440 Kicks: The Sneaker Business Born From Resilience
- Kelly Coyne
- Feb 26
- 6 min read
Hayden Speeth is the Founder and Owner of 440 Kicks. He’s changing the market for sneakers, clothing, and accessories in Northeast Ohio.
Early Life
Growing up in Parma, Speeth was bullied for the style of shoes he wore. He used that as motivation to succeed. He started selling everything he owned in grade school to afford fancy kicks. With the profits from selling on eBay, he bought Jordan 11 blues. He sold those Jordans, which began the reselling craze for him.
Speeth urged kids, saying, “You can’t care about what anybody has to say. It’s not about having the nicest things…My advice to any kids being bullied right now is just keep your head high and keep being yourself and let the real people acknowledge and appreciate that. Keep a close group of friends that don’t care about what you’re wearing, care about you as a person.”
In high school, Speeth dabbled in vintage reselling before jumping back into sneakers in college at John Carroll University. Ultimately, he made what he considers one of the toughest decisions. He dropped out after his second year to pursue 440 Kicks.
Speeth explained, “Dropping out was one of the biggest decisions I ever made in my life. It was really hard to do and I will say I don’t know if I could have done it if I didn’t have my family’s support… But I mean for my business owners in college right now kind of on the fence about making that decision I’d really just plan everything out. Plan your expenses out, see what you need to make per month to make sure you can at least cover what you’re in for… and if you can make it work financially do it. Invest in yourself. Put all the chips in and that’s going to inspire you to wake up every single day and work that much harder…”
Faith and Business
A devout Catholic, Speeth has an ever-growing relationship with God. For Speeth, all glory goes to God. Speeth iterated, “I would not be where I am without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…I would pray every single night God just show me the door, show me the opportunity, and I will make whatever I can out of it and He’s continued to open doors for me and sometimes close them but I understand everything happens for a reason…I would not be here today or the man that I am without God.”
From reselling any product he could get his hands on to buying his first pair of Jordans in grade school to opening a shoe store, Speeth is living his dream. 440 Kicks opened in August of 2024.
In 2021 and 2022, he donated shoes to children in need at University Hospitals. Speeth said, “I just hope to be an inspiration to other businesses to give back when they can because I think a lot of people are out here just for themselves and that’s cool. You do your business, run it how you want to but at the end of the day if you’re community-centered…you’re gonna get that much more love from the community because you showed that you care.”
Speeth was recently invited to be a vendor at the first-ever Sneaker Con Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, a testament to the country’s rapidly growing sneaker market. In 2025, Saudi Arabia’s sneaker industry is projected to have an annual growth rate of 5.4% from 2025 to 2029, according to Statista. The U.S. sneaker market is growing at a slower rate of 4.5%.
According to the World Bank and the United States Census Bureau, Saudi Arabia has a population of 33 million, compared to 340 million in the U.S. Despite this disparity, Saudi Arabia’s demand for sneakers is surging. By entering the Riyadh market, Speeth solidified his place among the top players in the global sneaker business, catering to some of the wealthiest buyers in the world.
440 Kicks isn’t like every other shoe store. What separates them is the low prices and diversified inventory. They sell new and used shoes, but the inventory goes far beyond shoes. They sell everything from Supreme Skittles to a $14,000 chain. Looking to purchase something from 440 Kicks? Fear not, all products are not that expensive; there are some products such as accessories for $10.
As a prominent sneaker reseller, Speeth knows a thing or two about trends in the industry. Currently, the industry is focused on lifestyle running shoes. Retro Jordans have fallen in popularity, selling for half of retail many times. He suggests in the next five years Jordan 1’s will be back selling for double retail. Speeth mentioned every three to four years a new trend hits the industry.
The brand, Essentials Fear of God, epitomizes hype culture. At 440 Kicks, the most popular clothing sales are the Essentials products. The most popular shoe sales are Asics and Nike Vomeros.
440 Kicks has seen immense growth with the app Whatnot. It's a live-stream shopping app where people bid on items. Speeth was recruited by Whatnot to be a seller. He said, “It was the game changer and just having the ability to liquidate multiple items in such a short time frame is insane. We go live, we have anywhere from 100 to 200 people on our livestream… That's like having 200 people in your store. So in terms of the exposure and liquidity and how fast we're able to move products it helped me scale so majorly and that's when I started building out a team and that's what ultimately led us to being able to do the store…”
Northeast Ohio and The Future of 440 Kicks
The Northeast Ohio sneaker scene is widely underappreciated. Speeth is here to change that narrative. He said, “I mean I think Cleveland is definitely a slept on city for hype. Me travelin’ to all these shows and people are kinda surprised I’m from Cleveland… There's a lotta great stores in the area. There's definitely tons of collectors and curators in Cleveland but I think it's still kind of an underground scene… There's still a lotta people buying their first hype shoe if I may but we’re extremely relevant in the culture…”
In the next five years, Speeth sees the business continuously growing. He wants to focus more on social media content. He mentioned, “I wanna be a social media company to a degree. I wanna be putting out how-to videos of sneaker relevant content. I mean that's how you grow the fastest right. I’m not gonna get a hundred thousand followers overnight by just having the store. I wanna be putting out content everyday educating the community and informing them and making them interested in sneaker driven content and we’ll see where that takes us.”
What started as a way to overcome bullies has become a dream come true. Speeth exclaimed, “I never woulda thought I would be in a position where I am today to not only have the resources like my team but just to have the amount of inventory and the success my business has seen which is a blessing from God. I think that continues to motivate me, just thinkin’ about where I came from like those grassroots and knowing that I was that kid that just wanted to have one cool pair of shoes and now I’m able to get other people in cool pairs of shoes.”
Speeth has valuable advice for prospective resellers. He explained, “I would say you’re gonna deal with a lot of failure in business. I mean a lotta people…they're afraid of failure…Failures a key part of business because if you're not failing you're doing something wrong…. So I would say to any resellers out there right now, stay consistent, have a plan, and make goals…I mean try to be 1% better everyday and you might have some days where you don’t achieve that…You have to be persistent and consistent if you really wanna get there.”
440 Kicks has immensely changed Speeth’s life. He iterated, “I mean it’s who I am. This is not just a business or a brand, this is my entire identity. I wake up, I drink, breathe, sleep 440 Kicks…”
Follow 440 Kicks
Instagram: @440.kicks
YouTube: 440 Kicks
TikTok: @440.kicks
Website: https://440kicks.com/
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