In a brick-lined first-floor converted apartment on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, the father-and-son duo of Troy and Chase Reed spend their days helping young New Yorkers overcome cash flow problems. While they’re not exactly a charitable concern, the Reeds’ pawnshop has become a pocket-lining oasis for the young and hard-up whose assets come laced-up and box-fresh — sneakers.

For the Reeds, Sneaker Pawn USA sprouted from a common patriarchal dilemma: the constant doling out of cash to a teenage son. The solution was to appropriate the newest pair of Chase’s sneakers and return them only when the loan had been paid off. “Then my son started showing me these pictures of people’s collections on Instagram and I was in amazement,” says Troy.

“I asked my son ‘Do you think these kids own all these sneakers?’ and he said ‘Yeah dad, these are people’s sneaker closets.’ So I thought if my son doesn’t have money, imagine how many other kids don’t have money but do have sneakers. I knew Sneaker Pawn was going to work the first day we opened, because somebody bought 60 pairs of sneakers. I knew right then and there this idea was a no-brainer.”