Fleet Feet Syracuse announces new training-program platform

DeWITT — The local franchise of Fleet Feet Sports recently announced a new training-program platform that offers fitness classes and workouts for anyone at any time. 

The new platform will provide “more options, more flexibility, more classes and more convenience,” the company says. 

It’s a program Fleet Feet Syracuse is calling Running Plus, says Edward (Ed) Griffin, co-owner of Fleet Feet Syracuse.

Fleet Feet Syracuse operates locations at 5800 Bridge St. in DeWitt and at 4136 Route 31 in Clay in the Market Fair North Plaza, across from the Great Northern Mall.

Griffin spoke with the Business Journal News Network at the DeWitt store on Nov. 20.

Rather than just offering specific programs that meet the same day each week for a 10-week or 12-week period, Fleet Feet Syracuse will now offer membership options that allow participants access to a calendar of training classes.

“Any of the people that are signed up for the program … can participate in multiple programs per day any day of the week they want,” says Griffin.

They include long and short-group runs, spin and functional-fitness classes, open swim sessions and yoga, along with educational seminars and clinics. 

Griffin describes functional fitness as “building up the different muscle groups that you don’t hit when you’re … running.”  

“It’s really an unlimited access to creating your own schedule when it fits your schedule,” he adds.

Fleet Feet Syracuse developed the new training-program platform based on feedback from its customers who wanted more flexibility to get involved in sessions.

“If you only hold a program specifically once a week and it doesn’t fit into someone’s schedule, then now you’ve eliminated them from potentially being in your program,” he explains.

Fleet Feet Syracuse is giving customers the option to try three sessions free-of-charge. Beyond that, the company offers monthly, quarterly, and annual membership options with different payment plans.

The membership prices range from $549 for an annual membership to $169 for a three-month membership to $69 for a one-month membership, according to the Fleet Feet Syracuse website.

“It essentially is priced to be somewhat below what an average gym membership would be,” says Griffin.

Besides the new Running Plus training program, Fleet Feet Syracuse will continue offering its running program for beginners, a 10-week program that it offers three seasons per year.  It will also continue offering its triathlon program.

“So those two programs still stay intact,” he says. 

Clay store operations
The 5,000-square-foot Fleet Feet location in Clay has operated for more than a year. The franchise deemed it “the top grossing first year store in the history of Fleet Feet Sports, Inc.”

Fleet Feet Syracuse opened the Clay location on Nov. 1, 2013, and in its first year of operation, the location generated revenue between $1.4 million and $1.6 million, says Griffin.

Griffin, and his wife, Ellen, had planned for the Clay store to generate about 20 percent of the local franchise’s business, but the store’s performance is exceeding their revenue expectations.

“It’s been more in that 25 [percent] to 28 percent range,” says Griffin. 

Fleet Feet Syracuse has 52 employees in a mix of full-time and part-time roles, he adds.

Fleet Feet, Inc. is a national 129-store chain that Sally Edwards and Elizabeth Jansen opened in Sacramento, Calif. in 1976. The company is now headquartered in Carrboro, N.C., according to a company description on the website of Entrepreneur magazine.            

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com