Meet Kevin Consolo | Co-Founder & COO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Consolo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I met my Co-Founder, Chris Pavlica, in college at Ohio University over 15 years ago. He was in the film program and I was in business, but we became instant friends and roommates. We would stay up late at night sometimes thinking of the next big business idea…and none of them were really the right ones. After school, Chris moved to Hollywood to pursue his film career and ended up directing immersive experiences and filming around the world.
One day he found himself in Atlanta pitching his film experience to Coca-Cola. He had 20 minutes left before the meeting when he reached to take out his shoes from his luggage. He’s a creative director so he doesn’t wear a suit and tie and these brand new white midsole shoes were the highlight of his outfit.
Unfortunately, they were all scuffed up from travel! He quickly scoured the internet for home remedies to make his midsoles look new and white again but didn’t really have any luck. He ended up using hand sanitizer and paper towels.
After the meeting, he called me up and said “I think I have a good product idea.”
A couple months later, I flew to Los Angeles and we started working on a shoe cleaning product that is ready-to-use and can easily remove scuff marks, dirt and grime from midsoles.
SneakERASERS was born.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It was not at all easy to get to where I am professionally. I graduated in a recession and I found myself restocking wine shelves at a supermarket with my marketing degree. I was unemployed for months here and there, and was way too familiar with rejection letters. It was not at all what I thought post-college work would be like. Even as I gained experience and advanced up to a Director role for the Global Wine, Beer & Spirits trade event in San Diego, I apparently still wasn’t hirable.
I wanted to eventually be a National Account Manager and get products on the shelf at some of the largest retailers in the world. Yet, I finished second place in many hiring turns for managing big brands at retail and I continued to struggle to take the career steps I really wanted to take.
As soon as I was able to work remotely, I moved to Florida and then to North Carolina, without really knowing anyone in the area. I wanted to experience new places and build my own career, my own schedule, on my own terms.
Being on your own takes a lot of discipline to wake up everyday and want to make a difference in your professional life.
When my Co-Founder, Chris, came to me with an opportunity for a “side hustle” to learn to be an entrepreneur and invent our own product, I wanted to take the risk because I needed to out of desperation. No one else was giving me a shot so I had to make my own.
A lot of people have ideas but there’s so much sacrifice to make to actually bring them to life and make them a business. It’s a lot of time spent at night, or on weekends, away from family and friends. It’s a lot of financial strain too, initially.
I’ve learned that it takes a lot of time and patience, but Chris and I set out to try to tell everyone in retail about our brand and get a “yes” or a “no.” As long as we got an answer, we felt good about our efforts. Luckily for us, we got a lot of orders and a yes from even the producers at Shark Tank.
We almost closed up shop in 2018 but we learned more about our demographic and who SneakERASERS was really for — moms, athletes, nurses, cheerleaders, dancers, business professionals, etc.. Once we switched gears and reached the right audience, we went from 200 stores to 45,000+ today. It was a long road to get here, but I would attribute persistence (and many hours in the week) to get to where our brand is today.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
n/a (I live in North Carolina)

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a little shoutout to my wife, Tiffany, who works hard to support our family and allowed me to take a risk on my career to become a successful entrepreneur.

Just three months after our wedding, I told her about the opportunity to work for my company full-time for three months. It was certainly scary at first, not knowing if this would be a smart move. I had 90 days to prove to everyone that this product line had a future and I had the stability of our household income was on the line.

For entrepreneurs, when they first get started, you’re leaving a steady income that usually involves a W-2 and health insurance. It’s not easy for many families to take the risk together.

Luckily for me, my wife supported the move and I wouldn’t be where I am today without that support.

Website: www.erasers.com

Instagram: @sneakerasers

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/erasers/

Twitter: @sneakerasers

Facebook: /sneakerasers

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgb05FSPe5MB9jr9d_MKcvw

Other: TikTok: @sneakerasers

Image Credits
Kevin Consolo, Co-Founder / COO Chris Pavlica, Founder / Owner American Broadcasting Companies. All Rights Reserved.