Drive around most suburbs of Chicago on any Saturday when there is not snow on the ground, and you are likely to see colored, leather soccer balls kicked across parks and fields of all sizes. Consider this: organized youth and club soccer in Illinois generates at least $2.8 million annually through its state association. Lisa and Mike Mathis recognized the potential windfall of aligning with the sport and opened Soccer Madness, a brick and mortar store dedicated to all things soccer, 16 years ago.
“Soccer Madness is a store that people can come into and find whatever they need for the sport that they love,” explained Lisa. “Whether you’re a beginner soccer player or a player that’s been playing since they were four and now they’re in their adult years. We have footwear, equipment and apparel.”
The idea for Soccer Madness came from a love for the game as well as a need to find gear for their children when the Mathis children were young and playing soccer. For years, Lisa and Mike would drive long distances to equip their young athletes, and on top of that, Mike was frustrated with his career at the time, working a corporate job in downtown Chicago.
“Mike wasn’t happy with corporate life, and I had always done retail in the past, so we kind of found a connection,” Lisa said with a laugh from inside the store, which is located roughly 35 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.
Mike and Lisa opened their store in 2009, along the way surviving a series of proverbial yellow cards.
“We opened in 2009, in what many will recall as a recession,” explained Mike. “On top of that, the property market tanked in 2020. We struggled through COVID, and somehow we are still here 16 years later.”
Through economic storms and a pandemic, Lisa and Mike have kept Soccer Madness open and thriving. Mike credits their success to the tremendous growth in popularity of soccer and their dogged determination to their business.
“No matter what struggles we go through as adults, we never want our kids to be impacted by the reality of the world,” said Mike. “Somehow, it seems like parents find a way to get their kids the gear.”
“I’m a man of confidence,” Mike admitted. “Did we underestimate the challenges? We did. But that’s what life is about, learning and improving.”
Everything soccer
Walking into Soccer Madness is like stepping onto a vibrant pitch coursing with energy and excitement.
“When you enter our store, there’s music, there’s lights, there’s colorful flags hanging all over and colorful jerseys,” Lisa described with enthusiasm. “It’s a happy place that can lift your mood instantly, even if you’ve just woken up from a nap.”
“We enjoy seeing the smiles on the kids and the smiles on the parents as they’re gifting their children the presents that they’ve been asking for and dreaming about every day,” added Mike noting how soccer serves as a cultural bridge for many immigrant families.
“Many of our customers that are from Eastern Europe or from Mexico, there’s language barriers,” said Mike. “And their children act as interpreters for their parents.”
Their customer base also spans generations, ranging from four-year-olds getting their first cleats to 70-year-old recreational players.
“We’ve had the Chicago Bears kicker come in for cleats,” Lisa revealed with a prideful smile.
“We get a customer base that are strictly soccer fans. We get customers that have never experienced soccer in their life,” said Mike. “I’m talking about parents. I’m talking about grandparents, because their children or grandchildren are playing and all they want to do is give their family things that they love. This is a destination shopping experience that comes with 99.9% smiles into the door.”
Lisa then smiles and begins to tell us why a local store like Soccer Madness is better than shopping online for soccer equipment.
“There’s a lot of other stores that people could go to to buy their gear,” explained Lisa. “They could go online, but when they come in here there is always someone welcoming them. There is always someone offering to help measure their foot and make sure they have a proper fit. They have a dressing room that they can try on different clothing. They can touch and feel all the products that we have in our store, and they know that they can trust us.”
This hands-on approach has built tremendous loyalty in Buffalo Grove, which resonates with special significance to Mike.
“I like having the legacy of our store being part of this community. I grew up in this community. I went to grade school, middle school and high school here, and there’s a part of me that hopes that after we’re gone, the store would still be here.
“We get a lot of customers who come in and they say ‘we want to support our local store and not buy online,’” noted Mike about how Soccer Madness is embraced in Buffalo Grove. “Without that support, there’s no question that we would not be able to compete with the online, business world of today.”
“I think Soccer Madness matters, because people need to know that they can still shop in a store and see people and, get good customer service and get what they need without just blindly going online,” added Lisa. “There’s a different relationship that we have with our customers that they only could get in our store.”
After leaving grueling corporate careers, Lisa and Mike have found unexpected fulfillment.
“We’re much happier. We’re well rested. We’re having fun doing what we’re doing,” said Mike. “We’ve built a situation that has worked and is really ideal for both of us.”
Experience counts
Lisa got her first taste of retail as a child, because her grandparents owned a gift shop in Queens, New York, from their 20s through their 60s. “I saw them work hard and then retire,” she shared.
After graduating from college, Lisa went into retail with a job working at Marshall Fields in downtown Chicago. After a series of retail positions, she launched her own jewelry business, Accessorize This, where she honed her sales skills.
“I would go to different wholesale stores to purchase product and do home parties for women at night,” Lisa recalled of her pre-soccer days.
This diverse background proved to be invaluable, according to Lisa.
“I became a buyer, a seller, a manager, and got a lot of experience that I use every day. If you can sell one thing, you can sell another.”
Though new to soccer, Lisa was far from a rookie in retail. So, she immersed herself in the sport, learning from YouTube and her own experiences.
“Just by being a soccer mom, you have to learn the game and know how to talk to your kids about what they’re doing,” recalled Lisa. “I feel like I have a good idea about the game of soccer. When it comes to fitting someone in a proper pair of shoes, that’s just learning from doing and learning on the job.”
Mike started Soccer Madness with a little bit of a head start because he is a self-professed fan of soccer jerseys.
“Any time we went on a vacation, we had to find the best soccer store, so we could get him a jersey from the place that we were visiting,” said Lisa with a smile looking at her husband.
“My favorite player would be Diego Maradona from back from the days in Argentina,” interjected Mike with enthusiasm. “One of my favorite jerseys was just released this year after 16 years of being in the business. The brand new, national Mexico Jersey is by far the crispest, cleanest I’ve seen.”
Building it right
When Mike and Lisa decided to trade corporate careers for entrepreneurship, they approached their new venture with diligence.
“We hired a specialist in the retail field, and we built an 82-page business plan and did the number crunching to make sure that our math was workable,” explained Mike about how they carefully planned prior to opening Soccer Madness. “This is a critical function I would recommend to anybody. Before you ever sign a lease for a retail space you should have a business plan and a financial feasibility analysis.”
Yet even the best plans encounter unexpected challenges.
“The advice I wish someone told me is that be prepared for something to change without any warning,” added Lisa. “It could be the economy. It could be the point-of-sale system that I’m using. I need to learn a whole new computer system. I always have to be ready for change, and that’s difficult.”
“Our biggest financial challenge in owning a retail store in Illinois is health care,” Mike continued to explain. “We need to come up with an affordable health care act that allows people to open brick and mortar retail stores and employ people from the community and be able to extend affordable health care. Other things you just learn as you go,”
Love of the game
During our visit to Soccer Madness, Mike grabbed a shirt off the rack for a custom order, which is a specialty of the store beloved by its customers.
“We just got a customer who ordered a Bellingham jersey for Real Madrid,” he explained as he walked over to the store’s clothing press, while holding the yellow shirt with its signature Emirates logo on its front.
“I get to see all of our work all over the pitches in the Chicagoland area,” added Mike with a smile on his face. “When we go to tournaments, and we see the kids playing in uniforms that I actually made, it is rewarding to see all the smiles and the happiness that comes from this beautiful game.”
“I’ve always liked working with people, selling things and educating people on a sport that maybe that they’re not familiar with,” said Lisa with a broad smile. “I love it!”