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All our staff are carefully trained to fit customers out with the right footwear, give advice on anything from the best running watch to what you need to eat before a race, and most important of all, to listen to each individual and serve him/her to the best of their ability. We also have quite a high percentage of long term staff who have accumulated a lot of knowledge over the years. As to the running talents of our staff, we run the full gamut; we have Adrian in Edinburgh who is the proud owner of a GB vest, a very experienced and respected ultra runner, and then some very good, some moderate and some a little on the slow side runners, most of whom have done at least one marathon, and then we have Cherry Smith (wife of Tony who started the business) who is absolutely our best shoe fitter – there have been instances where a decent physios and podiatrists have sent clients in to see her saying ‘I’m not sure what’s wrong but Cherry will be able to tell you and get you the right footwear’ – and she’s never run a step!

When a customer comes to us for running shoes, the first thing we do is ask a few questions. Such as: how much running are they doing (or how much they intend to do), what shoes, if any, are being used at present and whether there are any injury problems. Then we put the customer in a pair of neutral running shoes and watch him/her run a few strides to see how the foot moves. We don’t use treadmills for this as we prefer to watch people on the surface they usually run on—the road—plus we get a more accurate idea of what support the foot needs; treadmills are sprung and tend to show a more neutral foot strike as the impact doesn’t have such a powerful effect on the body, plus people are generally more tense on a treadmill—trying to stay on it—and this also affects how the foot moves. For those who run mostly on treadmills rather than roads the shoes fitted out by our process will still be fine and correct. Watching the customer run gives us an idea as to which type of shoe is likely to be most suitable for the foot strike. Then we bring out as many pairs as necessary, watching the customer run in each of them, working together until we find a pair that works well and feels good.

In addition to shoe fitting, we also carry a very wide selection of clothing over 12 or so brands, everything from a budget priced tee shirt to the latest technical Goretex jacket, and our staff can help customers to find what they need and advise on the differences between makes. We also carry a stack of accessories; food and drink supplements, books, magazines, watches, heart rate monitors, speed distance monitors, rucksacks, water carriers, stretchy laces—the list goes on!