A young entrepreneur has taken the trainer industry by storm, after starting his lucrative business during lockdown.

Tommy Maxim from Sutton Valence, has supplied high end footwear to the rich and famous, such as rap artist Double L'z and music video platform Pacman TV and his business is reported to make around £15,000 a month.

In his first two months of operations, the 19-year-old businessman sold more than 100 pairs and has grown his Instagram page, deluxe_plug, to more than 5,000 followers.

He specialises in reselling limited edition footwear such as Jordans, Dunks, Yeezy's, which have a huge demand worldwide, making 20 to 30% profit per shoe.

The reseller explained that the shoes "create their own demand" as he procures popular brands that sell out quickly.

An example of the lucrative formula saw him purchase a pair of Nike dunks for £65 at retail price and resell them for £350.

The salesman decided to start the business after he was let go by his previous job, he said: "I already liked items, clothing, shoes, stuff like that.

"During lockdown, I just decided to do a little bit of research and see whether you can make any money out of it."

The trainer merchant who used to live in a council maisonette in Shepway with his mum Gina, 38, step-dad, Duncan, 38, and brother, Lucas, 13, described the hard work he had to put in at the beginning of his journey.

He said: "When I first started, it was just everything was to do with shoes.

"I'd be up until four or five in the morning some days, trying to negotiate prices with people in America and the UK. It was big stuff and 24 hours."

During this time, Tommy also ran Instagram promotions when he got into contact with YouTube sensation Fumez the Engineer.

With 516,000 followers on Instagram, Fumez known for his reknown show, Plugged in, bought three pairs from Tommy.

This move along with his promotions helped to grow his following and now he lives with his family in newly built property in Sutton Valence.

Tommy described some of his experiences, as he now regularly mixes with celebrities.

He said: "It's been quite impressive a lot of people are quite different to how the media might present them.

"Let's say I went to meet some famous rapper, sometimes I could be waiting for ages, sometimes they could be really grateful, it's a bit of a mix.

"I've been put in a music video shot by Pacman TV and that was just through dropping a pair of shoes off."

Now, the entrepreneur is focused on creating social ties in the industry.

He said: "I realised that the long hours was good for money, revenue, and turnover.

"But, if I want to increase the page, I needed to do a bit more with my lifestyle, so going out with famous people or, dropping shoes off to people in London."

However, the salesman remains grounded by his peers and the people around him.

He said: "It's mainly the people I hang out with, for instance if I go out in Maidstone, I feel like I'm doing good for myself."

"But if I go out with some of my high end clients it almost puts me in my place."

"I mean, I just can't really keep up with anything that they do.

"The night when I got featured in that music video and I went out with industry people, I saw one man spend £10,000 in the space of about two hours at this casino."

The young entrepreneur now plans to take his business to the next level.

He added: "I just got a website up and running and I'm looking to run Google ads, so I'll hopefully get a store open eventually."