BENTONVILLE — A local business is in the running for a national award.
Rush Running Co. has been named one of four fi nalists for an award given annually to the best running shop in America. The winner will be revealed Thursday at an industry trade show in Austin, Texas.
Competitor magazine and Running Insight magazine work together each year to identify the 50 best shops before narrowing the field to four finalists for the top honor.
The process starts with runners nominating their favorites online. Those stores then evaluated by sending mystery shoppers to assess customer service, obtaining credit ratings from vendors and inquiring about each store’s local programs and commitment to community, according to Competitor.com.
This year’s finalists are featured in a spread in the current issue of Competitor.
“It’s huge,” said Drew Conner, Rush Running’s general manager, about the honor. “We’re really pumped about it.”
Husband and wife Mike and Alison Rush opened Rush Running on South Walton Boulevard in March 2008. They opened a smaller store in Fayetteville in October 2011. Both Rushes ran track for the University of Arkansas.
More than 25,000 people submitted nominations for this year’s top running store, according to Mark Sullivan, president of Formula4 Media, which publishes Running Insight. About 16,000 submitted nominations last year.
Mystery shoppers visited about 140 of the stores and rated their experiences on everything from how they were greeted to the quality of the bag they received for their purchases.
“We spend money in the stores,” Sullivan said. “Everyone buys a pair of shoes during the evaluation process.”
Rush Running’s mystery shopping evaluation was “extraordinary,” Sullivan said. Its record of community involvement was excellent as well.
“It’s a relatively young store,” Sullivan said. “To put down those kinds of roots in the community in such a short period of time, that’s out of the ordinary.”
Rush Running uses a gait analysis procedure to help customers find the best shoes for them. That involves getting customers on a treadmill and breaking down the biomechanics of their gait through a high-speed camera and big-screen television.
Many running stores are moving away from that kind of service, Conner said.
Brian Metzler, editor-inchief of Competitor magazine, said it’s no longer just the serious runners who are going to running stores. More people are getting into the sport for the fun of it, which has changed the market.
“Running has really changed, and Mike and Alison (Rush) have been able to adapt to that,” Metzler said.
Brian Lamb, 46, of Rogers was hanging out at Rush Running in Bentonville on Friday. Lamb said he’s bought about six pairs of shoes from the store during the past few years.
“They’re really knowledgeable. Any question you have about walking or running, they’ll help you out,” Lamb said.
In recent years, Lamb has been walking on a regular basis for exercise. He walked a half-marathon earlier this year. He said he’s dropped 105 pounds within the last three years.
He’s signed up with a group the store has organized to train for the next Bentonville half-marathon. He hopes to run it this time.
“I get a lot of encouragement from the group and the store, and the runners I’ve met through the store,” he said.