By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — Main St. Soles, located at 107 Kay Avenue in Trussville, opened their doors on July 1, 2022, and for the past two months, they have been buying, selling, and trading the best soles to the community. They also have a variety of t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, and shoe selections ranging from Yeezy, Nike, Jordans, and more.
Spencer Welch, co-owner of Main St. Soles, is a pastor with a deep appreciation for good shoes. He has been wearing Jordans since the early 90s.
Spencer served two churches, and when he decided to focus on shoes, Spencer gave up one of the churches and began focusing on being a senior pastor. In the beginning, he was mostly selling shoes online, on apps, and then a little bit locally.
“I started doing this as like a side thing,” Spencer said. “However, it kind of got out of hand.”
Spencer’s wife and co-owner, Meagan Welch, said it got to the point where you couldn’t get into the walk-in closet, and the shoes spilled into the kitchen and the living room.
“They were everywhere in our home,” Spencer said. “We decided that a storefront was probably our best option for doing it the right way. It’s just easier to have one location.”
Meagan said the name of the storefront was a long discussion because they wanted something that screamed Trussville. She added that when people think of Trussville, they think of Main Street.
“We’ve tossed up so many different ideas,” Meagan said. “We just kept thinking ‘Main Street Heat,’ because many people call their nice sneakers heat. Then we were like, people don’t know what that means. So we needed to figure out something where they understand it’s a sneaker shop. Then, with being a pastor, we were like, sole. We’re saving souls and selling soles.”
When Spencer first started buying shoes, he explained it was easy because Jordan released one pair of shoes a year.
“When Jordan released, you went and got the shoe,” Spencer said. “Everybody was stoked about it, and people would be like, ‘Whoa, like your shoes.'”
Sneaker reselling has become a big business, and Spencer still remembers how it was when you could go pick out what shoes you wanted.
“I wanted to give that to people, for them to, to be able to go and see and feel and try it on,” Spencer said. “Not just have to order it online and hope it comes in and hopes it fits and all that stuff, but to give them the experience that I had where you could just go pick out what you wanted.”
Meagan explained that if the store doesn’t have the shoes you want, they offer “Sole Search.”
“It’s called a grail,” Spencer said. “Somebody has a shoe that’s like, ‘Oh, I wish I could get that shoe.’ That’s your personal grail; for me, it’s Jordan Elevens. I love these shoes; I want one in every color, but if somebody has a specific shoe, they can come in, fill out the Sole Search card, and I’ll go find it for them.”
Main St. Soles also will buy your gently worn shoes, or “pre-loved” shoes as Meagan calls them, clean them up, and resell them.
Spencer said the current shoes in the shop range in price from $100 to $400. Each room in the shop is set up differently. In the front room, customers can find the “Kids Corner” and Yeezy’s. Then there is the “Jordan Room,” where are all the Stargaze T-shirts can be found. The far back room is the “Dunk Room,” which also houses the vintage tees.
Main St. Soles prides itself on supporting local businesses, from Cahaba Designs creating the logo to selling a local brand called Stargaze in the shop.
“Everything we do is local; everybody we work with pretty much is local; we really want to support our community,” Meagan said.
Spencer said he’s beyond proud of his community for also supporting this business.
“It’s been pretty outstanding,” Spencer said. “We weren’t really sure how it was gonna go, but the community has been here for us.”
Main St. Soles hopes to get involved in more community events, and there is talk of expansion. They also partner with “Soles for Souls” to provide gently used athletic shoes to kids in need.
“We will be a drop-off for gently used athletic shoes,” Meagan said. “So if anyone has any gently used athletic shoes they want to drop off, we will take them.”
For more information, check out Main St. Soles on Facebook and Instagram.