Athlete's Foot : The Plethora Of Shoe Stores Provide Excellent Camouflage For This New Business On Howard

                  It is very odd that someone from Mundelein relocated an Athletes Foot to Howard, which is already super saturated with shoe stores. Confusing to say the least. Previously Chevanston had thought that the Athlete's Foot had moved down the street when in fact JBees was just rehabbing itself. So many shoe stores, so hard to keep track of them all. It would've been a thousand times smarter to have moved to Morse Ave than Howard. Chevanston wishes them well, but a very strange addition to Howard's all ready crowded shoe market.

Athlete's Foot in October (courtesy of Chevanston)

Bob  posted this to the Village Message Board "Hey all you Rogers Park runners! There's a great little running store at 1540 W. Howard St. that's locally owned by a really nice woman who could use some more business.... Athlete's Foot is a franchise, and she moved her little store down from Mundelein. She also has some gym shoes, Birkenstocks, soccer shoes, etc., but the majority of her stock is running shoes. I figured that I'd post this in case you just assumed that it was just another fashion gym shoe store (can we PLEASE not have any more of those on Howard St.?).Her prices are very, very reasonable (about half of the shoes were on sale) and I paid $75 for a pair of shoes that are $105 and up online....Come out and support the quality local businesses! I'd hate to see her go out of business, and add to the empty storefronts on Howard. Thanks!"

                Franchise, little store and locally owned business don't usually make it into the same news story. What is small about a little franchise called the Athlete's Foot? This store has been a staple of malls across America for lo these many years Very hard for a place like the Athlete's Foot to stand out on Howard. Maybe if it was some independent shoe store or something fancy like Akira (we aren't there yet), that would cause a splash. But Athlete's Foot really doesn't elicit much of a response, just like Foot Locker doesn't. Athlete's Foot is in forty countries. The name describes a fungal condition of the foot. How this name and franchise ever became as popular as it has is a mystery. The saving grace is that its a running shoe store as opposed to the typical hip-hop shoe store on Howard. Easy to get lost in the crowd though.

(Bloggers Note - 10/26/13 - this very old post is getting more hits all of a sudden, check out this link for more info regarding their skateboards and running shoes)