TAMPA, Fla. — You wouldn’t think a pair of shoes could change someone’s life, but Dejan Kisin will tell you they can.  

What You Need To Know

  •  Dejan Kisin gets his hands on rare sneakers, then sells them online

  •  He launched Kisin Kicks after realizing the untapped potential for online shoe sales

  •  He's also a scholarship recipient at St. Petersburg College

  • He's studying business at SPC hoping to expand his company

“I’d say (they) definitely changed my life in a good way,” Kisin said.

It was 2021.

Kisin was going to school at Northeast High School in St. Petersburg and working at Winn-Dixie as an after-school job. He decided to use some of his earnings to buy a pair of Air Force 1’s he had been eyeing.

But when his parents found out what he had bought, they weren’t thrilled.

“It’s because they ended up buying the same pair of shoes for me for my birthday,” Kisin said.

Kisin decided to keep one pair and sell the other pair online. When he did, he realized there was an untapped market waiting for him, realizing there was “high demand for a product that isn’t mass produced.”

The teenager launched Kisin Kicks. He gets his hands on rare sneakers that people want but can’t find at regular stores, then sells them at his own online marketplace. Kisin has grown the business the last two years, now selling hundreds of shoes each week.

He was recently at Crunch Fitness in St. Petersburg, displaying some of his inventory and generating publicity.

But he’s also going to school at St. Petersburg College, where he earned one of the school’s new Promise Scholarships.

The scholarship covers tuition and fees for associate’s degrees or financial-aid eligible certificates at SPC. Graduates of the following high schools are eligible:

  • Boca Ciega High School
  • Clearwater High School
  • Gibbs High School
  • Hollins High School
  • Lakewood High School
  • Northeast High School
  • Pinellas Park High School
  • Tarpon Springs High School

Kisin told us the scholarship will help ease the financial burden on himself and his parents, though the shoe business is generating money too. He’s studying business at SPC to learn how to expand the business even more.

As for the Air Force 1s that started it all? Kisin says he’s outgrown them as a style, but he still looks at them fondly as a memento.

“They definitely have a special place in my heart,” Kisin said. “Almost like a piece of a memory where everything started.”