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Business & Tech

Kids Footstop Opens with a Run on Soccer Cleats

Winchester's new children's shoe store held its grand opening on Saturday, complete with face painting, a cake, and plenty of customers.

The phone was ringing 10 minutes before Kids Footstop opened for its first official day in business on Saturday.

“I’ll bet you a thousand dollars they’re looking for cleats,” said Eric Keough, owner of the new shoe store for children. He was right. Winchester soccer started that day and the calls for cleats kept coming. 

A cake was delivered from , decorated with the Kids Footstop logo. Keough admired it for a moment, before fielding more calls and attending to the customers trickling in.

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At 10:10 a.m., a five-year-old shopper arrived with his mother. They had spent the morning searching the house for last year’s soccer cleats, to no avail.

“When’s the game?” Keough asked, as he measured the boy's feet.

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“Ten,” said his mother. A few minutes later, the duo rushed out the door, the boy wearing his new cleats.

But not everyone was there for cleats; four-year-old Patrick Remington came in with a specific request: size eight shoes with laces.

His mother, Laura Remington, said she was happy to have a kids’ shoe store in town.

“I’ve been waiting for one,” she said.  “I’d like to keep my dollars in Winchester.”

Kids Footstop has had a , but Saturday was the official grand opening. One of the highlights of the day was face painting.

"Face painting was great," Keough said afterward. "Kids that weren't getting shoes had time to get painted and once the child got fitted and picked out a pair he or she would jump in line. The most requested was ice cream cones and cat faces."

Keough’s decision to open a kids’ shoe store grew out of frustration when buying shoes for his own three young children and having no way to entertain the siblings not getting fitted.

That’s where the Treat Tree comes in, an idea that grew from his children’s love of the “I Spy” book series. The narrow tree in the middle of the store features colorful Crocs hanging from its upper branches and a thin trunk carved with many different pictures.

“When I’m fitting one kid, I say to the [sibling] who’s getting antsy, ‘Hey, can you look for Cinderella?’”

Keough also wanted his store to be a place where kids could run around, noting how much floor space he chose to leave open.

“We had a fun soccer game in the store on Sunday,” Keough said.

He is still in the process of determining customers’ needs and adjusting his business accordingly. The soccer cleats were late orders after He’s also gotten calls asking for ballet shoes and cheerleading shoes, and is looking into carrying those.

Another idea he's considering is a shoe-tying class. He's heard from many moms that children can't tie their own shoes but don't want to learn from their mothers. In addition, the widespread use of Velcro straps keeps children out of lace-up shoes longer. A class seems like the solution.

"I think it would be fun to teach them and give out prizes or rewards at the end," said Keough.

Of his first few weeks in business, he said, “It’s been a blast. So far, so good. It’s been a great reception. I’m thinking, hopefully, we’ll be here a long, long time.”

The grand opening day at Kids Footstop saw 70 pairs of shoes sold and about 200 people come through the store.

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