How a Black-owned barber shop in State College is helping inspire other aspiring entrepreneurs
Penn State graduate Dondre Shivers came into State College with the plan to create a business in the area. Paired with a love for cutting hair and building a community environment, the now-27-year old created Pregame Barbershop, a store that opened its doors on June 28, 2019 on 413 East Calder Way.
Shivers now lives in Los Angeles, but prior to his move, he cut students’ and local residents’ hair alike. The Patterson, New Jersey, native learned how to cut hair from his uncle, bought clippers when he was old enough to cut hair.
He had dreams of playing college basketball, but when those dreams were cut short due to a significant knee injury, he was brought back to being fully committed to cutting hair. Once he transferred to Penn State’s University Park campus, he took a look around, realizing that there were no Black barbershops in the area.
He wanted to make a difference.
“I just remembered being on campus for the first time and looking around, walking around downtown and asking, ‘Where are the barbershops around here,’” Shivers recalled. “At the time, there were no barbershops for Black kids or anything like that who specialize in our hair. I’m like ‘Wow’. I just remember that feeling that this place could be mine. I’m looking around and I thought to myself that ‘I’m not leaving this place until I put a business here.’”
Shivers came into contact with Philadelphia native Abdullah “Azim (pronounced Ah-zeem) Haywood, who also was a Penn State graduate. Haywood, 35, owned a salon called Nothing But Hair. Shivers overheard that there was a Black man who owned a business, so he felt that he wanted to meet him. Haywood met him after Shivers showed his barber skills and thus the seeds were planted.
The young barber went on to do a haircut forum and was hired immediately by Haywood. He went on to work for Haywood for a “year or two” in his estimation, and worked at another salon after Haywood closed his shop. The two have an older brother, younger brother relationship to this day as Haywood works in the Pregame Barbershop. Shivers told Haywood that he’d like to open up a barbershop and his friend — Spencer Haley — joined him.
Now, Haley is set to open another business — Walks on Water Kicks sneaker shop, connected to the barbershop — this fall, and are encouraging other young aspiring entrepreneurs to do the same by offering a $1,000 scholarship to any student who enters their name on a @ThePregameBarbers Instagram post by Aug. 31.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates in July 2019, State College, a borough of approximately 42,160, has just about 1,644 Black or African American residents. The limited opportunities to Black residents to receive haircuts from barbers who understand the differences in hair texture, as well as the chance to operate businesses of their own piqued the interest of Haywood. He and Shivers look to create opportunities for other aspiring Black business owners, people who just want a haircut or just a place to talk and hang out.
“(The goal) is to be able to create opportunity and to give kids up here — campus cutters — give them an opportunity,” Haywood said. “You can get your bachelors’ and leave out of here with a barber’s license, and make a decent wage, if not a great living wage and get pretty well. It’s just all about creating opportunity to give everyone a shot to be their own boss.
“One kid told me ‘You couldn’t pay me any amount of money to go to anyone else’s shop to go get a haircut. It’s a lot of kids from Philly, Baltimore, New York — urban areas and metropolitan areas where we normally care about our appearance and haircuts, specifically. When you’re used to having a haircut every two or three weeks and having a haircut done a certain way and you come to a place like this ... it’s like ‘nah, I’ll wait.’”
Haley joined Shivers and Haywood soon after the store opened up. He began cutting hair back in his hometown of Montclair, New Jersey, learning from a barber in the area. Haley, 26, did everything he could to emulate him and eventually began cutting hair at Penn State as an undergraduate from 2013-17. He went on to move back to New Jersey after graduating from college. He got a job, got married, had a son and returned to cutting hair.
Haley’s sneaker store is set to open prior to students returning in the fall. It is a passion project of his, having been into sneakers since he was young. One of the biggest motivating factors for creating is the lack of “high-caliber” sneaker stores in the area.
“I couldn’t get (certain) shoes before and I knew that I could get them now, once I started with my real job,” Haley said. “I thought they looked cool. I took a hiatus because of college and didn’t care about shoes as much. Then, what made me get into it was cutting hair here — I talked to a kid named Simeon. He told me how into shoes he was and I had always been into it, but I never had the money to get them. I was like, ‘Man, I like this passion for shoes. I kind of want to get into shoes again.’ I started buying shoes. And State College doesn’t have any sneaker stores.”
The closest Champs Sports store is in Altoona, a little over 36 miles away. The next Foot Locker is nearly 63 miles away in Pennsdale. The nearest Finish Line is in Selinsgrove — 55 miles away from State College. With the inability to buy Jordans, Yeezy’s (an Adidas subsidiary brand created by rapper Kanye West), Nike Dunks and many other shoes, Haley stepped into the role by melding his passion with a duty to supply “the best kicks in central Pennsylvania.”
Another key to the sneaker resale market is verifying your shoes’ authenticity. There are companies such as StockX or GOAT that will verify the sneakers for you for an extra fee. Haley does that within the confines of his shop for free and will go the extra mile to clean the shoes, post-sale.
“State College doesn’t have any sneaker stores like other major cities have,” Haley said. “You have to do everything online now through StockX or GOAT and things like that. There’s tons of variability with that — (shoes) could be fake, the shoes may not fit your feet and also the money aspect of being able to sell your shoes. If you want to get rid of some of your old shoes and get money for them, I can help. I wanted to bring it to a college town. Other college towns have it, other cities have it and I didn’t understand why it hadn’t been done yet.”
One of Haley’s clients, Ashton Baker, frequents the shop to get his hair cut. Baker, 27, is the stepson of Penn State track and field assistant coach Fritz Spence and is originally from Missouri. When Baker moved to State College, he formed a friendship with Haywood and Shivers.
“I thought (opening the store), was a great idea. I think that it’s nothing like that here in town. So, what’s better than coming in to get a haircut and being able to buy shoes? This is the second pair that I’ve bought off of Spencer,” Baker said, pointing at his shoes. “When I come in here to get my hair cut, I always look in the back (at shoes) to see what’s in there and it beats having to go on StockX. He has very fair pricing.”
As for Shivers, he’s grateful for the opportunity to continue to live out his dreams of aiding the community and contributing as a business owner. Now that Shivers has accomplished his goal, he hopes he’s planted the seeds for others to do the same.
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
