The Running Curmudgeon Back Again!

Today I saw a FB post from a local running shoe store that asked a question---they called it a poll---about whether customers would prefer shoes that fit great but are not so good looking vs. shoes that looked really cool but didn't fit as well. For reals. They were asking this. A few people responded basically that fit was more important (duh) or maybe that they used to be more into fashion but now that they were buying shoes to actually run in they had decided they cared more about fit.

I could not believe this was a serious question from a RUNNING SHOE STORE so I asked them if this was a serious question and said I had a question for them: do you want to be a fashion store or a running store?

And they answered back that of course it was a serious question and they really care what their customers think and blah, blah, blah.

This is the same store in which the last time I was in there shopping, I forget what for, maybe just picking up a race packet, the clerk had somehow engaged me in conversation enough that I was mentioning the marathon that I had run the week before and he tried to get me to sign up for their couch to 5k program.

So anyway, it seemed like it was time to unlike them on Facebook. The only time I shop there is when they are having a big sale and/or I happen to go there to pick up a race packet. Or if they host a special event in the store that interests me, like a seminar or clinic. And it's one time less often now since they have stopped putting on that Lady Distance Classic 5k/10k event each year.

If they want to be more about fashion that's fine with me. I can get everything I need online. I don't have a reason to shop at their store.

How can that be a serious question? If they got a bunch of people saying they cared more about fashion than how the shoes fit, would they switch their merchandising to focus on that?

I heard a statistic recently that the vast majority of running shoes are purchased by consumers in department stores for non-running purposes. A very small percentage of shoes are actually purchased at specialty running shoe stores, and these are mostly to new runners just starting out who have been told they need to be fitted for shoes by "experts." People who have been running regularly for years tend to make their purchases from catalogs or online.

So I'm wondering what they are thinking at this little running shoe store. Do they think they should be competing with the department stores?