Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY.168 | feat. Grant Fletcher from Fleet Feet Syracuse

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Fleet Feet Syracuse: Fit ID Shoe Fittings, Workplace Outfitting, and Training Programs Host Noah Chrysler interviews Grant Fletcher, Community Outreach Manager for Fleet Feet Syracuse (locations in Dewitt and Clay), about the store’s outfitting process and community programs. Grant explains Fleet Feet’s Fit ID technology, which captures a 3D scan and pressure-plate data to recommend shoes, socks, and insoles based on activities and pain points; many customers are walkers or on their feet all day, not runners. They discuss how proper footwear can alleviate issues like lower back pain through better cushioning or structure. Grant shares his path from non-runner to completing the Marine Corps Marathon via Fleet Feet’s group distance training, and describes programs including No Boundaries (couch-to-5K), other training options, community runs, a run-and-read club, and a new Miles After Motherhood group created with medical professionals. He invites viewers to a free Global Running Day “Big Run” on June 4 at Willow Bay, Onondaga Lake Park. 00:00 Fit Tech Preview 00:18 Meet Fleet Feet 00:57 Old School Gait Analysis 01:59 Fit ID Explained 02:25 Walkers Not Runners 03:00 Pain Relief Benefits 04:22 Grant Running Journey 04:52 Minimalist Shoe Debate 06:41 Workplace Fit Program 08:31 Outfitter Impact Stories 10:47 Training Programs Overview 12:16 No Boundaries 5K 13:15 Community Events Clubs 16:22 Global Running Day Invite 17:21 Show Wrap Sponsor Plug

You stand on this device. I say the wizards draw your feet in 3D. And then after they draw your feet, you walk across a pressure plate to see how much pressure you're putting on your feet. And we use those two things to determine what shoes, socks, and insoles might be best for you. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News, York. My name is Noah Chrysler. And today I am sitting with Grant from Fleet Feet. Grant, welcome.

Good morning, Noah. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Grant, introduce yourself. I'm Grant Fletcher. I'm the community outreach manager for Fleet Feet Syracuse. We have two locations in DeWitt and Clay. We've been around for 26 locations here in Syracuse.

And what makes Fleet Feet unique is we're a run specialty store where 55% of our customers are not runners. Really? They come in for our outfitting process. We take them through a full experience to get them the best shoes for them. Yeah. So before we started rolling quick, I shared a story with you and you were like, Hey, share that story again. So I thought I would love to.

But I remember being, you know, a teenager, like a young teenager, probably 13, 14. And I remember going in with my father who had just recently got into running. His best friend was into running, right? And he's great. His name is Mr. Corman. Mr. Corman is great at running. And my dad was getting really into it. He brought me into Fleet Feet.

And he had the, there was a little camcorder tied up to a, you know, a VC, not a VCR, but a, you know, a TV, big tube TV. and they were filming his feet and checking out the angle in which he was running. And then they put him in the right shoes and it kind of straightened out his gate and everything. And I will never forget that. It took us a little while, but like I remember being like, oh, wow, like this man that is selling my father these shoes knows everything about running and shoes. And it was a really cool experience. And yeah. Well, you're dating both yourself and your father.

You take it all the way back to the days when there was a treadmill in the store. Nowadays, we have something called Fit ID technology. You stand on this device, and I say the wizards draw your feet in 3D. And then after they draw your feet, you walk across a pressure plate to see how much pressure you're putting on your feet. And we use those two things and what we talk about what you're going to be doing in the shoes to determine what shoes, socks, and insoles might be best for you. Cool. What are the most common use cases?

So you said 55% of people are not runners. What are they doing instead in these shoes? Usually when they say, well, I'm not a runner. I'm a walker. That's the biggest thing. And if they don't say that, they say, well, what's the difference between running and walking shoes? And the biggest difference is the running shoes are built a little bit better than those shoes that are designed for fashion. so that when you are being active, you and your feet are getting the best results.

Cool. What are some, I'm assuming that if people had the right shoes on, their lives would improve in various ways. What are some of the ways? Do you see people who come in wearing the wrong shoes their whole lives and then you put them in the right shoes and their lives are better? What happens in those instances? Well, you might not see that change, but when they do a Google review or, you know, respond to a review that we send after they do the purchase, they share how I've had lower back pains for years.

And because these shoes, I bought it fleet feet, I don't have that pain anymore. And it's a case of, you know, the big toes connected to the ankle bone that song. What starts down there is going to work its way up your kinetic chain. And because of this technology and what we talk about, you know, And we asked the question, what pain are you experiencing?

