Elite Kicks opens December 11th in Lincoln
Ribbon cutting for the new retail business to be held at 11 a.m.

[December 09, 2021]    On Saturday, December 11th, the community is invited and encouraged to attend the grand opening of a brand new business in Lincoln. The store, at 130 South Chicago Street, will open at 11 a.m. with a ribbon cutting shortly thereafter.

Elite Kicks is a new kind of store with nothing to compare to it within miles of our city. Owned by some very familiar names such as Mario Canon, Nick Cummings, Dave Duncan and Ron Olthoff, the business is tuned to reach a younger demographic by marketing a very popular item – sneakers.

Cummings commented recently that the sneaker business is an $80 billion a year business and the young men want to capture their share of that market while bringing something to Lincoln that is not found anywhere else.

The uniqueness of the business is going to revolve in not only what they offer, but how they offer it. The store will of course, have a selection of new name brand sneakers, but it doesn’t stop there. The store will be able to locate and buy special request shoes, they plan to offer some gently used sneakers and lowered prices, and they will do buy and trade deals with customers.

Cummings said that although the store is opening its doors as a sneaker store primarily, that does not mean that they won’t have other offerings. He said that the four owners intend to study the business and evolve it as they go along to accommodate the needs of the local community.

He said that if a customer comes in wishing for something that they are unable to find locally, the store will search and find whatever is available on the market to meet the need of the customer.

In addition to shoes, there will also be a selection of tee-shirts and other wearable items offered in the store.

At the moment the store is occupying one section of a two-section building, but they hope to expand into the adjoining room in the future.

Canon is excited about being a part of the downtown community and especially about being a part of the revitalization of Chicago Street. The building the men are renting belongs to Logan county residents George and Cheri Leverton and associates. The Levertons and their partners recently purchased several storefronts in the 100 block of South Chicago with the hopes of revitalizing the buildings and turning them into something the residents of Lincoln can be proud of. Canon feels that the new shoe store is a good start.

The store will open its doors at 11 a.m. on Saturday with a ribbon cutting ceremony to be held shortly afterward.

The community is invited to come for the ribbon cutting and then stay, visit with the owners and shop the store’s inventory. The opening comes at a very good time as Christmas is right around the corner. While the target market may be younger folks, it is mom and dad that can bring smiles to kids faces with a new pair of name brand sneakers under the tree. So be sure to stop in.

After the grand opening, the store will be open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

See also the press release in today’s edition of Lincoln Daily News.

[Nila Smith]