VÅGA Bricks & mortar series
10 Questions With
Accelerate
For the second instalment of our Bricks & Mortar series, we travelled over to Sheffield to check in with accelerate. in business since 2006, accelerate are far more than just a retailer having been at the forefront of sheffield’s running scene for nearly 20 years. dedicated to top service, accessibility and running knowledge, accelerate have created their own thriving running community through pioneering run nights and their elite racing team, team accelerate. the result, some 18 years later, is a majestic, old bank branch turned running store jam packed with expertise and the very best running kit - we’re proud to say VÅGA headwear made the cut.
who are you and how did you start Accelerate?
(Stuart) This is Debbie and I’m Stuart, hello! (Debbie) We started Accelerate back in 2006 and we basically started out of our living room, we went out to fell races with a marquee and sold out of the boot of our car. (Stuart) We kept stock in the cellar which was entertaining - we’ve all done it if you’ve set up your own business. It’s kind of like everything else, at the start we were trying to find opportunities at the same time as solving the problems that popped up as we went along. Social media was just coming to the fore (in 2006) and ecommerce was just starting to really rear its head and the future of retailing was starting to be heavily questioned, I guess even back then we were starting to see the high street stutter. (Ellis: So you fancied a challenge then?) (Debbie) We opened the shop in 2009 straight into a recession. We wanted to open a ‘shop’ but be more than a shop, we wanted to offer something for every runner didn’t we? (Stuart) We did and it was more than that, you ran and your experience was very much outdoors, you’d adventure raced, you’d mountain biked, climbed and me, I was a footballer that didn’t make it and found that, at 18, I just enjoyed running and I found I was ok at it - nowhere near the standard of Debbie but just loved it and fell into coaching. Whilst we were setting Accelerate up, Debbie was working with the Youth Sports Trust and part of what we were doing wasn’t just having the store, but how we could help others in the community. I think, as I look back, we were responsible for a number of firsts like a head torch run, something everyone now takes for granted. When we wanted to do the first one with Petzl, we didn’t have shoes with us, there were no shoes to try on, we just did head torches and we put on quite a few of the runs. Then the shoe brands approached asking whether we had any try on shoes. I think it was Saucony that said ‘yeah we can that’ and they came along with a big holdall of shoes and out of the back of the car in the middle of nowhere we had Petzl head torches, Saucony shoes and we went for a run. That’s one of the things we did and of course, we also wanted to set up with physio and podiatry as well as coaching, nutrition, psychology and nutrition which are all things we set up and still offer today.
Something we’ve always discussed is how do we tell people, without sounding big headed or arrogant, that the wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise and the things that we’ve done, the development of people and what we have seen here has been phenomenal? And yes, some people might disagree and want to do things a different way and that’s ok, but ultimately we’re trying to give back. That can sometimes come with the assumption that we’re rolling in it (financially) but people don’t actually realise that businesses like this actually have very little surplus and the accountant is happy if we’re just a little over breaking even. There’s hundreds of small businesses and retailers just like us.
Why did you start this?
(Debbie) We love it, we love meeting all of the customers and hearing their stories from people who have just started running to those more advanced. We’ve set up lots of community run groups and the team, Team Accelerate, so the whole thing is a community. We’ve got phenomenal staff… (Stuart) The team at the minute is incredible, they’re all giving back in their own way to the community, if you come into the store and meet Harry at 6”8, he runs - it’s not his first love, he’s a big lad, but he won’t tell you that he actually coaches youth football and the fact it’s football and not running doesn’t matter, it fits with our ethos and what’s wrong with that?
how would you describe your relationship with the people that come through your door?
(Debbie) I think service and expertise is what we do really well here, our staff are phenomenal at that, they’re well trained and you get that personal touch. Some people come in and they might not know the difference between a road shoe and a trail shoe and we can talk them through that or tackle more advanced questions, you can come in and get that service. It’s not just trying on the shoes, you can come in and feel the caps, feel the clothing and properly get an understanding of the difference between products like training and racing t-shirts. We can talk them through these differences but being able to feel them and try them alongside the expertise of our staff makes all the difference. (Stuart) People shouldn’t be afraid to go into a specialist retailer because if it really is a specialist business, the people working there will understand that the customers might not necessarily have the same amount of knowledge or experience as they do, but we have to remember that at some point in our lives, we were in that position too. The only way we’re going to learn is experience and asking questions. A classic experience for me was a customer from central London trying to return a pair of Mudclaws because they weren’t suitable for running on the canal, a Mudclaw is a fell shoe with big studs and very little cushioning and it made their feet hurt. If they’d gone into a running store, they would have been given much better advice and would have come away with a pair of shoes that were far more suitable for the environment they were running in. An experienced runner might be thinking, how did they get that so wrong? But, it’s just that lack of knowledge and experience, and that’s absolutely ok, but that’s a hard way to learn!