I got lower back pain. Okay, you come in and you're in a shoe that is completely flat and doesn't have any cushion. Let's put some cushion underneath. It could be if you're in a soft shoe, you actually need a little bit of structure. So let's talk an insul and put some structure under your foot that way. It really is a conversation about what you're going to be doing in the shoes that starts that whole process. Cool. How long have you been with the?

company? I have been, uh, I started running in 2014. I became a volunteer coach in 2017. And then I became a outfitter, uh, in 2019. So, oh, cool, quite a few years. Wonderful. And, uh, it's a case where for this I had run, uh, was 90 feet between bases. Um, but, uh, I got this foolish notion. I wanted to run a marathon and I knew Fleet Feet was the running store. So that's what started this whole journey. Very cool. Very cool. Years ago, on a bet, I ran a marathon without training, and it destroyed my body. But that's besides the point. As I did that, I was listening to the audiobook, Born to Run, because I thought that was fascinating.

And in that book, they talk about how, you know, oh, like, if you go to the Chilean mountains and you, you know, see all these indigenous runners, they've been running in the mountains for years without any shoes on, and this is the right way to do it. and all of this stuff, right? And we were talking before, and you were like, that's actually, you know, these shoe companies, like this is real research that they are doing, and these shoes have documented benefits

and those sorts of things. Yeah, I mean, can you speak to that a bit? I'm familiar with the book when I started running. I read it. I was amazed that there was a period of time where it was the minimalist era we called it. People wanted the sock shoes. but just like anything over time, while it seemed good at the time,

it may not have been the best thing for everybody. Yeah. And nowadays, what these companies do is they work with athletes to understand the full motion of your foot. Everybody does a specific point of impact, and then what the foot does after that is what determines what shoes are going to be best for them. this one company that came out with a new shoe, it took them three years to get to it being on the market. And if anything, that's as close to that minimalist era shoe that's out there because of how flexible it is. Cool.

Very cool. Do you ever get people from the service industry who are like, hey, nurses maybe or wait staff, anybody like that? Do they come in and say, hey, help me out? Yeah. All the time. Cool. Nurses, teachers, people that are working on concrete all day. We see everybody.

And that's one of the benefits. We have a program called Workplace Fit where we'll bring a mobile store to your place of business and outfit all of the employees in great shoes, socks, and insoles. Oh, cool. So you show up with like a, do you have like a cool machine or something that you bring? That machine that you stand in on the store. store. We have an extra one that we bring right to your place of business. We've got a cargo van that will load 20 boxes of shoes in. Cool. How do you sign up for that? If I want to sign up for that,

how do I get that? Company reaches out to me. We set a time. We create a Google form that you scan the QR code and make an appointment. We do it in half hour shifts so that we can try and get between 12 and 15 employees is what we're looking for to make a workplace fit successful for both of us cool very cool and who is like when you've done that in the past who has that been the most successful with um we've been to both krause and st jo's in the past we go to carrier on an annual basis rapid response again anybody that um has people either on their feet or even the case with rapid response the people that are sitting a lot your feet do different things there than when you're even standing that can benefit from a good shoe wow that's awesome I love that I love that show up to

the workplace have it ready to go in the van everybody stands on the cool machine here's your special shoe that's cool I think that's dope um so it sounds like you've been working with fleet fee for a while what is your favorite part of I mean it sounds like you did shoe fitting for a long time yeah I did And that's what most people that work for Fleet Feet, when they came in and went through that initial outfitting experience, enjoyed it so much, they said, I want to help others. I want to work for them.

And that's what we tell people is our outfitters are problem solvers. They've been through this experience just like you. They may have had planar fasciitis like you're telling me that you have. They understand everything, and they can truly help you get into what's best for you. Cool. What is that process? What's your favorite part? What are some of the cool things that you've learned and some of the things that you've enjoyed by doing shoe sales for fleet feet throughout these years that people might not know about? I was on a similar show to this a couple of years ago. And right after I was on, a 92-year-old woman came in for the first time ever. And something I said, she was tired of having sore feet.

She came in. We took her through the process. And she was thrilled to death when she walked out the store that she knew that she had good shoes to get her through what she needed to do on a daily basis. Wonderful. That's awesome. I think that those stories are very powerful. My great aunt just turned 91. And my grandmother, I think, is in her mid-80s.

Terrible that I don't know her exact age, isn't it? But yeah, they both have walkers. And when the walkers are fixed just right, or they get a new one or something, like, it changes their lives. You know, like they have limited mobility. And so therefore, like, that those assistive technologies are very, very important to them. And so I bet that that changed her life significantly. It did. And I love when the customer comes in that has shopped with us for years and aren't afraid to tell you how old they are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. a point of pride. They're like, I'm still here. That's cool. Beautiful. So you were also mentioning some of the different programs that you guys have. So you mentioned that you are, what is your official title one more time? Community outreach manager. Community outreach manager. So you mentioned that that is, tell me about these training programs that you guys do. So that was my initial introduction to fleet feet. 2014, the furthest I had run was 90 feet between bases. I was a baseball player. But people always used to tell me, oh, Grant, you should do the Marine Corps Marathon in memory of your father that was a Marine. I said, sure, I can do that, knowing I wasn't a runner. No one

was really going to hold me to it. I was in the fundraising world at the time, and I got an opportunity to get a charity bib. I said, well, now somebody's saying put up or shut up. I can raise $1,000 overnight. Can I become a distance runner in seven months? I went to feet feet. I went through the outfitting experience. I saw where the distance program was starting in July. I did some on my own so that when that started in July, I had a little bit of background. But the very first race I ever ran was the full Marine Corps Marathon.

