Trailblazer: Chris Chapman

Run your own race TRAILBLAZERS

Story by Kate Le Gallez. Photograph by Jason Porter.

There’s no way you could take Chris Chapman for anything other than a runner. He has the unmistakable leanness of the distance runner. But it’s not only that. He has a lightness of foot and a gently bubbling energy that reveals itself in his speech patterns which are littered with adjectives like ‘awesome!’ and ‘amazing!’ This is a man who could take off at pace any minute.

There’s one other fact that gives the game away – Chris is the founder of specialist running footwear retailer, The Running Company. Since opening his first store in Bondi in 2009, Chris has overseen the opening of another nine stores, while his latest retail child is ready to open her doors in Melbourne’s Albert Park as soon as restrictions allow. Chris returned to his home state of South Australia almost seven years ago, settling in Port Noarlunga. He now personally owns two stores in Adelaide and maintains oversight over the rest of his growing fleet. And just as strong training, respect for the discipline and sharp focus make for a good runner, so too in Chris’ case, do they make for a successful entrepreneur.

The training started early for Chris. He worked his way through a marketing degree at present and former stalwarts of Adelaide’s sports retail scene, before taking off to London and landing a job at Niketown London. His year working at the flagship store on Oxford Circus gave Chris a new lens through which to view business. ‘I absolutely loved it,’ he enthuses. ‘It gave me a sense of perspective but also the opportunity to see how big things can go and how many people you could reach.’ He also started to run. ‘It was an amazing part of my life,’ he says. ‘Really inspiring.’

Chris spent another eight years working at Nike, running all the time on the side. Returning to Australia, he joined the footwear marketing team in Melbourne, before heading to Sydney to take up a role as an EKIN (hint: read it backwards). Evangelists of all things Nike, the role immersed him in the ‘very technical’ Australian sports retail market, working closely with physiotherapists, podiatrists, athletes and retail staff. His final role at Nike was as the National Account Executive for a footwear chain. It was a real eye-opener. ‘A lot of stuff was being sold based off of commission. That’s just not taking care of the runner. That’s not being honest,’ says Chris. He also studied the market dynamics and – in the classic entrepreneurial parlance – spotted a gap in the market: a running specialty shop that served the runner, backed by the retail and wholesale experience to create a sustainable business for the shop owner.

As Chris started looking at his next career move in Nike, one that would likely take him to the US, an alternative path was tugging at him, one where he controlled his career, rather than standing in line on the corporate ladder. Clarity came following a trip to Tamworth to visit the new owners of the local franchise Chris looked after. The couple, who had neither running nor retail experience, fired question after question at Chris – what shoes should they stock? How many staff did they need? In a way, this meeting was the job interview Chris needed. As he answered each question, he realised he had the knowledge to pursue his own business. ‘I just knew there and then that I was going to do it,’ he says.

He refined his business plan over twelve months and then bootstrapped his way to his first store. ‘I had just enough money to buy half of my stock [and] to get a lease. I had the mortgage paid on my apartment for three months. And that was it,’ he says. But it worked and within twelve months, his longtime friend and colleague from Nike, Scott Nicholas, was on board opening the second store in Geelong. New stores followed over the next decade when the conditions were right, each one owned by someone who Chris trusted with his people-first business philosophy: ‘Every single person who walks in these doors, you treat them with the ultimate level of respect and trust and honesty and give them the options that will help keep them injury free and achieve their goal.’ The importance of this approach has only sharpened through the pandemic. ‘People needed to get out, people needed to move,’ Chris says. ‘So we need to make sure we get it right every single time for every single person that walks in our store.’

While we’re chatting, Chris’ wife Megan and their two young sons wander up from the park. Megan and Chris met just six months before Chris decided to move back to Adelaide, but ‘we knew we were right,’ says Chris. The move was about creating a steadier, less hectic way of life and that’s now flowing through to the business as well. Chris recently handed over business development responsibilities to his mate Scott Nicholas. ‘I started the business so I could be the master of my own destiny and it was just getting out of control,’ he says. ‘It’s very easy to just get thrown into a business and be so heavily invested in it because I did start it and it is my baby. But I have two other babies and I have a family now! So I need to make sure I achieve that balance.’ It’s clear Chris trusts in balance, that it’s at the heart of his business model: taking care of the customer and the business owner. ‘You do make money and it’s great, but you can do it ethically as well,’ he says. ‘Just be honest and help people and it all seems to work out alright.’