Lively Athletics has been a staple of the Oak Park community since it opened its doors 11 years ago. The athletic apparel boutique recently underwent a transition in leadership, as the former owners, sisters Anne Pezzalla and Kate Marlin, passed the torch to local resident Christina McKittrick.
McKittrick remembers the moment she learned that the store at 109 N. Oak Park Ave. was searching for a new owner. It was last March. “I was sitting outside my daughter’s dance class, and it came up on Facebook and at first my heart sank because I thought they were closing,” McKittrick said. “Then I saw it said ‘We’re looking to sell.’ So, jokingly, I screenshotted it, sent it to my dad and was like ‘What if I buy Lively?’”
McKittrick was a long-time customer of the boutique, but her motivations for becoming its owner lies partly with her father. “My dad was also a small business owner and he retired and he wanted to use some of the money from his retirement to kind of instill in me and my siblings [to be] your own boss if you can.”
After reaching out via Facebook, McKittrick began correspondence with Pezzalla and Marlin over email before eventually meeting in person to discuss the possibility of a purchase.
“We loved that she was partnering with her dad a little bit,” Pezzalla said. “We just loved that it would stay kind of family-owned. And that her dad was super involved really resonated with us.”
McKittrick’s active role in the community strengthened the sisters’ decision to sell to her. “It kind of gives me heart palpitations to see how much she does. She works full time, she coaches for the high school, she coaches on the side. She’s just so athletic and interesting and she seems to be really deeply rooted in the community. We just loved all those things about her and she just seemed like the perfect new owner for Lively,” Pezzalla said. McKittrick took over the store in July.
As a full-time science teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School, McKittrick knew becoming Lively Athletics’ owner would come with a steep learning curve. Luckily, she found help among Lively’s staff. “The biggest thing was the staff here is so amazing, and all of them were agreeing to stay,” she said. “So I was like, I have a manager, I have an assistant manager, I have dedicated people who love this place and are willing to keep it going and help me learn how to be a business owner.”
McKittrick wants to focus especially on emphasizing Lively’s role in the Oak Park community. “We’re trying to get more and more involved in the community, so we did things like the Frank Lloyd Wright Race, doing a table there, [and] the local Turkey Trot at St. Giles Church, we had activities and giveaways there. We have a big event in November called ‘Govember’ where we encourage community members to walk all the streets in Oak Park,” McKittrick said. “We work with Hephzibah to provide the kids with shoes. We work with another local organization called Yemba who target at-risk youth in the community.”
“We try to give back to the community because the community gives back to us,” said McKittrick.
McKittrick wants locals to know that when you buy from Lively Athletics, rather than Amazon or a big brand retailer, there is no price difference. “The shoe companies dictate what price we can sell [the shoes] at. So on Amazon it has to be the same price as it is here in the store, as it is when you buy directly from the website. But that little bit of profit, because we buy the shoes for less money and then we sell it at the price we are told to sell it at, that profit goes back into our store [rather than] going into Amazon, [rather than] going into Hoka, which is already making a profit because you’re buying the shoe,” she said. “Now, you’re giving back to someone in your community rather than [a] big business.”
Lively Athletics sells women’s apparel, men’s apparel, and children’s shoes, all with one goal in mind. “Move your body,” McKittrick said. “Move your body and we’ll help you.”
