Toronto’s Culture Athletics blends running with yoga and fitness in a way that works

Local, independent running stores are the backbone of Canada’s running community. From product knowledge to community involvement, our local run shops shape running culture across the country. Together, ASICS Canada and Canadian Running are going from coast to coast, exploring Canada’s top running shops and bringing you along for the ride.

Culture Athletics is the kind of run shop where, when you walk in the door, you instantly want to touch everything—and then buy it. That’s thanks to the minds of co-owners Sarah Deas and Nigel Fick, who opened the original Culture Athletics store just months after they started dating. Fast-forward a few years, and the store is thriving, as is their family. The shop has become a community hub for all different runners, from aspiring Olympians who love joining in for fun group runs to new runners who are taking on their first 5K or marathon.

How did they do it? It hasn’t always been easy, but Deas and Fick’s skill sets seem to complement each other perfectly, and the result isn’t just a blend of running (Fick’s primary area of expertise) and yoga (Deas’ arena). It’s a shop that invites you to be part of the sport—and, frankly, reminds you that you can look as good as you feel.

It’s hard to get Deas and Fick to talk about themselves. “Neither of us are the type of people that want to put our face on the brand,” Deas says, looking a little embarrassed at being on camera, let alone being asked to talk about herself. “If you look at our marketing, like it’s never either of us just promoting ourselves. It’s not really who we are, and it’s not what the store is about.”

However, they’re happy to chat with me for one key reason: in addition to being proud of what they’ve built together, they’re both just a little tired of Deas getting almost no credit for the work she’s put in, often behind the scenes. “From a female business owner perspective, it does hit a point where things feel frustrating. You put a ton of work into something and then there’s zero acknowledgment,” she says. “Or a new brand ambassador or brand rep comes in the store, and then they shake hands with the first male associate that they see, and they walk past the women on staff.”

While there isn’t much data available, estimates suggest that only 15 per cent of run stores are women-owned. Many of the women-owned shops cater exclusively to women runners, but Culture is open to all.

The origin story is a fairy tale. “A lot happened in 2018,” Deas recalls. “Nigel and I met, started dating, and moved in together several months, before opening Culture together. I had just graduated from studying nutrition, and I was working as a personal trainer, looking to just immerse myself in the health and wellness community. Nigel had already put a business plan together for Culture, and was looking to quit his nine-to-five job and open up a small business.” (Fick calls this his pre-midlife crisis.)

“So the collaboration just kind of made sense, and we opened up the original Culture location in Leslieville,” Deas continues. “Our first location was a little bit more east than where we are now, slightly smaller location, and we had not just the retail side of things, but we also had a yoga studio. So it was kind of like two businesses in one, but still the same values of promoting health and wellness community and selling footwear, apparel and accessories for running, yoga and fitness.”

And it worked—Fick’s love of skateboarding and mountain biking culture translated into a running store that had a different vibe than the other shops that were out there. He wanted to create a business he loved, in an area that he had come to realize could be his ultimate paradise if he built it: Toronto.

“We immediately put community at the centre of what we do, because that was really the reason why we wanted the store in the first place,” Fick adds. “Bit by bit, I think that we really focused on creating authentic communication and growing an understanding of our customers, while representing ourselves authentically. We wanted to know our community and understand their desires, and figure out how we could play a role in their lives. That’s not just about stuff that might look good. It’s about stuff that really will work. We’re not here to capitalize on other people’s interests, and I feel like we were a bit of an outlier in some ways, because of that. But we worked hard to push the expectation of what the retailer can do for this community–on what retail can represent in the Toronto running community, specifically.”

The aesthetics of Culture Athletics stand out–lots of wooden display racks, very minimal and clean, and that hint of industrial zen that makes a shop just seem cool. Part of that is Fick’s aesthetic choices from his skateboarding days, part is just practicality. “In our first store, there was definitely an edge that we had that wasn’t really present with other stores that we had seen,” Deas says. “The tables and display areas in the store were made from old high school gym flooring, for instance. We just kind of did what we wanted to do, and I feel like that allowed us to really connect with the community in a different way, incorporating many different aspects of fitness, rather than just focusing on running. Over time, we’ve grown based on what the community wants, and running has become a lot more of our business, but there is still the other side to it, which is fitness, health and wellness and yoga.”

Everything was working great–until it didn’t. 2020 hit everyone hard, especially gyms and yoga studios, and Culture was no exception. Not only did their studio need to close because of the pandemic, their first daughter was born. “Ultimately, we decided to put the studio on pause and focus on the retail side of things,” Deas recalls. “A lot of people were turning to running at that time as a form of fitness to help with mental health, and because it was the most accessible things you could do. So we pivoted, but we never wanted to lose the yoga side, and continued to foster that community and shopper by still providing yoga products and accessories and continuing to do yoga events even as we shuttered the studio and moved to our current location.”

Deas still handles the yoga side of things and also runs the finances and managerial aspects of the business, while Fick focuses on marketing and running merchandise decisions. “There are two sides of the business,” she says. “One is running the actual business and doing the operations; the other side is managing the marketing and community aspect.” (They both bemoan the fact that it’s often assumed that women owners or co-owners are focused on the “soft” side of the business, when, in fact, Deas is the numbers person.)

It’s not always easy working with your life partner, but for these two, it’s almost always fun. “Right from the beginning, we knew we had such a great partnership, and we knew we were such a good team together,” Deas says. “There was never any question about us continuing to move in parallel, whether it’s our personal life or our business. We joke now about how our dates are usually something work related, but ultimately, it’s always worked. We’re very fortunate in that.”

They do maintain some firm boundaries, though. For all the working date nights, they both have a hard and fast rule to prioritize self-care. “We always ask, ‘Are you still able to take care of yourself? Are you still making enough time for yourself, for your fitness, for your health?'” says Deas. “Maintain that and everything else works.”

“We’re not just running a business, but really fostering a community that has the same beliefs and passions that we do. We are so unbelievably proud of the community that we have been able to bring together, the diverse types of people that we have here to run with us,” Deas adds. “Everybody gets along, and everybody’s lifting each other and supporting each other.”

“We’re super excited to continue to be a member of this awesome community,” Fick adds.