After 50 years, Long Island shoe retailer Incredible Feets is closing its last store

Gary Weiss remembers fondly the generations of families who have shopped for shoes at his business, Incredible Feets, for decades.

For 50 years, grandparents, parents and children have filed into the Long Island shoe stores to buy sneakers for everything from sporting events to physical education classes to summer camps and daily wear, he said.

"And the satisfaction I’ve seen from people that came to us 50 years ago. And then some of those people come back with their children if they were originally a customer many years ago. ... And literally some of them will come in with their parents, saying, ‘Remember when you used to bring me in here?" Weiss said.

Now, Incredible Feets’ last store, in Lawrence, which was also its first, will close this month.  

At its largest, the chain had five Long Island stores and about 150 employees, in 2014. But e-commerce competition, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, hurt sales that never fully recovered, said co-owner Brendon Weiss, who is Gary Weiss’ son.

Despite growing online retail competition, Incredible Feets’ business was still strong before the pandemic started, said Gary Weiss, 82.

"I think the thing that differentiated us is that we always had a very high level of service, individual service with each customer, measuring, fitting what they wanted, what they were looking for," he said.

He founded the business as a franchise called Sneaker Circus in Lawrence in 1976. The franchise carried its own brands instead of brand-name footwear, so sales lagged, he said.

He began buying name-brand shoes for his inventory and changed the store’s name to Incredible Feets in 1981, he said.

"We slowly but surely landed on more brands until we ended up being a very substantial athletic footwear retailer," Gary Weiss said.

Incredible Feets came into its own the 1980s, when sneakers became more common for everyday wear, and new-sneaker releases were high-profile events, sometimes tied to professional athletes with signature shoes, such as Michael Jordan’s Air Jordans produced by Nike, Brendon Weiss said.

Over the years, Incredible Feets has opened eight stores at different periods, including three now-closed locations in Manhattan, Smithtown and Long Beach, said Brendon Weiss, who joined his father’s business as a partner in 1990 after he graduated from college.

The business became a family affair, he said.

His mother, Lois Weiss, did administrative work for Incredible Feets from 1976 to around 2010, and his wife, Jennifer Weiss, handled human resources duties from 2004 to 2021, he said.

Incredible Feets’ heyday was in the 1990s and 2000s, when it was selling sneakers, casual shoes, book bags, athletic equipment, sportswear and outerwear, such as The North Face jackets, said Brendon Weiss, 58.

"People would come in and literally buy everything they needed for the season, and buy a couple pairs of sneakers, jackets, this and that, and they wanted to make sure to have everything," he said.

Incredible Feets sells merchandise for people of all ages, but it is known for its wide selection of children’s shoes, he said.

Sholom Prager, who recently moved to Woodmere with his family, has been to Incredible Feets’ Lawrence store several times to buy shoes for his three children, he said Friday while in the store with his son Avi, 5, getting sneakers for the youngster.

"We were sad that the store was closing," said Prager, 31.

"Growing up, going to an actual shoe store was an experience. And, you know, they never got to experience it with, you know, Amazon, or whatever else, Walmart, just ordering online. So, actually bringing them in, getting them measured, and actually looking at the wall and saying, ‘Oh, hey, I want this pair,’ instead of just scrolling" online, he said.

Online sales soar during pandemic

Incredible Feets offered online sales for a few years around 2010, but that presented its own set of challenges, such as the deterioration of profit margins by using third-party sellers and growing competition from athletic brands with their own e-commerce sites, Brendon Weiss said.

Then starting in March 2020, temporary business shutdowns due to the pandemic and stay-at-home restrictions accelerated the shift toward online shopping for shoes and many other goods. The federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended in May 2023, but Incredible Feets’ sales never fully recovered, the Weisses said.

As a result, the Weisses began closing the five remaining stores, including a location in Albertson that was shuttered in 2023, Plainview in January 2025, Bellmore in January 2026 and Oceanside in October, they said.

A liquidation sale is taking place now at the Lawrence store, where merchandise is at least 30% off. 

In the United States, 30% of shoe sales took place online before the pandemic, said Beth Goldstein, footwear industry adviser at Circana, a market research firm based in Chicago.

That share soared to 60% during the first half of 2020, and then leveled out at about 40% in early 2021, she said in an email.

The share has stayed around 40% since then because the online business for footwear is mature, Goldstein said.

"That doesn’t mean there won’t be growth — we’ve seen the store business and the online business grow at very similar rates during the past five years, thus keeping the share of sales steady. I believe that AI and social commerce will begin to drive growth again online," she said.

'Everybody’s ... family here'

For generations, Incredible Feets not only has drawn thousands of customers, but it also has employed hundreds of teens from the Five Towns for part-time jobs, teaching them a work ethic and customer service skills they could apply later in life, Brendon Weiss said.

"You know, you show up on time, how you look, how you handle yourself, how to engage with customers, how to work with others, how to lead, how to follow. And that was the thing that my dad and I were always so proud of, is everyone that we could employ in our own community and make a team," he said.

The Weisses are thankful for their loyal customers and employees who have supported the business for 50 years, they said.

With one store left, Incredible Feets has about 10 employees remaining, including Rocco Matera, a manager who was hired by the retailer six years ago.

News of Incredible Feets’ impending shutdown came as a shock, said Matera, 68, who spent 18 years working for the now-defunct Modell’s Sporting Goods before joining Incredible Feets.

"Everybody’s like pretty much family here, and the customer experience [is personal]. You know, day to day on the sales floor, instead of sitting behind a desk in an office, it’s a whole different experience," the Island Park resident said.