Empathy Respect Patience Cleanliness Pride

40 Hour Buildup Training Process and Phases

Phase 1: Store Operations Basics, Start Learning Shoes & Fitting

Process, Have New Hire Get Fitted Themselves

1.1 Store Operations Basics

- Greeting, what does that look like
- Retail Floor 101: body language (no crossed arms, direct eye contact, spatial
awareness, smiling) kinetic energy on the sales floor, no eating/drinking, no
phones, limited personal conversations, etc.
- Conversation starters, what’s appropriate, what’s not
- Use personal experience and make human connections where possible.
- Keep in mind that a running store can be an intimidating place for a new
runner / someone who doesn’t consider themself a “real runner”. Make
them feel welcome
- Important to remember that much of our customer base isn’t comprised
of runners, but rather people who are looking for a comfortable shoe for
working, walking, etc.
- Enthusiasm
- No customer wants to be talked to in a dull voice, not only do we owe it
to our customers to provide excellent customer service, but we owe it to
them to show them that we’re invested in their fitting and we care about

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 what we have to say. In simple terms, make them feel like they matter.
Treat every customer like they’re your friend and you’re helping them find
shoes.

Vocabulary

- Stability Shoes
- These shoes include additional support in the arch of the shoe
(such as a medial post, or in Brooks’ case, Guide Rails) to reduce
pronation of the foot during the loading phase. Adding arch
support will reduce pressure being put on the arch and/or knee
and can help individuals move in a more efficient (and healthy!) gait
pattern.

- Neutral Shoes
- These shoes will lack the additional support built in to the arch,
and are built for people who supinate, or who naturally run in
neutral

- Last - the mold that the shoe was built around. Matching the shape of the
customer’s foot with footwear is a great place to start. Straighter/flatter
feet will generally fit better in shoes built with a similar last. Straight-last
shoes include brands like Saucony, Hoka. More curved last models will
tend to come from Nike, Mizuno, and Asics. Most cushioned/neutral
running shoes are semi-curve lasted. Straight-last shoes are much less
common and found almost exclusively in stability shoes.

- Stack Height - literal height of the midsole material off the ground. More
cushion can help reduce the feeling of impact and can increase shock
absorption. But, be aware of how it may limit the body's natural
proprioception (i.e. body’s ability to react to feeling the ground) and so
more cushion may actually inhibit the foot’s natural landing pattern. All
this to say, a little extra cushion can be really helpful for some, but it’s not
the all-great injury reducer that some think it is.

- Drop/Offset/Heel-toe Drop
- A measure of the height of the heel of the shoe to the forefoot

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 - Companies change drop to make it easier for runners to center
their weight on the middle part of the foot, enabling them to
disperse pressure more evenly through the foot
- Also can reduce stress on the achilles
- Shoe Weight
- Running shoes are getting lighter and lighter which is good news
for us women. The given shoe weights are usually for one shoe
and often they will say the size of the shoe that the weight relates
to.
- Upper
- This is the fabric, usually mesh, that covers the top and sides of
the shoe from toe to heel. Some uppers are more waterproof than
others and some are for hot or cold weather running.
- Heel Counter
- This is the reinforcement around the heel to help lock your heel in
place. It can be on the outside or inside of the shoe.
- Heel Crash Pad
- The part of the shoe under the heel that is padded to provide a
crash landing for your heel. You can also find a crash pad on the
toe area as well.
- Sole
- This is the bottom part of the shoe and in running shoes it is
divided into 3 parts:
- Outsole:
- The outermost layer of the sole, i.e. the bit that touches the
ground. Its relief comes in varying "patterns" for traction and
grip.
- Midsole:
- The middle part of the sole that is sandwiched between the
outsole and the mesh. It provides the padding and
cushioning of the shoe.
- Insole:
- The thin and usually removable liner that sits in the bottom
of the shoe. Some are shaped to support the different foot
arch types.
- Sockliner

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 - The padding around the inside of the heel and interior parts of the
shoe. It's usually made of foam and fabric.
- Toe Box
- The part of the shoe where your toes sit.

- Tongue
- The padded strip that sits on the top of your foot just under the
laces.
- Medial Post
- You'll find this in running shoes that offer stability for feet that
overpronate. It is found in the midsole but is a harder density than
the normal midsole material. It is usually a different color than the
rest of the sole and sits under the arch.

Down Time
- How to keep busy when the store is slow
- New trainees will likely be coming in at off hours for their first couple of
shifts, so it makes sense to hit this out of the gate
- Where cleaning supplies are located and the expectation of cleanliness in the
store(s)

1.2 Start Training Fitting Process

- Curex Foot Disk

- Simple first test to get a general shape of the foot
- Shows us more about arch profiles
- Turning over shoes and showing the customers different types of
shoes is essential. The Beast/Ariel and Adrenaline or the New
Balance 840 and 880 are great examples of how different brands
have similar shoes for different shaped feet.
- Walking Test
- Why do we do this? To assess the foot’s natural motion when landing
- Over-pronation - rolling in, arch collapsing inwards/flattening out
- Neutral - arch stays formed, may come in ever so slightly, but
generally stays very straight while running

