Taylor McNeillie is a 18 year old from Kilmarnock whose made his fortune from buying and selling shoes, it began on Depop from the comfort of his own room until he established Empire Glasgow in March 2019. What started off as a job on the side has led Taylor to have his own successful business at the age of just 18. In 2019, he opened his first ever pop up store in Merchant City , Glasgow where he sold stock that he had stored away. Taylor saw a market for this so decided to do another pop up shop on Boxing Day in 2019 which saw thousands of people come along.

The opening day saw floods of people queuing up to get their hands on exclusive sneakers and streetwear. Taylor went on to say; “The opening day was extremely successful making over 30 sales which roughly works out at £6,000”. From a business which started off in his room doing all of the work himself whilst also juggling an apprenticeship at Spirit Aerosystems he has now hired his dad full time and Lewis McLeod who owns Phresh Creps in Kilmarnock which is a shoe cleaning business and will be offering his services in store.

Taylor said; “I have still been doing every single piece of the work myself including shipping, orders, social media and in store but now with the help of two others.”

Hannah Mclean from Kilmarnock, is an existing customer and adds,

“My experience with Empire Glasgow was extremely good, messages were responded to very quickly and delivery was either same day or next day which I found extremely good”.

The new store is located on the ground floor of Princes Square, Glasgow and officially opened on Saturday 30th October. It is exclusively the biggest sneaker and streetwear store in Glasgow. Opening hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm and Sunday 11am-5pm, however on the run up to Christmas the hours will change. Taylor said; “The store provides somethings that a lot of others don’t Yeezys, Dunks, Jordan’s you can’t really go into a store and just buy them. The fact you can come into our store and try them on and buy them in store is a unique point”.