After decades of business, Gotskind’s Children’s Shoes & Clothing is still keeping it old school.
When customers walk in, they’re met with a hello and an earnest smile from co-owner Andrea Gotskind Hamad. She asks what they are looking for, do they need any help, if they want a coupon or a sticker.
Hamad learned the approach from her father, who learned from his father before that. It’s what has given the store staying power for nearly a century, she says.
This year, Gotskind’s is commemorating its 90th anniversary.
The store, which originated on Chicago’s West Side but now exclusively operates out of Naperville’s downtown, is ringing in the milestone with a celebration on Saturday, July 20. Festivities — scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 115 W. Jefferson Ave. — will include refreshments and a visit from Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli.
Oh, plus a princess clown making balloon animals. Perfect for a store that has made catering to kids and families its mission since the very beginning.
“In an increasingly impersonal world,” Hamad says, “we’re a very personal store.”
Gotskind’s was founded in 1934 by Hamad’s grandfather, Saul Gotskind. His flagship storefront, originally called Gotskind’s Juvenile Shoes, was located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, in a building that wrapped around the corner of West Madison Street and Central Avenue.
In those early days, Saul did just what his marquee publicized: he sold children’s footwear. But he didn’t just sell. He specialized. Gotskind’s was where kids went to have their feet measured and fit to the ideal shoe. That’s still the case today, though the store has since expanded to also supply children’s apparel, knickknacks and toys. But fitting shoes, getting to understand what sole and style is going to help that youngster get from place to place in comfort, is where it all began.
Saul initially got the idea for the store from a friend, according to his son — and Hamad’s dad — David Gotskind.
“That’s the story I got at least,” David, 87, said over the phone last week. David still co-owns Gotskind’s with his daughter.
“It was the Depression so I don’t where he had the nerves to do it, but he did,” David said.
Saul was born in Poland but moved to the United States in 1930. He opened Gotskind’s when he was 33 years old. When the business was just getting underway, Saul lived in the back of his fledgling store with his wife, Claire. It wasn’t until David was born in 1937 that the family moved to a one-bedroom apartment down the street.
Growing up, David recalled both of his parents helping manage the store, even while his mom was taking care of him and his sister. On weekends, when his mom most often worked at the shop, David would go to the movies.
“There was a movie theater about three doors down,” David said, remembering that the cost of seeing a flick was about a quarter or so back then. “It was like a babysitter. … I had my Milk Duds and my drink and I was satisfied.”
Days at the theater gave way to stocking shelves at his parents’ store when he was 16. He graduated to shoes salesman by 1955, the same year he graduated high school. He left the store for a stint to study business at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign but ultimately returned to the family business. He took over for his parents after they retired.
Beyond who was at the helm, Gotskind’s itself changed with the decades too. In the 1960s, its flagship Chicago store closed while a new location opened in Oak Park. A second suburban store followed in Oakbrook Terrace, then a third in downtown Naperville. It was during this suburban crawl that Gotskind’s also started to expand its stock. That was in large part thanks to David’s wife, Gail Gotskind, who took a particular interest in adding children’s gifts and toys to the businesses’ repertoire, David said.
All the while, Gotksind’s kept on fitting shoes for kids around the Chicago area.
Over time, the Oakbrook and Oak Park locations also closed but Naperville’s remained. The city’s Jefferson Avenue store is celebrating its own 40th anniversary this year.
Hamad, like her dad, had a hand in the family venture from a young age. When she was little, she was given the task of blowing up helium balloons for the store to dole out and occasionally worked the cash register, she recalled. She helped into her teens.
As a young adult, Hamad moved away from Illinois to pursue a corporate career but 16 years ago, came back. She’s been running the store with her dad ever since.
Hamad said the store was “really in my blood.” The oldest of three kids, Hamad said that of her siblings, she was “the only one who really loved the business.”
“There’s something special about a family-owned, small business,” she said. “I always responded to it.”
As Gotskind’s continues on into a third generation, Hamad has one goal: that the store doesn’t change.
“I don’t think we’ll ever make our store state of the art,” she said. “We have a calculator (at the register).”
Hamad relishes welcoming families in and seeing their eyes light up when she remembers their names and ages and favorite shoe styles.
“It’s very much like a family in here. … It’s a very personal touch, and I think that people kind of crave that,” she said.
She wants that to never change.
“I want to continue to be just a neighborhood store.”
