Run Venture Community
We are not just a running shop. We are a community.
Our hub has become a focal point in the local area for all things running, from getting advise on running shoes, to coming in for a chat over a training programme while scoffing cake washed down with coffee.
Its your running hub. Design based on what you all asked for indirectly. It’s what a running shop should look like.
A store with running groups and challenges. Workshops and shoe testing. Running library and injury advise.
Since an idea formulated back in 2011, the shop took form in the back of a van, then progressed onto a market stall. It settled in a wooden shed on the fringes of a forest before finally coming to rest on the streets of Tavistock where it survives today.....
The store fights against the big corporations and the impersonal tinterweb and competes instead on professional expert knowledge andcustomer service.
For many it is their sanctuary, a place where they can be unashamedly a runner. It’s a place where they can get excited about a new shoe.
It is my belief that the running community needs this store, or become dependant on the faceless lottery of purchasing shoes online in the hope that they are right.
However, the future is uncertain.
Failing global economic conditions and circumstances caused by a worldwide virus have pulled the rug from under what was a sound business plan, and plunged the future of the store into balance. It’s a bit like running a marathon and getting to 20 miles then losing a shoe ,or tearing a calf muscle.
We want to get through this and although government has pledged to lend money and offer means tested grants, there is as yet no clear direction when this will come. Shops have rents and bills to pay now. Many have closed their doors maybe for the last time as to keep trading is too expensive.
We have negotiated a reduced rent for the next month but from there on we are in unknown territory. This crisis could continue for many months yet and beyond.
We know this isn’t life and death and many people will suffer as a result of this virus. Yet many more will suffer indirectly as a result of loss of their livelihood.
We would humbly like to ask for one pound (£1) per person/customer as a donation to help us pay next months rent (April 20).
In return we pledge to write your name on a dedicated wall in the store under the modest title:
#myrunningcommunity
You all have done so much to date in supporting us and I want to return this by keeping our running hub open for you.
Mind How You Run
Col
