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.
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