Just bought a running store. What is one thing your local shop is missing?

My local running store is doing so well that the franchise owners bought another one across the river. They built a community hub. They have Wednesday night fun runs with two routes, one is about a mile or so and the main route is a little over three miles. Someone plans the route before hand and prints out street-by-streets on little pieces of paper. They get around 50 people every week (no joke) with expected drops for heavy rain or sub 20 degree weather. The reps from the shoe companies show up on a rotating basis and offer shoe demos, little giveaways (stickers, tshirts, etc), and sometimes they'll raffle a pair of shoes. PTs, chiropractors, and other people like that offer talks sometimes and I think they pay the store for the opportunity to be there. There are Saturday morning fun runs too and paid half marathon/marathon groups but they have less participation than the mid week fun run.

Get someone who can lead the fun run, get the brand reps on board, get someone to advertise all the above on the socials. If you build it they will come!

Big mistake to ever cater anything to "serious runners." They will be the cheapest, most entitled and petty portion of your customer base. Throw them a bone in the form of a nominal discount if they are members of a prominent local club, but nothing more.

Yeah same here. I think Adidas doesn't sell at all to local/brick-and-mortar businesses. So it wouldn't be possible for OP to do the same. They only sell to big stores like Dicks, Road Runner Sports, Marathon Sports, Heart Break, etc

Nike

Don't take this the wrong way but you do a community run and gatherings, there will be
awkward moments when some runners who buy shoes online keep showing up at these meet ups. It has actually happened at a now closed store in my area.

Good luck! Unfortunately, in the end it's a business and you have to determine how to balance hopefully a wide range of people who want to call your store "home". It's great to spend $ and build a community but you have to be in the black if you aren't just going to sell the store to someone else. Be prepared to test a lot of stuff but also pivot quickly until you find the sauce.

I live in one of the top 5 metro areas in the US, however, going to stores I like are a 30-45 min proposition each way. It's much easier for me to just order something via an online store/Amazon/etc even if it has to be returned since I can drop it off at a million places closer than a specialty shop. Taking 2 hours out of a day to find out something isn't in stock (rare to find 12.5's) or getting sh*t service just pushes me further in the other direction but saves me time and money-

The other big thing is to make the sales experience better for people who are entering the sport - most of the sales will be to people who don't take it as seriously (or have in the past) as those of us posting out here. When buying shoes and being pushed insoles for everything has the same feel as an oil change upsell - it's not a good thing -

I always buy shoes online because I don't have issues with shoe size/fit. Size 9 in any brand fits me well enough. Having said that, I can see the value of a local running store and wouldn't mind supporting it. Of course, the value to the community and to me would have to be enough to justify spending more than buying online. I'd buy at a store if it 1) promoted/supported the local running scene with more than just organized fun runs, such as encouraging/supporting school running teams, holding talks on training/injury prevention, 2) sold products at different price points (for example, I want to see singlets that are closer to $25, not $70), 3) employed genuinely friendly/knowledgeable people who make the shopping experience enjoyable and personable as they get to know me, 4) had a program to reward repeat customers.

It'll be tough competing against online stores, so good luck! Hope you succeed.

Amen! A bunch of socially inept weirdos that will tell you with a straight face, that if you sponsor them with free gear, customers will flood your store clamoring to buy what the 36-year-old age group winner of the Turkey Trot is wearing because "everyone" knows him as a top local runner.

Actually, I’ve had good success with “serious runners”. My store opened a massage room in the basement because runners often need massages help their over used legs recover. A good massage can also provide a release to some of the muscles serious runners tend to not use as much…

… like their forearms… scratch that… their necks.

Add a coffee bar. Thank me later.

Something I wish I had was a local spot airing all of the major Diamond Leagues, World Champs, Olympics, etc. Even better if I could watch with a beer.

I'm going to flip the thread around and ask a question back at you. What can you share about the financials of becoming an owner? I would love to do this one day.

You'll just get incels thinking they can tip $5 extra for a happy ending

Add a bunch of weekly gimmicky events for fun runs.

Form an elite store sponsored run team.

Plaster employees and important people of the running store (President, ambassadors) on signs) at local races.

Use the same route that local races use but call it something else and charge a moderate fee with a promise to give everyone swag.

Congrats and good luck!

If you do merch (branded t-shirts or singlets) hire a graphic designer to make a decent-looking logo. I'd gladly run (and advertise for) our local store, but holy crap it's the cheapest clip-art logo. Also, HS kids go bananas over free stickers. Maybe hand those out with purchase of spikes.

If you want to grow a community, start by welcoming and celebrating runners of all abilities in your store. Be intentional and consistent with that and, host groups that include all paces, and runs of different lengths. We've done that in our club and it's grown exponentially.

I've seen people mention an elite team- very pricey. Rather, I'd recommend doing what my local store (owns the running scene in a metro area) does. Offer coaching services, paid, but at a reasonable price. Offer it to the adults and the marathon hopefuls, but also, most of all, high schoolers. Give the best ones free singlet/uniform/maybe gear to represent, and other runners who want to be good but need something their school's basketball/XC coach can't give them. Also keep local elites and sub elites around and coming to group runs, but likable ones who are good mentors and have good training/life balance, not some letsrun.com folk.

Trust me, biggest market most stores never tap into. Plus the parents of high schoolers will buy large quantities of gear to support their kid's dream that they just don't know how to coach.

when uncoached kids get their but whooped they will look at the singlet and look into you to see what they can get

Also- lots of the letsrun.com type want to cater to elites, which is good, but most your customers are hobbyjoggers. Don't make them feel left out, they are one of the most valuable parts of the community if you want to turn profit.

And sell those goofy "chicknlegs" running shorts with the patterns. Those FLY off the shelves with elites and hobbyjoggers alike

trail running shoes

Biggest miss for local running stores is the complete neglect of higher level runners. Its always catered to the "hobby jogger" or the fun group run. There's zero community for individuals trying to compete at a little higher level.