Peak Sneaks looks to grow in Ephrata
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 6 months AGO
Cameron Nicholson, co-owner of Peak Sneaks in Ephrata with his wife Brulee Hoskins, started his physical store in November. He'd sold shoes online prior to opening the brick and mortar location.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
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.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | February 27, 2025 2:20 AM
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.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.