Hello!  We've had a LOT of questions about our new awning.  We'd like to use this page to explain it a bit further.

YES, we continue to be LOCALLY OWNED and OPERATED!  NO, we were not SOLD, BOUGHT, or ACQUIRED!   Our owner is John Long.  He grew up in St. Paul, graduated from Totino Grace HS (as a MN state XC champion), ran for the Badgers (boo!), but came back (yea!), and now lives 15 minutes southeast of the store...in Minnesota and has for years!  He has OWNED the store for 10+ years.  John purchased the store from Steve Hoag our founder and a former partner of the local chain of running stores Garry Bjorkland Sports (GBS)!  Our store, simply due to its heritage and maturity, has had the amazing opportunity to grow with and support the Minnesota running community since the '80's.

A few other details that will hopefully clarify the situation.
1.  First and foremost, we needed a new awning.  Our old black tattered awning had seen better days.  In fact, it never once sported our yellow winged logo that we have used for 10+ years.  And to top it all off, Steve Hoag's name was spelled wrong the entire time, but that is another story for another day.  Stop in and ask about it!

2.  We switched to blue because we wanted our store front to distinguish itself from our wonderful neighbors Broder's.  You may be surprised by the number of Fulton/Lynhurst residents who regularly drove by and never took notice of the 30+ year old running shoe store nestled between Broder's and the ally.  It appears that we should have updated our awning a long time ago!

3. Finally, we did take this opportunity to include our new franchise logo.  HOWEVER, we are the same store and same owner and you can see Marathon Sports Run/Walk written along the bottom. We had hoped that this would co-brand us, but we know it has caused confusion. So what is Fleet Feet Sports? Fleet Feet sports is a locally owned and operated franchise.  We are now part of a group of 150+ stores across the nation with 120+ owners.  However, each store is operated at the local level with a local owner and local decisions making power.  Just like we have ALWAYS been...So why join a franchise? We joined a franchise for the same reason we joined the IRRA (Independent Running Retail Association) years ago. We wanted and needed support. Owning a small business is amazing and scary all at once. We will take all the help and support we can get, so that we can continue to thrive in an ever changing retail environment.  We would love to explain this all to you further. Just stop in and grab any of our expert sales associates.  At the end of the day, we hope it will make us better.  And better in retail always refers to the customer's experience.

Thank you for checking us out.  We hope to see you in the store soon!  If you have any further questions, Please email our general manager Zachary @ zac@marathonrunwalk.com.  BTW, Zachary grew up in Red Wing, MN and has been our GM for the past 6 years, before, during, and after our joining the Fleet Feet Sports franchise.

Also, if you want to read even more information about our store, check out this excellent article by Mackenzie Lobby Havey.  Local writer and former employee of our store.