More Than a Running Store - Charlotte Running Company

For 26 years, Charlotte Running Company has been fitting local runners for shoes. But spend a little time listening to its customers, and it becomes clear that what keeps many of them coming back has surprisingly little to do with what's on the shelves.

There are plenty of places to buy running shoes in Charlotte.

You can order nearly any model online, compare prices without leaving the couch and have a new pair sitting on your doorstep a few days later.

So why are customers still spending an hour, sometimes two, inside Charlotte Running Company?

Read through the experiences of people who shop there and an answer starts to emerge.

The fitting is really a conversation

Recent customer reviews of Charlotte Running Company's Dilworth location tell remarkably similar stories.

Customers describe walking in, explaining what they're trying to accomplish and then being asked questions about how they run, walk or spend long days on their feet.

From there, fittings can involve foot measurements or scans, gait analysis, treadmill testing and, often, a small mountain of shoe boxes.

Some customers say they tried four or five pairs. Others remember six, eight or even 10.

One person expected to spend about five minutes in the store because they didn't know what they were doing. They ended up spending more than 45 minutes finding the right shoe.

Another customer described the reason they continue shopping locally this way:

That's a powerful compliment for any small business in the age of one-click shopping.

The product may be running shoes.

The thing customers appear to value most is time.

A place where beginners count, too

What's particularly noticeable in the reviews is how often customers identify themselves as beginners.

There are first-time runners. Walkers. People returning to the sport after decades away. People training for their first race. Parents bringing in children who recently joined track.

One Army veteran returning to running after decades away came in with a spouse and a daughter who had just started middle-school track. All three left with shoes.

Another customer said they entered the store nervous because they were new to running and had previously felt dismissed elsewhere because of their body size.

They described being treated “as kindly and seriously as any other runner.”

That's where Charlotte Running Company's role starts to look different from that of an ordinary retailer.

Running can be intimidating when you're new to it. There's specialized footwear, watches, gels, training plans, pace terminology and the uncomfortable feeling that everyone else somehow already knows what they're doing.

A good local running store can make that world easier to enter.

And CRC's customers repeatedly describe a place where asking beginner questions isn't something to apologize for.

The store extends beyond the store

The other recurring theme in the reviews is community.

Customers call CRC a “family.” One describes it as a “coaching hub.” Others mention group runs, shoe demos, training advice and the company's presence throughout Charlotte's running scene.

That's also why you'll find Charlotte Running Company outside its own four walls this weekend.

CRC is participating in Around the Crown 10K race weekend, including a pop-up at the race expo and a race-day cheer station with Brooks.

The connection is worth noting not because CRC needs a major race to validate its place in Charlotte, but because it's an example of where the business shows up after someone leaves the store.

A runner might walk into CRC unsure what shoes they need.

Eventually, that same person might join a group run, sign up for a 5K or find themselves standing at the starting line of a 10K.

This weekend, some of those runners will take over I-277.

CRC's role in that journey may have started with a shoe fitting, but it doesn't necessarily end at the register.

This weekend's route: Around the Crown 10K takes runners through Charlotte and onto I-277 for a 6.2-mile course. Image courtesy of Around the Crown 10K.

What customers say when they stop talking about shoes

Perhaps the most revealing review is also one of the simplest:

That sentiment appears again and again, even when customers use different words.

They praise the inventory and technology, certainly. But the memorable stories are about someone spending an hour helping a stranger find the right fit. A new runner being taken seriously. A customer being encouraged without being pressured into a purchase. Someone stopping into the store during a difficult hot-weather run and being given water and fuel.

Those are small interactions.

Collect enough of them over 26 years, though, and you start building something that can't easily be replicated online.

Now CRC is building around that community

Charlotte Running Company's next chapter makes even more sense viewed through that lens.

The business plans to relocate its longtime Dilworth operation from East Boulevard to Park Road Shopping Center.

The new location is being conceived as more than expanded retail space. Positioned along the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, plans call for amenities including a coffee bar, beer and wine, recovery space, a locker room and shower, and space for treatment and rehabilitation services.

Maybe you buy something.

Maybe you don't.

For a company founded as a running store in 2000, that's an interesting evolution. But based on what its customers already say, it may be less of a reinvention than it appears.

The physical store is simply catching up with what the business has already become.

Why we're highlighting them this week

Around the Crown will put Charlotte's running community on unusually public display this weekend.

Thousands of runners will move through Uptown and onto I-277. Some will race hard. Some will run their first 10K. Some will simply try to finish.

Charlotte Running Company will be there supporting them.

But Sunday's race is just one weekend.

The more interesting small-business story is what happens during all the ordinary weeks in between, when someone walks into a neighborhood running store and says some version of:

Twenty-six years after opening its first store, Charlotte Running Company appears to have built its reputation around answering yes.

And in a city with a rapidly growing running culture, that might be its most valuable product.