Running Insight

JUNE 15, 2017

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T hat was one aggressive pivot. In July 2013, the husband and wife team of Paul and Renee Rakitin opened The Running Shop in Morgan Hill, CA, a 40,000-resident bedroom community on the southern tip of Silicon Valley. Three years later, the couple swapped their 750- square foot storefront with manageable rent for a 3,000-square foot space in a historic Morgan Hill building. Along with the move into a space four times larger than their first unit, the Rakitins added something unique to their business: a 54-tap bar. The Running Shop and Hops opened for business last August. "Running specialty is a different environment today and you have to evolve," Paul says. "More and more, you see businesses progressing into adding things that flow together and we thought it would be a natural fit to combine two things many people are passionate about – running and craft beer – to make our store a social hub." While the running store-taproom concept isn't an entirely new idea, the way the Rakitins went about it spotlights the daring thinking many contend is increasingly necessary in the stagnant run specialty channel. In 2014, Shoes & Brews opened in Longmont, CO, capturing headlines for its novel blend of running retail and craft beer. Paul and Renee Rakitin take a bold entrepreneurial step with The Running Shop and Hops. The Running Shop and Hops taproom. 2 runninginsight.com © 2017 Formula4media LLC. RUNNING INSIGHT ® is a registered trademark of Formula4Media, LLC. © 2017 all rights reserved. Running Insight is published twice each month, is edited for owners and top executives at running specialty stores and available only via email.The opinions by authors and contributors to Running Insight are not necessarily those of the editors or publishers. Articles appearing in Running Insight may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. Formula4Media, LLC, P.O. Box 23-1318, Great Neck, NY 11023. Tel: 516-305-4709. Jeff Nott ...................................jnott@formula4media.com Jeff Gruenhut .................. jgruenhut@formula4media.com Christina Henderson .... chenderson@formula4media.com Katie O'Donohue .........kodonohue@formula4media.com Sam Selvaggio.............. sselvaggio@formula4media.com Daemon Filson .....................dfilson@formula4media.com Editor-in-Chief ........ Mark Sullivan: msullivan@formula4media.com Managing Editor ............ Cara Griffin: cgriffin@formula4media.com Publisher .....................Troy Leonard: tleonard@formula4media.com SUBSCRIBE store.formula4media.com BACK ISSUES runninginsight.com Advertise Shifting Gears By Daniel P. Smith

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