New trainer shop brings London sneaker culture to Maidenhead

Two young ‘sneakerheads’ have launched their first trainer reselling shop in Maidenhead town centre.

Harvey Wraight, 17 from Uxbridge and Henry Snell, 20 from Ruislip opened Cleaner Street in the Nicholson's Centre on Monday, February 12.

The old school friends buy and resell trainers as well as provide a cleaning service to make used trainers look ‘box fresh’.

Harvey said they have seen customers from Slough, Windsor and London, and told the Advertiser: “We thought we’d spread the word about the brand a bit and try to get our feet somewhere else.

“Instead of sticking just straight to London. We’ve done our bit there and we wanted to range out a bit more.”

He said the business has mainly operated online through its social media platforms since it launched a year ago.

The ‘Cleaner Street’ logo reflects a London street sign and features the HS3 postcode to pay homage to the brand’s origins in Hillingdon in West London.

“We wanted to be creative with it... what we do is ‘clean’ so it made sense,” Harvey added.

“Everyone’s come in and said ‘We needed something like this in Maidenhead’.

“So many people have said it. Loads of little kids come in and talk about the ‘Jordans, Dunks and Yeezys’ as they don’t see these shoe shops here as much as in London.

“That’s why we pulled it out of that area a little bit because everyone’s doing it already in London and I noticed, with research, there was nothing here.

“No one has seen a shop like this reselling trainers ever in this area that’s why we wanted to do it and hope it takes off.”

Talking about the cleaning service provided at Cleaner Street, Harvey said: “What happens is, you bring in a pair of trainers, and in two to three days maximum, your trainers will be looking box fresh again like they’ve come out the shop.

“Whether it needs re-gluing, restitching, painting, or dyeing. Everything is done here.”

Since the age of 13, Harvey said he has been an avid reseller, which involves buying and selling trainers, and Henry also began customising trainers with ‘custom’ painted designs and initials on brand-new trainers.

Harvey said: “I’ve loved my shoes from young, me and Henry both. We both thought, hold on a minute, we can create a trainer company by doing this. We went from there.

“I just hope to be a face on social media and to be known around Maidenhead for what we do as well as in London and wherever else.

“We just want to grow the brand and show people what we can do.

“Maidenhead is slowly getting there. We’re getting customers day in and day out but obviously, we just started so we’re getting our feet off the ground.”

Visit Cleaner Street in Queen's Walk in the Nicholson's Centre (towards Cafe Nero) and follow the business on Instagram @cleanerstreet_