Cocas Footwear Company Goes and Gets It

Sal Coca had built a life that flowed logically from where he’d come. He was comfortable in Fort Collins, Colo., not too far from his family home in Laramie. He had a job as a recreation coordinator in Fort Collins, which combined his background as a former college basketball player and his 2003 bachelor’s in exercise sport science from the University of Wyoming.

But somehow, the life Coca was building did not match the dreams he’d had for himself. He wanted to design and create and had always been fascinated by athletic shoes and apparel. After all, he was the self-described “sneakerhead” who hung out at the Foot Locker whenever his mother took him to the mall as a kid. He’d look over each pair of sneakers, silently critiquing the design, the color and what he’d do differently if he had the chance.

Then, in 2015, he decided to make Hypo Footwear happen. “I quit my job cold turkey, sold my house, cashed in my retirement and put in my own money to get started,” he says. 

Coca discovered that it was difficult to get financing for a business such as his, but that didn’t matter. In fact, that was the inspiration for Hypo’s motto: Go Get It.

The process for taking shoes from drawing board to city sidewalks is complex. Coca first located a manufacturer, which is based in China, where he says nearly all athletic shoes are made. He provided the company with 20 pages of specifications that illustrate the material, colors and placement of each element of the shoe. After some communication back and forth over six months, he received his order of 2,000 pairs.

Currently, Coca has a website for his company and is selling men’s and women’s athletic/lifestyle shoes and apparel online. For the college market, he’s able to place the school logo on the back of the shoe.

“I’m getting momentum, getting investors, not just existing,” Coca says. “Now I can dictate life on my own terms.”

Eventually, he expects Hypo Footwear to be big enough to have a fulfillment center on both coasts and possibly in Laramie. If that sounds like a big dream, it is intentional. “I don’t want to just make some money and then sell to Nike,” he says. “I want to compete with Nike. I want to be a global brand that’s in it for the long haul and to help the community where I’m from.”

To get him there, Coca has a marketing team in Los Angeles helping him with celebrity endorsements, social media and trade shows. “There’s no substitute for hard work and grinding, so I try to do everything I can,” he says.

He hopes to see UW, Laramie and the whole state become more visible because of his efforts. “The state is a hidden gem, a sleeping giant,” Coca says.

If Coca’s dreams come true, kids who grew up the way he did might one day say, “See these shoes? I got them in Laramie!”

For more information, visit hypofootwear.com.