I quit my minimum wage warehouse job and now I'm on £50k a month

Jack Long
-Credit: (Image: No credit)


A 22 year old entrepreneur who scaled his humble beginnings as a warehouse picker on minimum wage to raking in £50,000-a-month from selling second-hand trainers has declared that this income is "not enough" and he is "not content with it". Jack Long, hailing from Buckinghamshire, embarked on his business exploits at the tender age of 12, initially by vending unwanted family items on eBay, all while nurturing dreams of launching his own venture.

Once he completed college in 2021, Jack undertook work at a warehouse, where his job involved sorting and packing retail goods for shipping, aiming to save money to fuel his entrepreneurial aspirations. In March 2023, a chance discovery of a pair of Nike Air Force trainers at a car boot sale, which he snapped up for £15 and flipped for a neat profit, illuminated the path to what would become a thriving enterprise.

Come April 2023, thanks to his diligent savings accrued from warehouse picking, which summed up to about £5,000, Jack inaugurated his enterprise focusing on pre-owned footwear, Recycled Streetwear. Initially, he managed to sell roughly 30 pairs of trainers each month, but upon harnessing the power of Tilt, a real-time shopping application, his sales skyrocketed to approximately 1,500 pairs monthly, bringing in a staggering £50,000, which he predominantly reinvests into the business.

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Fuelled by constant hard work that occupies him round-the-clock in activities such as sourcing, cleansing, and verifying the authenticity of the trainers, complemented by evening live streams showcasing his inventory up for grabs, Jack is resolute to crown himself the predominant figure in the sector of pre-loved footwear retail.

Speaking to PA Real Life, Jack said: "The £50,000 is not enough, that's how I feel. I'm not content with it really.", reports Birmingham Live.

"There are so many overheads, I'm putting most things back into the business. I think from when I was very young, I was always buying and selling stuff, and then doing something like this, having my own business, eventually, was the plan."

Jack, after wrapping up his time at college, snagged a job as a warehouse picker on minimum wage, diligently squirrelling away funds towards launching his own enterprise. A fortuitous encounter in March 2023 sparked his success a chance find of Nike Air Force trainers at a car boot sale.

"I was helping out a family friend, and we saw a pair of trainers and it basically went from there," Jack recounted. "It was all luck from that point."

His bargain purchase£15 for the trainers which he flipped for £30paved the way for greater ambitions. "I think I paid £15 for them and sold them for £30, and then from there, I was like, 'I can definitely do something with this'," he reflected.

By April 2023, his £5,000 nest egg achieved, Jack introduced Recycled Streetwear from a commercial space in Buckinghamshire.

Jack's confidence in his venture stood strong, albeit against varied family sentiments. "I was confident about it, but there were mixed opinions (from my family) of whether I should leave the job and do it," he shared.

"Obviously, now it's paid off but there was definitely some tension."

Jack, an enterprising business owner, has a precise system for sourcing and preparing sneakers for sale. He shared, "I'm not going to say where we buy them from, but we have a lot of suppliers, and then basically we get them in and go through a full cleaning process on all of them, which will be unlacing the shoes, disinfecting them, cleaning them up, and finally, the prep before they go on the shelves for the live streams."

"We use an app called CheckCheck, which basically authenticates any shoes."

The enterprise began modestly, initially selling around 30 pairs of trainers per month via his website and TikTok livestreams. Jack's luck took a turn for the better after he started using the Tilt app to conduct sales livestreams six nights a week, three hours each session, with prices ranging from £10 to £60 depending on their state.

"Tilt gave us the platform to scale up really quick to where we are now," he reflected. "Instead of people having to go to the shops, they can literally do it from the comfort of wherever they are, all they need is a phone and to be able to have a Wi Fi connection to join the streams."

"And then we send everything out, and it's with them within two days, and it's a lot cheaper."

Currently, Jack moves about 1,500 pairs of trainers monthly, generating roughly £50,000 in revenue. He ploughs the majority back into the company and draws a personal salary, the specifics of which he keeps under wraps.

Since launching his eco-friendly business, Jack has been swamped with work, often pulling nearly 24-hour shifts every day to keep up with soaring demand. Speaking about the experience, Jack commented, "I'd say nothing personally has changed since I started the business I'm just busier and just constantly working,".

"We're nowhere near done or where we want to be yet, so there's no time to relax."

At present, Jack manages all aspects of his business on his own but is currently running trial shifts with potential new hires to expand his workforce to assist with livestreams.

Jack's ambition for Recycled Streetwear is clear as he hopes it will make a substantial environmental difference in the future. He explained: "I just want it to keep growing more and want to change the way people shop online."

"I want to be one of the biggest retailers for pre-loved shoes in the country. Hopefully, bit by bit, we can eventually get in touch with the right people, and we can intercept the shoes before they end up in landfills, do them up and give them another life and then people can get them for a really good price as well."

For anyone interested in learning more about Tilt or downloading the app, they should visit www.tilt. app.