Winchester Shoe Store Went Pink for Breast Cancer

When went pink for breast cancer last month and gave away free hot pink shoelaces, owner Eric Keough had no idea how much they’d catch on.

“I see them all over town,” Keough said of the pink shoelaces.

The store ran a promotion for the second half of October, offering free pink shoelaces for each pair of shoes purchased and donating five percent of shoe sales to

What Keough didn’t anticipate was how popular the shoelaces would be with town athletic teams. He gave pink shoelaces to the Pop Warner cheerleading team, which he’d already outfitted with cheerleading shoes. After that, other coaches started calling. Then came the middle school boys.

“Every day after school, it would just be throngs of boys coming in asking for pink shoelaces,” Keough said. By the end of last week, he was handing out the shoelaces to any kid who asked. 

Keough himself wore the hot pink shoelaces throughout October, as did his own children. Years ago, Keough said, people might have given him strange looks for wearing bright pink shoelaces, but now everyone seems to know it’s for breast cancer awareness.

Keough went so far with the pink that he painted the trim around his store windows, then spread the pink paint on pumpkins and even one of the store’s “Z-strap man” superhero figures.

“I think breast cancer needs a superhero,” Keough said.

He put signs up in the windows and created a sidewalk display of pink shoes and boots. He even redirected the Kids Footstop website to the store's Facebook page, where he’d changed the company logo to pink and listed details on the breast cancer awareness campaign.

Overall, response was very positive. Keough did not have sales numbers available so did not know how much he had raised for Bust a Move for Breast Cancer. However, he said he would probably round up the number, explaining that the third week in October had been slow with so many rainy days. Last Saturday had been a big sales day, though, with many families coming in for snow boots in advance of the impending storm.

Next year, Keough plans to get started on his campaign earlier and run it for the full month of October. However, he felt this year’s promotion went well and is glad to be donating to a local charity that is affiliated with .

For Keough, supporting breast cancer awareness is important because the disease has impacted women in his life, and affects so many other people. When he thinks about his own young daughter, it’s particularly important to him: He hopes to see breast cancer eradicated by the time she grows up.