Calgary’s Strides Running is making big strides in the community

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Strides Running Store has been a mainstay of the Calgary running community for nearly two decades, and they’re only getting bigger. With an emphasis on community—in addition to helping new and veteran runners find the perfect shoe for their training and racing style—the store has been able to expand to two locations in Calgary, plus a nearby franchise in Canmore.

“Strides first started 19 years ago, right in the Marda Loop area in Calgary,” says store manager Ethan Strangway. “It was just this little run shop in a small purple house in a unique neighbourhood, just outside of the downtown core. The founder, Jeremy Deere, had been running his entire life. He was quite competitive years ago, and that bridged into opening this business. And over the years, we’ve just slowly grown more and more in the community.”

The newest addition (the Fish Creek store) is still in the process of moving into its final location. And the most impressive part of Strides’ story is that, when they posted on social about the move, they were greeted not just with excitement from their customers, but they were inundated with offers to help with the move. That’s something you see for a non-profit, a charity, maybe a tiny mom-and-pop shop. But runners willing to shift their training plans to make time to carry boxes? Unheard of!

That speaks to the community of it all: “We’re always looking for any ways we can give back, and really grow just the sport of running overall in our community,” Strangway says. “Everyone who comes to work for Strides has a home here, and I think that’s reflected in the people we serve, as well.”

To that end, every week, the store hosts several separate run groups. “In Calgary, we have one on Wednesday mornings and evenings at our Fish Creek store, and one out of our Marda Loop store Wednesday evenings, and then on Saturdays, each run club has a run.” The demographics shift—some runs are more beginner-friendly, others are for speedsters, but as Strangway says, there’s something for everyone.

“Wednesday night is my favourite,” he says. “It’s quite beginner-friendly, but it’s a structured workout, which is cool, because there aren’t many workouts like that, that attract such a wide-ranging group. And it’s great, because no matter what pace you’re running at, you’re in the same vicinity as other runners, and after, everyone goes for drinks at a local brewery.”

Community is Strangway’s primary focus, and he takes it seriously. “From run clubs to supporting our local high school and junior high cross-country and track-and-field teams, I love that we’re able to be involved in so many ways.”

And there is always some kind of special event. “Strides was one of the first running communities in western Canada to create a December-themed running calendar,” Strangway says. “And we’ve been doing it for 15 years. The idea is that you run or move a minimum of a mile every day for the month of December. We use that as an opportunity to fundraise for the Calgary food bank, and collect things like winter clothing for people in need. We typically will create some fun events throughout the week to keep people engaged, and we’ve only ever cancelled like one event in the last 15 years, because it was minus 40 outside. Normally, our runs go on no matter the weather.”

But it’s not just run clubs and social hangouts: Strides also prides itself in technical expertise and helping runners find exactly the right gear for them. “A big part of Strides’ DNA is that community aspect paired with actual quality service,” says Strangway. “Bridging those things together is super important to us. We bring in a lot of experts to work at the store, people who really understand biometrics and shoe specifics, to help people figure out what they really need, depending on what they’re training for. And our staff does it all, so finding the right shoe for someone becomes a collaborative process where, if someone is focusing more on road running, we have someone who can speak to that, but if they’re training for a 200K ultra-trail run, we have someone for that, as well.”