WHEATON – One of the oldest businesses in downtown Wheaton will be closed by the end of the month.
Knippen’s Shoes, which has been selling footwear since 1951, will soon lace up its final pair after the death of longtime owner Michael Sitarz last May.
The decision to close came in September, said store manager Robert Jung, after Sitarz’s family couldn’t find a buyer for the store.
“Some customers practically broke down in tears when they found out,” Jung said. “Others are just coming in inquiring about the store and had never been in before.”
Despite the closing, Jung will take over the store’s profitable “Shoe-Mobile” business, he said. Started in the 1980’s, the “Shoe-Mobile” delivers footwear to industrial workers at area companies such as Fermilab in Batavia.
Still, he said, closing the store means the end of a lot of memories for employees and patrons alike.
“I’m going to miss all the customers that I’ve waited on. It’s always been such a personal store,” he said. “We would get down, put shoes on feet and work with the customer on the needs they had.”
Paula Barrington, executive director of the Downtown Wheaton Association, said that the closing of stores such as Knippen’s, Paper House and Stork’s Cradle in recent months were sad losses for the entire downtown Wheaton area.
“We certainly, as an organization, appreciate all that Knippen’s Shoes contributed over the years to the community and that’s something people need to be reminded about,” she said. “It’s sad that they are leaving, but while they were here in our community they contributed and gave so much.”
Still, she anticipates that the location on Hale Street won’t stay empty for long.
“Those businesses developed relationships with their customers, longtime relationships,” she said. “It is, however, up to the new businesses to come in to begin working on those relationships.”
Jung said that in his 24 years working at Knippen’s, the store and surrounding area has changed drastically.
“So many changes have gone on in this store. It was twice the size as it is now when I started,” he said. “There are so many businesses that have gone out around us. Downtown Wheaton is a very different place.”