has more than proven himself. He is now a full-time reseller and even started a YouTube channel in October, where he makes videos about his own journey and tips for people looking to break into the industry.

Here are Read's tips for anyone looking to turn their sneaker side hustle into a full-time gig:

Apply here to attend IGNITION: Retail, an event focused on the future of retail, in New York City on January 14.

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