The Last 6 Months: An Update from Owner Alan Rice

“It’s been a crazy six months,” says Alan Rice, Co-owner of Fleet Feet Sports PDX. He is referring to his first six months at the helm of two running stores here in the Portland metro area. Back in November, Rice and his wife, Co-owner Susan Zepernick, purchased the two stores formerly known as Fit Right. Speaking of the purchase, Rice recalls of the serendipity of the occasion. “We had owned a successful running store in Northern California for almost 10 years and had spoken a number of times about our exit strategy. We were approached by two of our team who had been wondering about ownership themselves. Long story short, we were able to sell the store to them and leave knowing that our legacy was in the best of hands.”

So, what prompted the move to Portland and jumping back into the specialty running business? Rice is originally from London and was ready for a move back to city living and so was Zepernick, having lived in San Jose, California for much of her life. “We spent quite some time in Portland and just fell in love with the city, but never really thought we’d be back in the running business so soon,” commented Rice. During their transition to Portland, they became aware that the then-owner of Fit Right was looking for a move out of the business. Soon after their move to the Rose City was finalized, so was the purchase of the Fit Right stores. “I was retired for six weeks. It was awesome,” joked Rice.

So what does he think now of his move? “I am always amazed by the level of participation here. Rain or shine, everywhere you look people are outside running, hiking, and biking. In our previous location we had to build a running community pretty much from scratch. Here it already exists in a hundred different ways. We would love to help build it even further, but really we just want to support the community in the best way we can.” We were interested to find out Rice’s views on the transition process and how it feels to take over a long-time Portland area institution. “The transition of our Vancouver store has been seamless and the response from the community has been absolutely fantastic. There was a feeling that the store there had been under-inventoried and under-capitalized. We have hired new people and put a lot more dollars into inventory and infrastructure, and the results have been great. The transition of our Northwest Portland store has hit a few bumps along the way, but we are now on track.”  Bumps? What bumps?

“Initially there was some backlash saying Fit Right had sold out and that the stores were now somehow corporate. The fact is that, one, we rescued two stores that would probably have disappeared from the local community and, two, we are still locally-owned and operated. I live only a mile from the store! Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting that kind of reaction, but the good news is that it seems to have faded away as we go about the business of doing what we do best. Just like Fit Right was, Fleet Feet Sports is all about fit, service, and supporting our local community. That will never change.”

Any new things happening that you would like to reveal?

“Always. They say in retail that if you stand still you get run over. We are working hard to change the look inside the Northwest store, with new displays, new changing rooms, and a more up-to-date environment. We have a bunch of new events and training programs starting up. We are constantly looking at new products and testing them out. It is an exciting time to be in the running business, and we are in the most exciting city of all.”