We might ask, well what expertise do we have? We have a podiatrist here that runs courses and could be called our ‘consultant’, we work with Sheffield United Football Club, we work with Team GB at the English Institute of Sport down the road. How does that translate in here? The people here are movement specialists, I’ve coached and worked for England Athletics, have worked for Sheffield United on movement when asked, so when people jump on the treadmill thinking they’re getting a gait analysis, they’re getting so much more. But, they’re probably not being told half of what they could be because it has to be kept relevant. Every member of staff here can see so much in how someone’s moving, it’s just deciding which bit of that information is useful for the customer at that time. So when people ask us if we do gait analysis - and some!
“People shouldn’t be afraid to go into a specialist retailer because, if it really is a specialist business, the people working there will understand that the customers might not necessarily have the same amount of knowledge or experience as they do. but, we have to remember that at some point in our lives, we were in that position too.”
What do you look for in a product when stocking your store?
(Debbie) It’s the quality of the product, the product has to work and we have to believe in it. We have to believe it works well, is good quality and lasts (and is therefore sustainable). We stock stuff that’s going to last, it’s not going to fall apart after 3 washes. We also look at the environmental aspect, we have a very strong environmental policy here, so we stock brands that fit that or brands that are striving towards it. You cannot make a pair of shoes that environmentally so they’ve got to be making steps towards it. We also want to work with brands that we can form a relationship with and that we can work together with. (Stuart) And are interested in us too, sometimes brands can seem a little false and we get a bit sick of that. If you’re a brand and what you want from us is a stepping stone to please your investors, then you should say so we know where we stand. If the independent retailers in the UK start to drop you as a brand, you’re suddenly not as specialist as you once were because I still believe, the independent running market in the UK still has so much knowledge and so much to offer that the brands should be tapping into that, not expecting us to tap into their version of success selling millions of pairs (of shoes etc.). It’s those brands reacting to what the customer wants rather than coming forward with new technology, new innovation, new ideas - that’s being driven out.
TELL US ABOUT SHEFFIELD AND YOUR RUNNING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PLACE?
(Debbie) Sheffield’s an amazing place because we’re right on the edge of the Peak District, I think a third of Sheffield is actually in the Peak District National Park, so a lot of people can run from their doorstep onto trails and even on the side of Sheffield we’re based here, there’s amazing parkland. We are one of the greenest cities in England so trail is pretty dominant. Most people do both, road run and trail run, because they find themselves dipping in and out of the parks or heading off into the Peak District.
Where the trail running is concerned, we do have everything. From beautiful woodlands and really nice trails to Kinder peat bogs, we’ve got it all. (Stuart) We’ve got some pretty gnarly stuff too!
How do your products relate back to this environment?
(Stuart) We look at the whole spectrum of what people are doing and using locally, so we know there’s a really strong, healthy fell running community and we cover this with our own Gritstone Series. I think Dark Peak Fell Runners might still be the biggest fell running club in the UK? But, every single club in the city, apart from the track focussed clubs, have a either a fell running section of the club or certainly have a healthy contingent of fell runners throughout their membership. It’s an area that’s thriving so we do need that totally off road shoe in stock, that’s where we started, then you need the shoe that’s aggressive trail with a big enough stud for trail and rock, then we go all the way through to the types of manicured trail you’re more likely to find in the lower terraces of Europe. So we cover it all. Then there are the customers who come looking for a shoe because they’re only running a few times per week for their health so they’re after a shoe that can do both, the hybrid cross shoe, then you’re into your road and track shoes and we’re going around in circles meeting the needs of every runner, we cover it all.
why does vÅGA work for accelerate?
(Debbie) I think it’s all the things we’ve said about brands, VÅGA want to work with independent brands and believe in that independent community. (Stuart) It’s your belief in the knowledge that the running bricks and mortar sector has, and trusting your stores enough to say ‘go in store and the people there can tell you all about the product, where they’re made, where they’re from and what the caps are designed to do - not just create a shade for your eyes’. (Debbie) Whether you’re running an ultra or going for a Park Run, it doesn’t matter, everyone can access the product and that’s great. That comes across from the company as well, the product is for everyone. (Stuart) I think that’s just as important, sometimes there’s too much buying into the elitism of things and we don’t need that. The VÅGA products are produced for people to use, it’s a good product, it works, it’s fit for purpose, you’re doing as little harm as possible to the environment or are striving towards that and you will only find it in the independent retail environment.
If you could give one message to our audience, what would it be?
(Stuart) Shop local. Remember the expertise is out there, go find it, go listen and go and experience it.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone looking to take on a new challenge?
(Debbie) Belief. Believe you can do it, that means a lot. (Stuart) Believe you can do it and have a plan. (Debbie) But you’ve got to have that belief first, you’ve got to stand on that start line and go for it.