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Ryanne Locker
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Ryanne Locker
At just 18, Marvin Montgomery Jr. accomplished his goal of owning a business in late 2020. The reality sunk in during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in February 2021 for his Cuyahoga Falls barbershop, clothing and sneaker store, Kicks n’ Cuts, as he was surrounded by city officials, his employees, his girlfriend and his family.
“It was really surreal,” he says, “just being in my own store.”
Not long before, Montgomery was attending John Carroll University to study entrepreneurship, but he wasn’t enjoying taking remote classes during the pandemic. He dropped out and began brainstorming about his next step.
He dreamed of owning a business and realized his interests of hair, sneakers and clothing intersect. So he came up with the unique idea of combining an apparel store with a barbershop.
“I love to get haircuts. I get my haircut once a week, fresh lined up in a fade,” Montgomery says. “I’m always buying shoes, and I’m always buying clothes.”
He immediately thought of the open upstairs space above Gilmores Nail Salon & Boutique, which his mom owns, and how it had previously been occupied by barbershops. Kick n’ Cuts now fills that void.
“A lot of families come in on the weekends. The wife might be downstairs in my mom’s boutique, and the husband might be upstairs getting a haircut,” he says. “It’s a one-stop shop for anybody that is into fashion.”
He doesn’t cut hair, so he recruited two barbers, brothers Chris and Ron. He keeps the store stocked with sneakers like Nikes, Yeezys and Jordans by buying new shoes from customers and bigger suppliers. He’s also filling the contemporary store, which has a neon blue “We Made It” sign on a grass wall, with pieces like Nike and Jordan apparel.
He even has his own clothing line, Klimate, that he made while attending Woodridge High School. The Fr33ze collection focuses on fall and winter items like beanies and crewnecks, while Br33ze has spring and summer items like T-shirts and swimsuits. The whole line is a nod to Akron, with the K and The 330 reference. So the whole idea is to help anyone feel fresh.
“I have stuff my grandparents wear, my nephews wear,” he says. “The age gap there’s like 7 to 85.”
It turns out his instincts were right about combining his three interests.
“I see it time and time again. They get up out of the barber’s chair … and they want shoes, or they want some clothes,” he says. “It just flows together.”
Montgomery has plans to expand the store so there’s more room for inventory. While his path was nontraditional, he’s ready to keep growing Kicks n’ Cuts and doing what he loves.
“My advice for younger entrepreneurs is to not give up,” he says. “It’s very easy to just go on social media, see what other people are doing and start to get discouraged. But you can’t compare your chapter 1 to somebody else’s chapter 5, 6, 7, 8.”
Shop in-person and online, 4111 State Road, Cuyahoga Falls, 330-356-1199, kicksncuts.com
