W
hen new Fleet Feet CEO
Joey Pointer stepped up to
the stage of the franchisor's
summer meeting last week,
he said "I've been waiting
15 years for this."
Pointer joined Fleet Feet in 2004, so his
math was off by a little, but his sentiments
were not. Pointer considers himself a Fleet
Feet lifer who has visited 100+ stores, slept
on the couches of franchisees and who is now
in charge of the country's largest group of run
specialty stores. Fleet Feet now has 165 stores
in 38 states, including 35 corporately-owned
locations.
Pointer took over as interim CEO when Jeff
Phillips left earlier this year and Pointer had
the "interim" removed about a month ago. That
move has been well received by Fleet Feet store
owners and major brand executives, who credit
Pointer for being open minded to new ideas
and empowering his team in North Carolina.
"When I joined the business, we had maybe
five employees," recalled Pointer. "Our bigger
stores all had more employees than we did. And
as CFO, I could do my job in about 15 hours
a week." So, Pointer began visiting stores and
building relationships with franchisees which is
proving to be a big help to him in his new role.
"Retail in general is facing some real
FLEET FEET'S NEW CEO
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
A CONVERSATION WITH JOEY POINTER
"We're
excited
about the
future."
Photo:
https://www.fleetfeetsports.com/corporate/team/joey-pointer