John “Schmidty” Schmidt is the owner of Schmidty’s Sports Barber, a barber shop in St. Paul that has been in business for over 28 years.
Born on Fairview Avenue in Minnesota’s capital city, Schmidt was an only child, raised by a mother from Boston who instilled the importance of hard work and good ethics, even though Schmidt admits he didn’t always follow his mom’s guidance.
“I was rambunctious, but I still like to think that I was a child with solid morals, even though my mom used to joke that maybe she put a little too much Boston in me,” the gregarious Schmidt says, his infectious smile on display as he simultaneously reclines in the same chair that has housed thousands of Twin Cities residents who frequent his establishment for a haircut.
Looking back, it’s not hard to see how Schmidt ended up becoming a barber.
For context, his mother used to own a barber school.
“She was one of the first female barbers in Minnesota, and one of the first women on the barber board for the state,” Schmidt shares.
“She broke all these glass ceilings, as they like to say today, simply because she wanted to make a man’s wage.”
Yet perhaps ironically, as Schmidt evolved into a young man, he had no ambitions to follow in the footsteps of his trailblazing mother, his focus instead geared toward playing college football.
He spent one season on the gridiron for nearby Concordia University, but once financial constraints inhibited his ability to stay enrolled, he left school.
“The plan then was to go into the military, and later come back and be a cop,” the talented barber says, but that initiative was derailed once his mom pleaded with him to forgo the armed forces and instead go to barber school.
“And pretty soon I found out that I actually liked being a barber.”
Upon graduation, Schmidt worked for a few different shops in the Twin Cities, refining his skillset and building a client base in the process.
Each gig taught him something new, whether it was how to deal with high-end clients, or how to work meticulously and swiftly in a more volume-based environment.
Schmidt says that he enjoyed navigating the nuances of the barbering world, but there was also something internally that continued to beckon him, a force that urged him to explore locales outside of Minnesota.
Soon, Schmidt and a buddy left town in an RV, their new goal revolving around seeing the country, a la the renowned Jack Kerouac and crew in his novel, On the Road.
“I left St. Paul because I was tired of knowing everybody. There was no adventure in that,” Schmidt explains, but three months later his vagabond-like aspirations had been sated, and he then wanted to return home and re-immerse himself in barbering.
“In a way, it took me leaving St. Paul to realize that I wanted to set down roots here.”
Right away, Schmidt took what money he had accumulated and began searching for a shop to buy.
He eventually met an owner whose barbershop was located on the corner of Randolph and Hamline, and came with an exquisite view that captured the bustling pace of life in the state capital.
For his part, Schmidt was sold, not only on the shop’s aesthetics, but also on the potential to make inroads within the community.
“The guy I had bought it from had been looking to get out of the business for a couple years, but he didn’t want to sell to just anyone, and as I got to know him more, and we had more conversations, he felt that I would be a good fit to carry on the culture he had previously established,” Schmidt mentions.
In the twenty-eight years since Schmidt signed papers that named him sole proprietor of Schmidty’s Sports Barber, things have been humming.
With five chairs, three TVs that are constantly streaming sports, and a company slogan that lets clients get a “regular haircut by a regular guy,” Schmidty’s is the antidote to the blasé experience offered by conglomerates like Fantastic Sam’s or Sport Clips.
“Those chain places are like fast-food restaurants, in that they serve a purpose because customers will get a haircut, but often it won’t be a quality one,” Schmidt says.
“But when you come into a neighborhood barbershop like mine, you’re coming into a community that represents much more than just being a place to go get a haircut. For example, a lot of guys eventually bring their sons here to get their hair cut. I’ve seen up to four generations of one family come into my shop. That’s not only a testament to my longevity, but also the power of building relationships and cultivating an inviting environment.”
For as remarkable as Schmidty’s is, there has never been serious consideration given to expanding the store and trying to capture more market share.
“I would lose something if I operated that way,” notes Schmidt, a selfless and humble man who finds more joy in spending time with his daughter than he does acquiring possessions.
“If I was driven by money, I might have opened another shop, but especially as I get older, I want my life to be easier and more hassle free. It also helps that it’s easy for me to be content. I don’t need a brand-new truck or a bigger house. I don’t think either of those things will make me happier, but time off with my daughter is way more important.”
As time has elapsed, those father-daughter moments have decreased in quantity, a natural consequence of a child getting older and being given the opportunity to live her own life.
Thankfully, the one constant in Schmidt’s life has been his barbershop, an entity that has become as much a part of his identity as anything else.
“As a single father, the shop has been my way of providing for my daughter, and now she has these great opportunities because of the work I’ve done. She’s going to a great college that I can barely afford, but we’re getting by,” the St. Paul native explains with a chuckle.
“But another great thing about the business has been that I’ve always been compensated based on how hard I work. I’m grateful because not all jobs are like that. At some places, you can work your ass off, but the lazy person sitting next to you makes the same out of money. Here, it’s commission and volume-based, and so me and my guys can make as much money in a given day as we want, provided we work hard and do an excellent job for the customers.”
For the foreseeable future, Schmidt will continue to own and operate his barbershop, an exit plan not presently at the forefront of his mind because the daily grind of the business keeps him distracted and fulfilled.
More impressively, the sage with the scissors is still routinely tinkering, his business savvy and desire for innovation on display each day he walks through the glass door of 1339 Randolph Avenue, even if those close to him sometimes wish he would slow down and acknowledge all that he has accomplished thus far.
“In the immediate future I’d like to get a fifth barber in here so that I can fill all five of my seats every day and service even more customers, but everyone keeps telling me that I work too much, so maybe I will cut down to working only 40 hours a week instead of 50 hours a week,” Schmidt says in a way that suggests that he has indeed pondered scaling back his entrepreneurial pursuit.
“But a long-term goal of mine is to put my daughter through med school, so if I can do that, that will make me happy.”
In addition to helping his daughter, so much of what Schmidt does these days revolves around giving back, passing on his dearth of knowledge to the next generation of barbers who come to him hoping to one day have the same kind of impact on their community that he has had.
“It’s fun because I have embraced the role of being the OG. Even the guys who work for me now, I tell them that you will probably be here for three to five years, and then you’ll be ready to go on your own. And so, I’ll help them with things like negotiating a lease and how to hire outside talent,” says Schmidt, who recommends that any new barber spend time under a mentor before delving into business ownership.
“To be honest, it’s foolish to try to open your own shop right away. Guys can learn a lot by working for someone. At the shop I worked at before I started my own business, I learned a lot. Most of it was good, but there were some things that I would’ve done differently, and so I tried to employ those tactics when I went on my own.
Adds Schmidt:
“At the same time, I would not have had that base to operate off of had I just started my own business right after getting out of barber school, which is to say, just because you can cut hair doesn’t mean you can run a business. Those two things are completely different and it’s important for young guys to recognize that before making a major move.” QS
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