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May 2021 • 39 sportstylemag.com • sportstyle The Trails Collective site offers race coverage, gear reviews and e-commerce. Races are continuing for Lincoln Running Co., albeit with limits and precautions in place. has him excited. "Event registrations are looking really strong: people understand that they're outside, that the group sizes are lim- ited," he said. Bozeman Running hasn't added in-store events back into the mix yet, he said, and some things, like a popular Brew Run series that used to see 300-plus participants running to a local brewery, have been pushed back to May when the post-run drinks can be hosted in the outdoor beer garden. "Last year introduced a lot of people to the great outdoors and running, and we're excited to continue to capture that market as they still get out and stay active," he said. "But the big thing those people are looking for is that they want to meet their running community. So, let's give them that next step. You got out the door, so let's really show you what this running community is and get you involved." Investing in the Collective Finger Lakes Running Co Ithaca, NY In the early days of the pandemic, Finger Lakes Running Co. owner Ian Golden launched a new online trail run- ning initiative, one he'd been planning since 2018. The Trails Collective, which went live in March 2020, was designed to bring together race information, gear reviews, event coverage and the store's e-commerce operation. "To highlight regional races or trail work — you can't do that at a national scale at effectiveness," Golden said. Media coverage of trail races, he said, was lacking at the local level, and he saw an opportunity for a site that could channel trail fans into local stores in the Northeast, benefit local races (including ones put on by Golden's own events company) as well as earn supporters' business via the e-commerce site. And he's bullish about the site's potential: Trail events in New York state were allowed to run during the past year with certain participation caps and residency restrictions, and as he's been planning for this summer's events, he's seeing long waiting lists for events that he attributes to the "bottled-up demand." Despite the pandemic restrictions, sales at Finger Lakes Running Co. were up 14 percent last year (and an additional 1 percent up from e-com- merce) driven by former gym-goers and other shoppers looking for ways to stay healthy and get into the outdoors. And the opportunity to grow the Trails Collective (possibly even outside the local area into other regions), he said, is one that could be important this year. "Our hope is to give [the site] more exposure and tie together the regional trail community," he said. Taking Care of What Matters Lincoln Running Co Lincoln, NE The staff at Lincoln Running Co. in Lincoln, NE, may have spent the last year open, but store manager Ann Ringlein said doing business through the pan- demic has given her a new perspective on how she does business. Some things haven't — and won't — be changing. The store's events and training groups are continuing, albeit with permits from the health department, spacing, limits and careful consideration of safety features. "We're slowly and carefully moving ahead," she said. And Ringlein said that, driven by her young employees, the shop has seen a shift in what kinds and brands of shoes are moving. "I have some really great employees who are not afraid to bring out other shoes and really articulate and get across to customers what the shoe is," she said. "And I listen to them." Ringlein said the store has been doing "amazing" things with Hoka One One and that Saucony's Endorphin series had "blown out." Other hits have included Under Armour's Flow franchise and fresher Asics models like the Glideride and Dynablast. But mostly, she said, she's going forward with a new sense of what her store's role is in the community. "We've learned what we don't need: We don't need to be in everybody's face all the time about 'this is what we're doing,'" she said. After taking a step back from store outreach that centered the shop and its services, and even from the amenities and extras at races and training groups that pandemic restrictions made impossible, Ringlein said she and her customers are doing fine without them. "We have to take care of each other this year. People just really take a sigh of relief when people are nice to them. I think that's what it's about," she said. "It's not about us — it's about what we can do for you and how we can help you." n

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