When Wilson Lohrer graduates from Pfeiffer University in May, he’ll have a B.S. degree in Business Management and Leadership — and lots of practical work experience to go along with it.

The experience derives from an ecommerce business started by Lohrer, who hails from the Charlotte, N.C. suburb of Mint Hill, and Jacob Solis, his high school friend. They buy new and used sneakers and resell them at a profit on Instagram and Facebook. Their business, called Mint Hill Hype, claims over 6,300 followers and more than $100k in sales. It began in 2019, just before the COVID 19 pandemic which became a net positive for people launching an ecommerce business.

“Everybody was at home,” Lohrer said. “There was really not much you could do other than buy stuff online. We were able to take advantage of that.”

Mint Hill Hype owes its post-pandemic staying power to several factors. One is a low-cost business model: “We feel that we can give the customer what they need through an Instagram and Facebook page,” Lohrer said. “Brick and mortar is so expensive nowadays. If we had a storefront, especially in Charlotte or Mint Hill, the overhead costs of that would really diminish our current profits.”

Another factor working in Mint Hill Hype’s favor is that Lohrer gladly works business activities into a busy schedule that also includes classes, studying, and playing first base on Pfeiffer’s baseball team.

“I never really sit down,” he said. “I like to be doing stuff. I like my mind to be busy. I like to really compete, whether that be in business or baseball.”

When Lohrer isn’t on Pfeiffer’s campus in Misenheimer, N.C., he’s often at home in Mint Hill, where there’s a basement full of sneakers he’ll package up and send to customers. Some of these sneakers are used, having been unloaded by customers who want cash immediately for them, rather than trying their luck on sites such as Ebay.

The new shoes in the mix are often “exclusive” in the sense that they’re limited in number and tend to fly off the shelves in stores at malls. For example, 50 people might line up early at a mall on Saturday morning to buy an exclusive Jordan 5 Black Metallic sneaker, which might retail for $210. The store at the mall has only 30 pairs, leaving 20 people willing to pay an additional $50 or more for a pair. If Lohrer can be one of the 30 people who buys a pair at the mall, he’ll turn around and sell it at a profit.

Lohrer sees himself maintaining Mint Hill Hype as a sideline while he pursues work in other areas; he is considering starting a business where he can “buy and sell things at a larger scale.”

In the meantime, he’ll do all he can to build on his current success. This will mean embracing a trial-and-error strategy. For example, he and Solis used to favor posting permanent pictures and videos of the sneakers they were trying to sell on their Instagram’s “Page” or main profile. They found that views and sales dramatically increased when they started posting more content on their Instagram’s “Story” board, where a photo or video disappears 24 hours after it’s posted.

“Instagram Stories became really popular about a year or two ago,” Lohrer said. “We’ve been able to ride that wave.”

Lohrer will also apply what he’s learning in his Business Management and Leadership classes to what he does at Mint Hill Hype. He said that a class on advertising taught him “different ways of advertising correctly.” He’s currently taking a class on social media marketing, which he’s also finding quite beneficial, even though he knows “a good bit” about it already. (Pfeiffer recently added a Strategic Communication and Social Media major.)

“I have learned a lot from my shoe business, such as how to run an online store, how to manage inventory, and how to sell things,” he said. “Still, there’s always a lot more to learn, and my business degree from Pfeiffer has helped me to do that.”

Dr. Raushan Gross ’09, program director of Pfeiffer’s Business Management and Leadership program, applauded Lohrer’s efforts.

“Wilson is energetic, curious, and fun; he wants to know how the world works,” he said. “It is no surprise to me that he owns his own business before graduating from college. Our goal is to help prepare him – and every student – for even bigger success. We want to nurture that entrepreneurial spirit and help students graduate with the skills they need to be leaders in business, whether they choose to own their own or not.”

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This article was written for Pfeiffer University by Ken Keuffel.