09/03/2026
Runaround now matches brand discounts.
All of them.
Healthcare discounts. Military and first responder discounts. Teacher discounts. Brand promotions. Online offers. If a brand we carry is offering you a legitimate discount directly, bring it to us. We’ll match it.
Will every brand love that policy? Maybe not.
It may even make us look like a “bad partner” to some of them.
But I think it’s worth talking about what partnership is supposed to mean.
For years, specialty running stores like ours have invested in these brands. We put their shoes on our walls. We train our staff on their products. We pay people to spend time with you, listen to you, measure you, watch you walk and run, and help determine which shoe actually makes sense for you.
We sponsor the races. We support the schools. We donate to the fundraisers. We show up in the community.
Then, increasingly, the same brands that call stores like ours “valuable partners” market directly to the customers in our own communities with discounts and promotions that encourage them to buy directly from the brand instead.
That doesn’t feel much like a partnership.
And I understand why customers use those discounts. I would too. If you’re a nurse, teacher, first responder, member of the military or anyone else who has earned a discount, you shouldn’t have to give that up just because you want to shop locally.
So we’re taking that decision off the table.
Get fit here. Get our service. Get our knowledge. Support the people who employ people in your community.
And get the same price.
If matching those discounts makes Runaround a bad brand partner, I’m willing to have that conversation.
But I also think our industry needs to be willing to have the other conversation:
What does it mean to call an independent retailer a “partner” while spending millions of dollars marketing around them and directly to their customers?
We love the brands we carry. We want them to succeed.
We just believe partnership should work both ways.