And I owe all to the training program at Fleet Feet. It's in a group setting. It's fun. It just, it's amazing what the athletes that go through, our programs what they can accomplish. Cool. That's awesome. How long has that been running?

Oh, geez. No. Long time. As fleet heat has been in Syracuse, I want to say, yeah. Cool. Very cool. What are so, so that is a, tell me more about that group. So do you guys meet at a regular cadence?

So I'm the exception to the rule of how people get into running. Most people join what's called our No Boundaries program. It's a couch to 5K, learn to run, whatever you want to do. do a program that get you to be able to complete your first 5K, whether you run it or walk it. Again, you meet as a group, you figure out the pace that you're going so that you are running with other people. You aren't left behind. Each week, there's a different topic from, you know, how to be safe on the road, to make

sure that you've got ID, posture things, hydration, nutrition, new, nutrition, all of that to educate you. In addition to being able to run that 5K, we want you to be able to do it in a way that you have fun and want to do it again. Cool. Cool. Cool. So the No Boundaries program basically educates you on all of these things. Exactly. Wonderful. Wonderful. How can people get involved? If I want to get in the No Boundaries program, if I want to get involved in some of these training programs, if I want to become a runner in Syracuse, how do I get involved with Fleet Feet and all these things? Go to Fleet Feet, Searcus. And at top of the page, there's two areas to look at. One is our training tab that has everything from the No Boundaries, 5K to our 10K program, to a trail program, to our distance program. Everything training rises there.

But if you're one of those people that, geez, I'm not that competitive, I just want to do it for fun. click on the community and events tab and click on the event calendar. And you'll see different, once a month, we have a community run that anybody can come out to. Last summer, we started a run-and-read club where you read a book for a month and then go for a run and talk about it. Cool. And we've got a brand new program in June called Miles After Motherhood to engage with those postpartum, mothers to get back out there, be active, having fun. Yeah.

I think that that's a fantastic group to start, you know, because I can imagine that that is a critical time in somebody's life, you know, where they've just had a kid and they're like, they want to invest in themselves, right? Because I bet that they're, you know, I bet that's a very emotionally difficult time where you're giving a lot to your newborn, right? But to do something for yourself and connect with the group as

well who have similar experiences. I bet that that's huge. Yeah, we're really excited about it. One of the other things that I do in my role as community outreach manager is I work with medical professionals that people might have injuries and are trying to recover and come back. So I work with podiatrists, orthopedics. It was actually a physical therapist practice that it just started a pelvic floor specialty. And we got talking about that, and they said, well, we want to do something with mothers. And I said, well, what about a group through Fleet Feet? So it really was a collaboration with what's out in the community, knowing that there's a need for it and helping us with that.

Yeah. I think that that's very smart because I think, you know, knowing that there's a need, that's the right way to do things. Instead of being like, hey, come to this thing that you might not want. Like, no, we heard from this person who works with these types of people. on the regular, you know, and then starting it for them, I think that that's a very smart move. Seems like you know what you're doing, Grant. That's a good thing. Thank you. I know what I'm doing and I enjoy it. It makes the battle, you know, pretty easy when you enjoy what you do. Wonderful. So if people want to get involved, Fleet Feet Syracuse,

if I type of that into Google, I go to your webpage and the training tab specifically, I can get involved right there, yeah? Yep, training or the community and events tab. Either one. Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, cool. Grant, anything else that we didn't cover that you want to cover. If you still aren't sure of how best to be involved with us, June 4th is Global Running Day. Awesome. We're doing the big run. It's a free community run.

We're doing it at Willow Bay at Anadagel Lake Park. Oh, cool. Again, sign up, come out and just see how big running is in Syracuse. And they're a very engaging community. So you aren't going to be overwhelmed when you're there. Somebody's going to come up and start talking to you. And that's what we want to happen. Yeah, I'm not super involved with the running community right now.

But when I was a kid, my father was always involved with that stuff, right? And I was always blown away at how strong that community is here. And I think it's been here for years and years. So that's wonderful, probably from great businesses like Fleet Feed, making it robust and wonderful. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, Grant. Appreciate the time.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for watching Good News York. My name is Noah Chrysler. This is a program put on by Clickstream Studios. If you go to call.cstreamstorys.com, we are a full-service content marketing agency. We will make you a marketing plan for free. I will personally make it for you. It will be tailored to your business. We'll do a call.

Then we'll take those insights from that call. And we will build you a tailored marketing plan for free. You can do that with us or you can do that on your own. You can take that somewhere else and go use that marketing plan on your own for something else. Also, thank you so much to ads on the go. Get ads on the go.com. They are our sponsor. Thank you so much for that partnership.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for watching. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you, Grant. Thank you. Absolutely.