A history of sneaker retail can become a history of exceptional objects: the rare pair, the famous collaborator, the line outside a release. WSS opens another route into the subject. Its story makes room for shoes bought together for different members of a household, for sportswear worn through an ordinary week and for a neighborhood store that participates in the visual life of its city.
WSS dates its beginning to 1984 and founder Eric Alon. Its own history emphasizes an early decision to open in city neighborhoods rather than shopping malls, addressing working-class communities that it considered underserved. That choice of location is central to understanding the business.
A telling expansion came in 2015, when the Los Angeles Business Journal reported a Westlake flagship in the historic Young’s Market building at Seventh and Union. The approximately 24,000-square-foot location placed a large footwear store inside a building with an earlier neighborhood commercial life.
The setting offers a useful way to read WSS. A shop can become part of sneaker culture through the shopping trips it accommodates as well as the products it singles out. A large neighborhood format permits a different relationship between street, household and sporting goods than a boutique organized around a tightly edited collection.
Soccer as a local language
In May 2019, LAFC announced a multiyear community partnership with WSS. The planned activities connected stores with the club’s academy and Street Team, fan events and player appearances. The agreement gave a formal structure to an association between football fandom and local retail.
A 2020 LAFC and adidas Originals release made that connection tangible in footwear. WSS was a listed retail outlet for the black-and-gold Street By Street Samba. A separate Heart of Gold edition recognized community heroes. WSS’s role was distribution; the announcement identified the club and adidas as the creative partners.
That distinction matters when describing a retailer’s contribution. Stocking a release is a different activity from designing it, yet distribution helps establish where a club’s identity can be encountered beyond the stadium. Team colors, a familiar shoe shape and a neighborhood shopping destination can bring several forms of attachment into one transaction.
WSS’s account of a September 2023 LAFC Fan Fest describes a panna-cage challenge at BMO Stadium and adidas prizes. It documents a specific event rather than proving the size or lasting effect of the partnership, but it adds an example of participation alongside the sale of merchandise.
The current West 7th Street page lists the store at 1600 West 7th Street in Los Angeles. It also identifies a dedicated soccer shop, with cleats, jerseys and equipment. This is a representative branch whose published assortment makes the football connection visible, rather than evidence of what every WSS carries.
A family store in public life
For its fortieth anniversary in 2024, WSS announced a food-truck tour with forty stops and special products involving Dickies and Pro Club. The itinerary included Los Angeles, San Antonio and Bakersfield. The celebration linked a retail anniversary with food, clothing and gatherings in the places where the chain operated.
Its Latino Heritage Month page presents the SOY campaign around multiple forms of Latino identity. The merchandise includes a WSS Athletic collaboration with Umbro by Steven Mena, with football references to Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala. The campaign provides a specific example of cultural expression without establishing a single identity for all shoppers.
WSS has also published an account of Los Angeles fire-relief work with the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, including collections of shoes, clothing and water. That record is best understood as a documented initiative; it should not be read as a promise that the same collection remains open.
Together, these examples widen the frame of the store’s history. Apparel, sport and community activity meet within a commercial business, and each can be examined on its own terms. A campaign’s symbolism and a relief effort’s practical work contribute different kinds of evidence about how a retailer presents its public role.
A familiar banner within a larger group
Foot Locker announced completion of its WSS acquisition in September 2021 and said the WSS name would remain. Foot Locker’s current corporate site places that business within DICK’S Sporting Goods. Ownership therefore belongs in the history alongside the longstanding storefront identity.
WSS is especially revealing because it connects sneaker retail with everyday access and family shopping. Its Los Angeles origins, football relationships and neighborhood formats form a story in which the culturally meaningful pair can be an ordinary purchase. The shop’s significance becomes clearer when the street around it remains in the picture.
Westlake flagship report
LAFC and adidas Samba release
WSS fortieth anniversary
Related store histories
Explore sneaker history and culture
Frequently asked questions
Who founded WSS and when?
WSS dates its beginning to 1984 and founder Eric Alon. Its own history emphasizes an early decision to open in city neighborhoods rather than shopping malls, addressing working-class communities that it considered underserved.
Where did WSS open its Westlake flagship?
A telling expansion came in 2015, when the Los Angeles Business Journal reported a Westlake flagship in the historic Young’s Market building at Seventh and Union. The approximately 24,000-square-foot location placed a large footwear store inside a building with an earlier neighborhood commercial life.
Did WSS design the LAFC adidas Samba?
A 2020 LAFC and adidas Originals release made that connection tangible in footwear. WSS was a listed retail outlet for the black-and-gold Street By Street Samba. A separate Heart of Gold edition recognized community heroes. WSS’s role was distribution; the announcement identified the club and adidas as the creative partners.
Does the WSS West 7th Street store have a soccer department?
The current West 7th Street page lists the store at 1600 West 7th Street in Los Angeles. It also identifies a dedicated soccer shop, with cleats, jerseys and equipment. This is a representative branch whose published assortment makes the football connection visible, rather than evidence of what every WSS carries.
Who acquired WSS in 2021?
Foot Locker announced completion of its WSS acquisition in September 2021 and said the WSS name would remain. Foot Locker’s current corporate site places that business within DICK’S Sporting Goods. Ownership therefore belongs in the history alongside the longstanding storefront identity.
