Jennifer Ford didn’t set out to make history. She just loved sneakers. Growing up on Houston’s Northside, her sixth-grade self shared two pairs of Air Jordan 4s with her older sister, swapping black and white colors to stretch their modest collection. That childhood love evolved into something bigger: Premium Goods, a boutique that stands as a cultural landmark as the first and only Black woman–owned sneaker retailer in the country.

While Ford’s store opened in 2004, the seeds were planted years earlier. Ford spent time in New York as a buyer for Lord & Taylor after graduating from Emory University in Atlanta. Her love of sneakers had deepened during college, where fashion-forward campus life in the mid-90s meant footwear was a defining statement. And she sure had hers.

“Walking across campus, your main means of looking cool was your footwear,” Ford recalls, adding that Air Max 95s were her go-to back then.

In New York, she honed her retail skills, learning the ins and outs of buying and product development. Then she met Clarence Nathan, the founder of the Brooklyn-based Premium Goods. His store opened Ford’s eyes to the possibility of business ownership.

“I sat with him and saw what it looked like to be an entrepreneur,” Ford says. “Knowing him, and knowing his story, it was like, ‘I can do this too.’”

Her experience in New York exposed her to the possibilities of sneaker culture beyond what Houston offered at the time. But the city took its toll on her. Between the pressures of her job, the aftermath of 9/11, and the infamous blackout of 2003, she found herself yearning for something different. Her hometown called her back.

Returning to Houston, Ford brought her vision for a sneaker boutique with her. At the time, the city lacked the kind of curated, culture-forward sneaker store offering the exclusive, hard-to-find styles she had fallen in love with and seen thrive in New York. “There was nothing like this in my city,” she says. “No one was thinking outside the box.”

Ford took that vision and ran with it, opening her own retail service in Rice Village in 2004 and naming the store after the Brooklyn original. In the early days, customers didn’t fully grasp the concept of a boutique sneaker store. The store’s proximity to other big-name, large-scale shoe providers like Footlocker created an added obstacle. But that didn’t deter Ford. She started by reselling exclusive releases she had personally sourced from Japan and the United Kingdom knowing she had to prove her concept to sneaker brands. By getting hard-to-find international styles and building a loyal customer base, Ford slowly got the attention of major players like Nike and Adidas. Within six months of opening, she landed her first major accounts, transitioning Premium Goods from a resell operation to an official retailer.

As Premium Goods transitioned, Ford also started planting deep roots in the community. From day one, her store became a family effort, with siblings, cousins, and even her mom pitching in to help run the shop. Over time, it grew into something larger—a place where customers felt connected, employees found purpose, and a community of sneaker lovers took shape.

One day, a customer walked into the store and made an impression Ford couldn’t forget. “He was the worst,” she laughs, referring to Joe Kare, now Premium Goods’ creative director. “He would come in and just ask ‘Ugh, why is that in the case’ and ‘Why are you doing this.’ I called him Hater Joe.” But Kare didn’t just critique; he cared. He joined the team and worked his way up from inventory and sales to eventually managing, buying, and now leading creative projects.

Kare’s influence has been pivotal, particularly in shaping Premium Goods’ private label and collaborations like the recent PG x Adidas Campus 00’ sneaker. Designed as a love letter to Houston’s car culture, the shoe reflects the city’s unique spirit. Features like cracked leather, hairy suede, and a removable patch on the tongue draw inspiration from project cars, worn-in aesthetics, and the personalization Houstonians bring to their rides.

“Everybody has some kind of memory related to cars,” Kare says about the brand’s latest creation “Maybe it’s working on a car with their dad, or they remember their first vehicle. We really wanted to tap into those memories and also remind people about the hard work and the labor of love that kind of goes into vehicles.”

The sneaker isn’t just about style; it’s about giving back. A portion of the proceeds supports Dekaney High School’s auto tech program, helping to fund workshops, clinics, and driver education programs. And this isn’t the first time Premium Goods has tied a product to a purpose. From an NAACP collab to youth basketball team sponsorships, Ford has made community investment a central mission.

“I’ve been asked numerous times to open other stores in other cities but I can’t see that,” she says. “I love this city so much. The city has given so much to us that it is our mission now to give back.”

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Premium Goods has come a long way from its early days in Rice Village. The store has become a cultural hub with a reach extending beyond Houston through collaborations, events, and even its customers, many of whom have grown up with the brand.

As Premium Goods steps into a new decade, Ford is excited about the possibilities ahead. Plans are in the works to expand to a new location in the city, possibly the Heights, and to develop more private-label products that tell authentic Houston stories. “We have a lot of stories to tell and we can tell [them] through apparel,” she says.