Owner: Fleet Feet Oak Park Looks to 'Create Community'

Early this winter, when Fleet Feet Sports Chicago expects to opens its newest location in Downtown Oak Park, they are looking to build not just a business, but a community, said co-owner Dave Zimmer.

“We want to create raving fans of our business,” Zimmer said in a phone interview Friday morning. “We don’t just want customers.”

“Eighteen years ago we started that way,” he continued, referring to the first franchise location in Chicago that he opened with his wife, Lisa. “Our whole culture is about creating community and trying to enhance the community that already exists.”

Toward that end, Zimmer said his interest in opening a shop in Oak Park was piqued when he learned earlier this year that Tim and Tyna Eggert were planning to close The Competitive Foot at 102 N. Marion St. A mainstay in the community since 1977, the store closed on July 21st.

“We were always respectful of The Competitive Foot and love what they built in Oak Park,” said Zimmer. “When I heard that Tim was going to be closing down the spot on Marion, I reached out to him…that’s how the whole thing started.”

Did Fleet Feet wait to make the move out of respect for The Competitive Foot? Or was it based on a sense that there was not enough market share to go around?

Zimmer declined to address those questions head-on, instead saying, “The timing was right for us to move in there.”

“We know from just looking at our customer data base, we serve a good number of people in Oak Park,” he added. “We know that we have customers who live and run in that area.”

Zimmer made multiple trips to speak with Tim Eggert and identified the shop as the ideal site for his sixth Fleet Feet franchise. Along with his wife, he owns three in Chicago, one in Elmhurst and has another site in Chicago, along the Southport corridor, that is slated to open sometime in the fourth quarter of 2014.

With their Old Town location in Chicago, the Zimmers own the highest-grossing Fleet Feet franchise out of more than 130 operating in the United States.

Zimmer said he will not seek any financing support from the Village of Oak Park as the store prepares for its opening. The building owner is R.P. Fox & Associates, whose president, Mike Fox, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Zimmer declined to say how much the renovation will cost, or how that cost will be distributed between Fleet Feet and R.P. Fox. However, he credited Mike Fox with “doing a tremendous job helping bring our vision to life.”

“We’re working with the landlord on completely re-doing the retail level of the store,” said Zimmer. “It will have a much different look and feel than what was in The Competitive Foot.”

“Looking back at the history of the actual unit itself is like turning back the hands of time…it’s been a very fun process to be able to work with him,” Zimmer added.

Fleet Feet is targeting a late-December or early-January opening. The planned hours of operation will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The store will create four full-time and six to eight part-time employee positions, said Zimmer.

Operating under the Fleet Feet Sports Chicago banner, the Zimmers are the franchisees of locations in Lincoln Square, Old Town and South Loop, as well as one at 124 E. Schiller St. in Elmhurst.

Over the years, the stores have proven to be fertile turf for lifelong relationships. Zimmer noted that 26 people who have met through his shops—some employees but mostly customers participating in special events like fun runs—have gotten married to one another.

“When we talk about building community,” he said, chuckling. “We really talk about building community.”

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This story originally appeared on the Inside Edge News Service section of Inside Edge: Public Relations & Media Services. Online: www.InsideEdgePR.com.