Pop-Up Store Kicks Into High Gear

The name-dropping around Los Altos started quickly: Nike, Keds, Puma, Converse, Adidas.

These popular brands of athletic shoes, along with many other brands, made their debut downtown Saturday morning at a new pop-up retail store offering merchandise at a steep discount, all in the name of charity.

Crowds streamed into the small storefront at 170 State Street as soon as the doors opened at 10 a.m. 

“It was crazy,” said Shawn Esmaili, founder of Youth Against Poverty, which is operating the store to help raise funds needy children. By mid-afternoon, the crowd had thinned, but was still steady.

Esmaili said most of the shoes at the pop-up, which were donated to YAP by manufacturers, sell from $10 to $50 a pair. Proceeds from the store, which will operate through June 24, will go to help build a medical clinic for needy children and orphans in Haiti.

“Right now we’ve raised about $23,000 toward our $70,000 goal,” Esmaili said, adding that the timeline to achieve their goal is the end of 2012. He says funds raised from the Los Altos store will help YAP keep on its fund-raising track.

Esmaili, 17, is a senior at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View. He started YAP in 2007 at the age of 12. As part of his first project with YAP, Esmaili contacted companies such as Vans, Puma, Converse, and Adidas and asked for donations. The companies responded with a donation of 700 pairs of shoes that YAP donated to an orphanage for 600 blind children in Tanzania.

YAP’s focus today is still on needy children, even those close to home. In collaboration with the non-profit Compass Family Services organization, YAP directs proceeds from other pop-up shoe stores to support homeless children and their families in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

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