EPHRATA — Some people aren’t very picky when it comes to what they wear on their feet. But for those who want to walk around in the good stuff, Ephrata now has what they need.  

“I felt like we needed something different in Ephrata,” said Cameron Nicholson, who owns Peak Sneaks with his wife, Brulee Hoskins. “If people want clothes like this, they have to go really far for it, like to Wenatchee or Tri-Cities, and it’s still not that great.” 

Peak Sneaks started out small, Nicholson said, just him selling shoes online from home about the time the COVID-19 pandemic ended. Stock began to pile up though, and in November they moved into a storefront in downtown Ephrata. 

“I was getting so many shoes I had nowhere to put them in my house,” Nicholson said. “I was like, well, I need to get storage or a warehouse, and if I get that, why not just turn it into a store? It's also my warehouse, plus I'll get extra foot traffic.” 

Peak Sneaks isn’t a discount shoe store. It offers high-quality shoes in recognizable name brands like Nike and Jordan. Nike Panda Dunks are one of their biggest sellers, Nicholson said, and those run $115 a pair on the store’s website.  

The really high-end shoes are kept in a glass case. Peak Sneaks also does a certain amount of buying, Nicholson said, particularly hard-to-find stock. 

“Some people will get a shoe and never wear it, they'll come sell it,” he said. “Or some of these shoes are rare. This ($600) shoe, if you get it from Nike the day it comes out, you have to join like a raffle. And if you win you pay $150 for the shoe. So, people enter those to win it, and then they sell it.” 

Peak Sneaks also has several lines of non-shoe apparel, including jackets, sweaters, jeans and Uggs.  

Nicholson and Hoskins both have other jobs, he said. His is seasonal, so once the summer comes, they’ll hire staff to keep the store going. Eventually they’d like to expand to a larger space and start offering more options, increasing the clothing selection and maybe moving into hiking boots and things like that. 

“I plan to make it big enough that it's an actual retail store,” he said. “... I want it to be (such that) anyone can go there and find what they want.” 

PEAK SNEAKS
66 Basin St SW
Ephrata, WA 98823
https://peaksneaksco.myshopify.com/

    Peak Sneaks offers a wide range of high-quality sports shoes.
  

    Cameron Nicholson, co-owner of Peak Sneaks in Ephrata, shows one of the store’s best-selling items, the Nike Panda Dunk.
  

    Besides shoes, Peak Sneaks offers sweatshirts, jeans and Uggs.
  

    Some of the shoes Peak Sneaks sells are hard to find, like the $600 Travis Scott shoe on the left. The shoe on the right has a buyer already, Nicholson said, and will sell for almost $3,000.