At 28-years-old, Vinnie Tao was not satisfied with life so he quit his job and sold all his belongings to help him start afresh. At that time, he had a job at his dad’s restaurant, two degrees and even though he knew the path he was on would lead to a stable life he just wasn’t happy.
And it showed in his demeanour which was something that people around him would notice.
“A customer stopped me and told me I don’t look happy. It was out of nowhere, I didn’t necessarily have a relationship with this person, so it was quite surprising.
“It was essentially a stranger asking if you’re okay. He told me that if don’t change anything, in ten years time I’ll be in the same situation feeling the same way.
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“That was a catalyst for me to quit [my job] and sell everything that was holding me back financially. Like my car, vinyl records and guitar stuff.
“Stuff that I bought for myself to enjoy. basically, get rid of all the debt that was holding me back, stuff that cost money.”
For Vinnie, now 34, those luxury items were holding him back and the money could be used to help fund a more fulfilling venture. But even then he still didn’t know what he wanted to do exactly, so, after quitting his job he spent a year creating a ‘moodboard’ of business ideas stemming from something he was actually passionate about, fashion.
“I was doing nothing basically, I was eating into my savings. I didn’t know anything about benefits, so I put myself in a corner and put pressure on to do something.
“Within those months I was going through business plans and models. Using templates from Prince’s Trust and stuff I learned from university and pieceing it together.
“I wasn’t set on what I was doing, I was making it up as I went, but I knew what I genuinely wanted to do and it was a way into fashion without directly having an education in fashion.”
A north Manchester native with Hong Kong roots, Vinnie said this time off caused some friction in his life. "People would be like, ‘what are you doing?’ like, you’re a wasteman basically because you’re not doing anything,” he told the Manchester Evening News.
“I told my parents I want to do something related to fashion, and they were like ‘what do you know about fashion?’
“You’ve got people pressure, family pressure, people not agreeing with what you’re doing. Being Asian, you’ve got to have a job, you can’t do nothing and not contribute.
“I found a niche and just pursued it because a lot of people don’t understand what you’re doing until you do it. They won’t see it until you show them.”
That niche was SneakerPharm, Manchester’s first sneaker cleaning store. SneakerPharm was born from a solo trip to California for Coachella in 2017.
While in the states, he visited the Jason Markk Flagship Store. The shop, which is in the Little Tokyo District in LA is described as the world’s first drop-off shoe care service.
“That trip was the my first holiday in eight years," he reminisced. “The holiday was freedom and the realisation of possibility.
“Once I went to Jason Markk's it was really inspiring because it was a known flagship and I was having a look at something that could be achieved from something so simple.
“It was a cool little spot, it was designed the way he wanted it to look. It inspired me to be like, if that’s possible, there’s no reason why I can’t do it.”
You can find SneakerPharm hidden away in Manchester's pop-up retail site Hatch, and, from 12pm to 9pm Vinnie can be seen working away cleaning and restoring sneakers with sustainability in mind.
The idea is that rather than having to splash the cash on a new pair of trainers when yours start to look a bit tired, you can take them to SneakerPharm and they will give them a good scrub and tidy so they look new again.
Despite a slow start which saw him make just £15 in his first two weeks as a trader, the business has been successful for Vinnie. Even his initial plan of infiltrating the fashion and music space is bearing fruit.
Among the many trinkets of fashion and sneaker culture influences in his store there is a framed drum skin signed by pop sensation Phoebe Bridgers. Phoebe and her crew signed the drum kit after Vinnie cleaned shoes for her and her bandmates in record time for them during their gig in Manchester last year.
But perhaps his most prized possession are the Air Max Nike 97s that he got to design for the company's 50th birthday.
“Hatch came up and it fit the model for what I wanted. An edgy and cool demographic and a focus on sustainability," he says of his Oxford Road base.
“Developing a brand and community is what I want to do. As a kid growing up in Manchester there wasn’t really many stores that stood out to me.
“SneakerPharm is like a stepping stone for a place where I’d like to have been in as a kid. Obviously I haven’t got there yet, but it’s in the works.”
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