A sneakerhead's dream: Coastal Kicks offers sneaker, clothing culture in Mary Esther Plaza

MARY ESTHER — Ronnie Beale and Cody Himes met over a pair of kicks, the Men's Nike SB Dunk High Paul Rodriguez kicks to be exact.

The two were waiting in a time-sucking line for a sneaker release in January  2020 at Plus Skateshop in downtown Fort Walton Beach when they started talking Nikes. A pair of those once sought-after Dunks now sits in a case at Coastal Kicks in Mary Esther Plaza — not because they’re worth much in the sneaker-verse, but because they’re priceless to them.

One pair of kicks is how the two linked up for a longtime dream.

“Once we got to know each other more, I think (Beale) brought it up first,” Himes said. “He was saying that he wanted to open a sneaker store one day, and I was like, ‘I do, too,’ and we were just joking about it at first about opening and then it became serious. He's like, ‘So why don't we do it?’”

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A year later, they opened Coastal Kicks on Dec. 19 2020. The shop offers rare and exclusive sneakers (primarily Nikes, Jordans and Yeezys), clothing, accessories and vintage items.

They are also opening a second store in December in Pensacola and hope to open more locations, as well as collaborate with an established brand to create their own shoe someday.

Kicks have ruled everything around Beale since he was a child. The Virginia native remembers standing in lines for them before the "interweb" was even a thing.

“When I was a kid getting them as a gift, my dad had good taste, so it kinda got passed down,” Beale said. “I've always been into sneakers since I was a kid, waiting in line. We would camp out, get there like 6 in the morning, wait like four hours. If you’re willing to do that, you would get the shoes. That’s how it was.”

Himes, who is originally from Kentucky, came from the opposite end of the spectrum, dreaming about owning Nike Jordans as teenager while his mom had banished him to Payless. When he joined the Air Force, he started looking for ways to make money when he stumbled into sneaker reselling.

“Saw there was Yeezys coming out in a couple days,” Himes said. “I tried for them and randomly hit on the first attempt and actually got them. Fell in love with it since.”

“Being a sneakerhead, there’s always a shoe that you want, so you look at sneaker reselling to offset your habit,” Beale added. “If you get three pairs, you keep one for yourself and sell the other two to get yours essentially for free.”

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Right now, the two are eying the Vermilion colorway of the Yeezy Foam Runners — a divisive shoe that resembles classic Crocs. It’s a hate or love shoe, Beale said.

“The longer I work here, the more picky I am about shoes,” Beale said. “It’s like we have all of them already but we don’t, because we see them every day.”

The two lean toward Nike Dunks and Jordan Retros, the latter of which is their biggest seller. And their sneakers don’t chill in the box; they wear them.

“I'd say it's the creative aspect of it but also with these types of sneakers, you can have really cool shoes that almost no one else has,” Himes said. “Each one is really unique; there’s such a wide variety.”

“It’s another way to express yourself — an expensive way,” Beale said with a laugh. “Fashion, as a whole, is a way of self-expression to try to stand out amongst other people.”

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They chose the name, Coastal Kicks, not only because they wanted to pay homage to the area, but also because it gave them room to grow.

“If our business did scale, we could take that name, Coastal, anywhere along the West Coast or East Coast,” Beale said. “We still wanted to tie in the roots of this area. We felt like this area was lacking this type of thing. We wanted to be innovators in the culture shift in the sneaker and clothing community.”

The response in the area is solid. They have come a long way from turning shoes sideways to make their inventory look fuller.

“I think it still shocks my family,” Himes said. “They're like, ‘You're doing what numbers?’ Fridays and Saturdays are really big days for us because people will come in and they’re like, ‘I need a (out)fit for tonight.’ ”

“Everybody knows about StockX and GOAT, but they can get them right here and right now,” Beale said.

Beale admits there was some skepticism before they opened.

“They didn't think this area had the market for this stuff,” Beale said. “We even asked a couple of other friends that do the same — we were all selling out of our apartments — ‘Hey, man, we're gonna do a sneaker store, you want to join us?’ We didn’t think we could do it by ourselves. They were scared to take that jump or make that investment. Now we hear back from those same people and it's like, ‘Man, we're so proud of you.’ ”

Their friends have helped them run the store since. The dream of having their own sneaker store has met their expectations. 

“Especially not being from here, I love meeting people that share similar interests on a daily basis,” Beale said. “The area is so spread out, I felt like for the first year I was here I'd never seen anyone that to me felt relatable. When we opened, I'm like, ‘You live where?’ There’s so many cool people in this area.”