Lawrence Yamoah, 18 – Operational Business
Intouch Customz
Chicago, Illinois

"I’d always been shy and kept to myself, but the day of the competition, I felt it was my time to shine."

Lawrence Yamoah has a shoe customization business, Intouch Customz. He adapts athletic shoes and boots to his customers’ personal style by painting illustrations, characters, and colors on their footwear. He also uses a special technique he calls “overhaul,” using different fabrics and materials and airbrushing, to “completely recreate a shoe,” he says.

Lawrence participated in the NFTE course at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy in Chicago. He won first place in the NFTE Chicago citywide business plan competition in 2006 and advanced to the NFTE/Smith Barney National Entrepreneurship Challenge, where he won third place in a field of competitors from across the country.

“From NFTE’s program, so many avenues of opportunity have opened up to me,” Lawrence says. “My long term plan is to go to law school and become a sports agent and manager, so meeting Allan Houston was amazing and invaluable.” Houston, a former New York Knick, was one of the judges in the competition finals.

Perhaps the best thing the competition did for Lawrence was increase his confidence. He felt shy and a bit intimidated by the other competitors. “Their businesses were outstanding, all innovative and creative, and all I had was a small shoe painting business,” he says. As he advanced past the first round, and then the second, “my confidence was sky high,” he says. Winning third place in the nation, Lawrence says, “I had done what I thought wasn’t possible.”

Lawrence plans to attend Howard University.