Updated: September 30, 2022
Fleet Feet Sports Boulder, a sporting goods store specializing in running shoes and gear, is set to close later this month.
The closure of the Broadway shop was announced on the store’s Facebook book page and in an email to customers.
Lee Troop — local running coach, three-time Olympian, event organizer, and owner of Boulder’s Fleet Feet franchise location — declined to comment on the circumstances of the closure, citing advice from legal counsel.
“While I’m not permitted to discuss details nor convey how I truly feel with events that have transpired, I will focus on the good,” Troop, who has owned the shop for nearly three years, wrote in an email to customers.
Fleet Feet, founded in 1976 in Sacramento, has about 175 franchise locations throughout the country. On Monday, the Boulder shop — Fleet Feet’s lone Colorado franchise — was not included on the company website’s location list.
“Any time we close a store is it not a decision that anyone takes lightly, as it impacts employees, brand partners, community partners, and the local running community,” Fleet Feet CEO Joey Pointer said in an statement issued by a company representative. “… We have no immediate plans to open or reopen any locations in the Boulder region.”
While he did not comment on the closure — tentatively set for June 17 — Troop was effusive in his praise for Fleet Feet’s staff, customers and the Boulder running community.
“Things that we got accomplished we certainly couldn’t have done on our own, he said. “It takes the whole community and I’m just really thankful to be part of it.”
In his email to customers, Troop wrote, “I have met so many amazing people in this community and developed some long lasting friendships as a result. I have never taken for granted how lucky I have been in this industry, you are the biggest thing that I am going to miss.”
Troop, who organizes Boulder Running Series events such as the West End 3K and the Pearl Street Mile, said the Fleet Feet closure will not impact those events.
“I think the fear is that all of these things are going to disappear,” Troop said of his running events and coaching efforts. “But those are completely separate and will go on as planned.”
Lee Troop left gives instructions to runners at the Avery Brewing Company Monday Night Fun Run. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)