Sitting on 806 Locust St. in downtown Columbia, Sole Bros is a fashion and streetwear store, located just one block from Peace Park. Sole Bros specializes in vintage apparel, from jerseys to sneakers.

Co-owner Ian Morgan is one of the founders of the store, alongside his cousin Ben Sapp and his girlfriend Madison Fazio. In the fall of last year, he had the opportunity to make his dream a reality: providing accessible and affordable shoes and clothing to Columbia residents. By acquiring a space downtown as well as shoes and clothing, Morgan got to work on realizing these aspirations.

“It was a dream to create a sneaker community, and to be the first in CoMo to have a good, affordable sneaker resale store,” Morgan said. “Me and my cousin sat down like, ‘Is this a possibility?’ We got the opportunity to make it.”

Upon walking into Sole Bros, there is an immediate sense that the store is different from a run of the mill vintage resale store. There is a TV playing music and even a couple of arcade machines.

“We kind of just threw it all together, just trying to make it a possibility,” Morgan said.

Playing on the TV was a Mac Miller track, an artist who inspires Morgan. Mac Miller was a rapper known for destigmatizing mental health through his music, specifically the rap genre. Morgan said the song “Circles” particularly resonates with him.

“I’m a huge Mac Miller fan,” Morgan said. “So it says, ‘Don’t you put any more stress on yourself, it’s one day at a time,’ and I continue to try to live by that.”

Morgan, despite now being a business owner, had a long journey to get where he is today. Morgan originally had his sights set on business school at Missouri Valley College, however, he later changed his area of study to psychology.

“I just found out [business school] wasn’t for me, and it wasn’t where I wanted to be,” Morgan said. “At the time, I just wasn’t happy.”

This led Morgan to the University of Missouri, where he worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant at the Missouri Psychiatric Center. Morgan said that his experiences with mental health have shaped his journey.

“I struggled with my mental health my entire life, and so I wanted to help others with theirs,” Morgan said. “My parents have struggled with addiction, so I wanted to help people with addiction.”

Despite Morgan’s initial aspirations to work in the healthcare field, he said needed to take time to refocus on what he wanted out of life. Along the way, the opportunity to create Sole Bros arose.

Sole Bros has reinforced Morgan’s passion for connecting with others, and he said he is passionate about providing available resources to people experiencing homelessness in downtown Columbia.

“What I like to do is, any extra food and bottles of water we have, I just like giving it to them because they need it more than I do,” Morgan said. “They’re a community still, they’re humans, they have a heartbeat and they deserve as much respect as anyone else would.”

Morgan’s passion for helping the community outstretches his customer base, which contains several repeat customers. These customers become friends to Morgan, people he doesn’t just sell to, but people he grows to know and care about along the way.

“Each [customer] matters to me,” Morgan said. “It’s not a sale, it’s not just a dollar sign. It’s a beating heart that comes in here that I get to help.”

Morgan explained how getting the business off the ground was difficult, but ultimately, he acquired the licensing and passed inspections, allowing the store to debut on its desired date.

“I’m just trying to take care of the business just one day at a time, that’s all I really can do,” Morgan said.

To Morgan, the sneaker and streetwear scene in Columbia has been limited to a few stores that sell a small quantity of sneakers.

“Columbia has had a hidden sneaker community for so long,” Morgan said. “I want to show that Columbia can not only have a great sneaker community, but an affordable one as well.”

Morgan and the two other co-owners are dedicated to not just an inexpensive sneaker but an irreplaceable experience.

Edited by Mikalah Owens and Molly Levine | mowens@themaneater.com and mlevine@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Avery Copeland and Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Emilia Hansen | ehansen@themaneater.com
Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com