The Running Company was founded in 2009 by Chris Chapman with a simple objective: To better serve the needs of runners by providing exceptional service, honest advice and to navigate the ocean of footwear choices through a genuine dialogue with each individual runner balanced with a gait analysis process grounded in science. Australia has always been one of the most unique and demanding markets in the world for selling running footwear due to the medical influence over purchasing shoes. This had created a gap between the expectations of the runner and a retail environment grounded in sales based on incentives and low levels of knowledge. Since Chris opened his first store, the TRC ‘process’ has always been about runners helping runners and treating each runner as a unique individual through high levels of knowledge, honesty and integrity.
Chris’ background with Nike across two decades and three continents fostered a perspective that the Australian runner deserved more when it came to purchasing footwear in Australia. As a result, Chris opened the first TRC store on Gould Street in Bondi Beach in October 2009 on shoe string budget in a shoe box-like space – in the heart of the financial crisis. During this time, Chris built lifelong friendships with his customers, referring practitioners and even met his wife! TRC Bondi Beach was never about making money – it was about relationships and helping people. Over the past 12 years, TRC has organically grown dependent on one thing: People. The founding principles from Chris’ first store in Bondi remain in place today across all 11 TRC stores.
