Start a side job in college! A 29-year-old man relied on this trick to turn around and made a lot of money by "earning 5.5 million in one month"

When Kingsley Earl was in college, he began to use his spare time to buy second-hand sneakers, clean them, repair them, and then resell them.

A 29-year-old British young man who originally started cleaning second-hand sneakers just to expand his sneaker collection and pay living expenses has now developed his after-school side job into a business. He founded a sneaker cleaning and resale brand, accumulated customers through social media, and further entered the eBay Live live broadcast sales platform. According to him, in just 4 months after launching the live broadcast sales business, sales reached approximately 300,000 pounds (approximately NT$13.04 million), and the highest sales in a single month reached 127,000 pounds (approximately NT$5.52 million).

Foreign media reported that when Kingsley Earl was studying media production-related subjects at university, he began to use his spare time to buy second-hand sneakers, clean them, repair them, and then resell them. At that time, there was no grand entrepreneurial plan for this business. The main purpose was to expand his sneaker collection and earn extra income to pay for rent and daily living expenses.

However, as he gained more experience in cleaning and reselling sneakers, Earl gradually realized that this hobby had the potential to develop into a serious business. When he was in his third or fourth year of college, he began to seriously think about how to turn his side job into a full-time job and expand his customer base through platforms such as word-of-mouth, Instagram and Depop.

In addition to selling second-hand sneakers that have been cleaned and refurbished, Earl also began to produce content related to sneaker cleaning and repair, thereby attracting people who are interested in sneaker maintenance and providing sneaker cleaning services. These business methods not only allowed him to gradually accumulate customers, but also allowed the brand to build popularity among sneaker enthusiasts.

In March 2026, Earl further launched a live sales business on eBay, extending the business originally based on social media and second-hand trading platforms to real-time live auctions. He said that after about 4 months of launching through eBay Live, cumulative sales have reached approximately 300,000 pounds, with the highest sales in a single month reaching 127,000 pounds (approximately NT$5.52 million).

The team has now expanded from just Earl to eight members. The frequency of live broadcasts remains three times a week, lasting about three to five hours each time, attracting thousands of viewers to watch online. Compared with traditional online stores, live streaming allows buyers to view product status and participate in bidding in real time, and also makes the sales process more interactive.

Earle takes a fairly aggressive approach when it comes to live-streaming sales strategies. He usually gives away more than 30 free gifts in each live broadcast, and uses £1 as the starting bid for the auction, and does not set a reserve price, allowing viewers to bid directly. On the one hand, this approach increases the attractiveness of live broadcasts, and on the other hand, it also helps drive audience interaction and product transactions.

Earle also uses low-price bidding to give consumers the opportunity to buy sneakers and other goods at prices well below their original prices. In addition to eBay, Earle also continues to operate brands through different social and online platforms. According to reports, his cumulative number of followers and subscribers on four platforms has reached 4.01 million, showing that his content on sneaker cleaning, repair and second-hand resale has accumulated a considerable online audience.

For Earl, live streaming is not only a channel for selling goods, but also gives him the opportunity to combine sneaker culture, second-hand transactions and social interaction. He hopes to further expand the scale of the brand in the future, create a platform that can provide live sales services 24 hours a day, and gradually expand the product range from sneakers to other items.