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 - Supination/Under-pronation - landing on the outer edge of the
foot, little to no internal rotation present
- Single Squat Test
- Have customer stand on one leg, bend down into a shallow squat
- Assess any motion in foot
- If there is collapsing in the arch, indicates some degree of
flexibility in the arch. If it turns inward, it may be OK to stay
neutral, if it completely flattens out, a stability shoe is likely
needed.
- Assess any motion in knee
- Rotation inwards indicates some lack of stability in the
hip/glute
- Increases the likelihood of some level of stability
needed, or perhaps something stiffer underfoot to
provide added structure and stability
- Double Leg Squat Test
- Have customer place both feet together and squat down
- Assess motion of the knees and hips and if they…
- Come together (pressure increases in the knees)
- Indicates customer may want to add some stability
- Inward rotation can be helped with a stability shoe to
add extra support and prevent that motion
- Stay the same
- Indicates that the customer may be best suited for a
neutral shoe
- This is in the neutral range of motion for the knees
and hips and indicates that a stability shoe is likely
not needed
- Move apart (bow legged)
- Indicates that the customer may be best suited for a
neutral shoe
- Indicates customer is externally rotated in the knees
and hips and may be prone to supination

- Basic questions to ask during a fit

- What are you looking for shoes for today? What are your goals? Are there
any aches or pains that you’re dealing with/have dealt with?

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Learning The Shoes
- Start with shoe brand that new employee is most familiar with, and build out
“footwear translations” from there
- Break out “the chart” so employee can take notes / have a visual aide

- Go over Shoe basics (last, stack height, drop, stability vs. neutral)

Introduce High Cushion, Moderate Cushion, Lightweight model offerings from all
brands, and in both Neutral and Stability shoes (where appropriate)

- Have conversation about shoe sizing - why extra space is important

- Have employees try on and experience as many shoes as possible during this
shift

Have New Hire Get Fitted by Trainer

- Take new hire through full fitting process
- Have them try out the shoes the trainer would recommend

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 - Get them familiar with running on the treadmill while being videotaped, etc. and
trying on different shoes

How to manage customers expectations of what the shoe can and cannot fix

- No shoe is a silver bullet. Running takes place in a fairly linear plane of

movement, so it’s important to continue working on the body’s natural stabilizer
muscles to improve the gait
- Running shoes are also NOT cross-trainers. Though they can work for some
different workouts, they are built for running pretty specifically.
- There’s not a ton of lateral support in most running shoes, so it’s
important to let customers know this and forecast to them that they may
want to use their running shoes exclusively for running, if possible.
- We do carry some cross trainers and it’s useful to bring some of these
options up in the fitting process. Asking the customer what they like to
feel while doing their exercise is also encouraged.

Insoles
- Explain insoles, why and how we use them and fit people for them, show the
Currex foot disc and how it relates to both insoles and shoe fits.
- Explain the difference between Superfeet and Currex. Superfeet slightly stiffer,
not quite as cushioned generally, also adds 2 mm drop to the shoe. Currex is a
little more flexible and more cushioned, 0 mm drop added with the insole.
- (side note: Let’s see if we can also distill some of that premium
Justin content into a visual aide)
- Also tying this to customer symptom diagnosis. When a customer says
“X” that means Superfeet, when the customer says “Y” that means
Currex.

Supplemental Materials:
Flat Feet vs. High Arches

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Phase 2: Intuit Quickbooks Introduction, Special Orders Process,
Shadowing Fits

2.1 Quickbooks Intro

- How to process a sale
- Different tender types, i.e. Cash, Credit/Debit, Gift Cards
- How to process a refund
- Looking up customer history
- Making associate their own account
- What to do with returns/exchanges
- How to look up items in Quickbooks inventory

Supplemental Materials:
Basic Quickbooks

How to check other sources for Special Orders

- Checking other store’s inventory (call them after checking inventory in

Scranton/Valley to confirm colorways or sizes)
- Once confirmed that the shoe is available at the other store, ask them to
transfer it out and put it on the transfer shelf with customer’s name on it
- Associate should then record customer’s name, contact info (phone call,
email, text), and requested product’s information on the Special Orders
sheet
- Check the brand’s B2B
- All our dealers logins and B2B sites are saved on each computer
- Different brands have different interfaces to look up these products. Be
sure to look up the product by item number as opposed to the product
name, or the results may not be correct.
- Associate should then record customer’s name, contact info (phone call,
email, text), and requested product’s information on the Special Orders
sheet
- If neither store, nor the B2B, has the shoe, you can call our stores in Brooklyn
- Williamsburg - (717)-782-7866
- Park Slope. - (347)-916-1173

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- If they have the shoe, ask them to transfer it over to your store’s location
with a customer’s name on it

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Phase 4: Accessories and Nutritional Items Training

- Show new hires different accessories to be used by customers

- Highlight: socks, therapy devices (i.e. Foam Roller/Hypervolt), Garmins
- What is NUUN/Hydrant/Tailwind?
- Hydration supplements. Take these around your run to
maintain hydration and/or re-hydrate the body
- What are the differences between different Gel products?
- Different gels are made of different ingredients
- Different blends of carbs/electrolytes
- What are the differences between the socks that we carry?
- Ultra-light vs. Cushion - level of cushion and thickness of
sock
- Balega hidden comfort vs. Enduro - height of sock and
difference in thickness
- Stance - more premium, come in a variety of prints, etc.
- Foam Rollers
- Grid foam rollers vs. The Stick
- The stick a little easier to use for newbies, especially
on quads/calves
- Foam rollers (Grid series) better for back
- R3 - good for feet, R8 easy to use for lower legs
- Percussion Guns
- Hypervolt - effective because the vibrations permeate the
layers of tissue and helps keep muscle tissue relaxed while
massaging the fascia
- Also have new hires check out seasonal apparel items, and establish some
basic talking points if they are unfamiliar i.e. What is merino wool, and why is it
useful?

Supplemental Materials
Gels explained
How Foam Rollers Work
Basic Stretching

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