What’s in Store

by Welles Lobb for Runners World

As more women take up running and want the best shoes and apparel, specialty retail stores are responding to their needs.

Just north of Philadelphia in historic Doylestown, Pennsylvania is TrainingZone Sports — No ordinary jock shop, this specialty running store stocks 30 different varieties of sports bras and carries racks upon racks of women's running clothes. The jogging strollers sell well, too. "They're the shower gift of the 90's," says co-owner Susan Pajer

The success of TrainingZone Sports simply reflects the profound impact women are having on all levels of our sport, from fitness running to marathoning to the specialty running store business itself. From 1993 through 1997, female finishers in all road races increased 17 percent, while participation in women-only running / walking events tripled, according to the USATF Road Running Information Center. And in the 1998 Suzuki Rock 'n' Roll marathon, fully 55 percent of the 20,000 plus runners were women.

It's also clear that women such as TrainingZone Sports' Susan Pajer are working their way to the top ranks of the specialty retail business. Until a few years ago, women in specialty running stores largely occupied part-time, non-management positions. Not anymore.

To learn more about how gender economics is influencing the world of specialty running stores, we talked to several women in the retail trenches: store owners, managers and key sales people. Some of the things we wanted to know: How much of your store's business is from women? does your store conduct special programs (training classes, etc.) for women? What have you done to give your store a female-friendly shopping ambiance? Finally, we wanted to know the retailers' opinions on what's behind the current explosion in women's running.

We'll get to their answers in a moment. First, though, what's our take on women in retail? Just this: Even when specialty running stores were mostly guy-run, guy hangouts, they were cool places. Now that they're adding more women staffers and women-friendly features, they're even better.

Less than two years ago, the well-known Fleet Feet chain of running stores opened its first New England franchise in West Hartford, Conn. And, you guessed it, the company designated it for women athletes and hired a women manager.

"For various reasons, running and fitness have become very big among women in our area of Connecticut," says Alice Gold, who has managed Fleet Feet Sports for Women since it opened in June 1997. Running and walking are so popular here that Hartford gained spots in both the Race for the Cure and Avon Running Global Women's Circuit Series in 1998. Together, the prestigious events drew more than 6,000 women to Connecticut's capital city.

This large base of active females is, of course, the very vein that Gold and Fleet Feet are tapping into. "We're currently seeing two main types of customers," says Gold. "One group consists of women in their 30s and 40s who were exposed to sports in their youth, took some time off for career and family, and now are getting back into an active lifestyle. The other group contains older women, mostly walkers, who are getting fit for the first time."

Gold says she feels a direct connection to these women, many of whom raced for the very first time in the Race for the Cure or Avon races. "I grew up before Title IX, and was shut out of sports" she says, " Now I'm a fitness runner, and I play some soccer, Therefore, I have a lot of empathy for the women who shop here. We're new athletes, and we're enthusiastic about it. They put a lot of faith in the advice I give them on what shoes, clothes an sports bras to wear."

As a retailer, Gold gets the Fleet Feet name circulating in the running community through a variety of networking efforts. "I don't just sponsor races," says Gold, "I work on the race committees." And to help promote the fact that her store carries 35 models of women's running shoes, Gold, a former university professor, does extensive shoe research and shares her findings in the Hartford Track Club newsletter.

Naturally, Gold would like Fleet Feet Sports for Women to be the store of choice for the area's large population of high school and college runners, but against the pull of nearby mall-based sports megastores, she can only hope to win this business with lots of TLC. In one recent outreach effort, she presented roses to the girls from a local team who were competing in the state track championships. "One mother told me how nice that was, and that she'd stop her because of that," says Gold.

In Doylestown, Susan Pajer has her own unique outreach effort: a beginner's class conducted by TrainingZone for women runners and walkers. After 12 weeks of instruction and training in last summer's heat, Pajer presented her enthusiastic class "graduates" -- each of whom ran or walked a 5-K race -- with a T-shirt labeled "Newborn Runner." She's expanding the program this summer to include both beginner and intermediate classes.

Like Gold, Pajer often sees women who are new to exercise--many of whom are larger or older. "We take a strong interest in helping to ease their transition from sedentary living to regular running and walking. These people desperately need an exercise program," says Pajer. "We make sure to carry the longer jackets and shorts, looser-fitting pants and plus-size bras that they'll be comfortable wearing."

Pajer opened TrainingZone in 1991. "I was a recreational runner with an academic background in business, and I really wanted to own a running store," she recalls. "As the business has grown, we [she co-owns the store with husband David] have always offered women the same quality and quantity of merchandise that we offer men. If we carry a particular high-end men's shoe, we'll carry the same shoe for women."

Many veteran runners would liken a running store's atmosphere to that of a small-town barber shop: it's a place where men have traditionally gathered to shoot the bull, regardless of whether they plan to buy anything. Same thing goes for TrainingZone, except that the people hanging out are often women. "With a customer base that is now 55 to 60 percent women," says Pajer, "we get a lot women in here who just like to discuss shoes, workouts or next weekend's race."