Last fall, Garrett Sage took over the reins of iRun, the three-store, San Antonio-based running store chain founded by Mitch and Michele Allen in 2009. For Sage, who spent nearly six years leading Fleet Feet San Antonio before moving to district manager and director of retail operations posts in Fleet Feet’s corporate enterprise, plunging into independent ownership represented a different turn in the industry and one that’s produced its share of ups and downs over the last year.
Sage took time from a whirlwind schedule to sit with Running Insight senior writer Danny Smith and discuss his rookie year shepherding iRun.
After working for Amazon for handful of years out of college, I realized I wanted to have my own business. I looked at different opportunities, including franchising with Fleet Feet, but we could never find real estate we felt good about. As I worked my way through different opportunities at Fleet Feet, I kept coming back to the thought of owning my own business. I actually got far down the process of buying a business outside of the running industry, but knew I’d regret not asking Mitch and Michele about their plans. Mitch always joked he was ready to retire anyway, so I called him one day and asked him what he was thinking. It proved to be great timing because he was actively exploring a sale and retirement.
Did you have any reservations about buying an existing business rather than starting an entirely new running store?
I knew Mitch and Michele were running a good, disciplined business with strong store managers and a sound fit process. They were well respected in the industry, had been named a Best Running Store multiple times, enjoyed good relationships with vendors and had created a loyal following in San Antonio. Those were all pluses. Personally, I didn’t want to start from scratch, even if I knew it was going to take some time to mold an existing business into something in my vision.
How would you describe your first year in charge?
I’ll admit there were times I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Because of the growth in San Antonio, there’s a lot of construction going on and major intersections near two of our stores were closed. The first two to three months, our sales were down, including a 20 percent drop one month. It was scary, especially since I was new and still learning how to navigate expenses. Since then, though, it’s all rebounded and we’re seeing healthy gains.
I also took over the racing business, which I didn’t expect. Mitch initially retained that thinking he’d keep doing it. After the sale of the stores, though, he realized he wanted to retire for good and that the businesses were best together. I bought the racing business retroactively in January and it’s been wild to get up to speed on a business that’s aligned with retail yet very different operationally.
To your earlier point, how have you tried to put your own spin on the business since taking over?
I was lucky to walk into a well-operated business and there were some things, like the fitting process, I didn’t need to touch. I did see some opportunities to scale the business on the retail side, though, and strengthen what we were already doing. The business had no one dedicated to marketing, but I now have two people focused on marketing, one on the digital side and another on the grassroots level. I’ve also tried to freshen things up on the product side, where we’ve added brands like Diadora, Nike, ciele and Maurten.
It was much the same on the race side, where I’ve spent most of my time focused on marketing, sponsorships and adding elements that will be exciting for participants and help us draw a younger participant base, like making the finish line more fun and dynamic.
Beyond that, we’re opening a fourth location closer to downtown San Antonio and remodeling our Dominion store. We’re pushing the pedal down and forging ahead.
