A store for fleet feet opens in Ballard

Even if your feet aren't fleet, there's no excuse for wearing sneakers that are behind the times. The same people who brought comfy Campers (the only heels you'd wear on a pub crawl) and stylish snow boots to Ballard are opening a shoe store for your inner track star.

Market Street Athlete is scheduled to open the weekend after Thanksgiving directly across the road from its parent shop, Market Street Shoes. Ryan and Lanee Stauffer and Mark Magdaleno began planning for a sneaker, cleat, hiking boot and athletic sandal store this past March after receiving hordes of customer requests for a sportier lineup at Market Street Shoes. The idea, says Ryan Stauffer, is to create a type of running specialty shop, but for all sports.

The staff will be trained to fit every brand and style of shoe on offer, and to make suggestions for conditions like pronation or recurring shin splints, a task that Stauffer admits will be daunting. The store stocks more than 25 brands for men, women and children, as well as shoes specific to nearly every sport. "My people are athletes," Stauffer says. "They have knowledge from their own experience." Yet companies like Montrail, Vasque, Avia and Saucony will send reps to make sure the sales staff knows how to fit their particular product.

With this level of expertise one might expect to find sport snobbery. But Stauffer's aim is to be inclusive; he wants to cater to all levels of athletes and aspirations, and he gestures to the black and white mural along the store wall displaying a breadth of athletes varying in age, gender and color. In that picture, he says, he wants his customers to see themselves.

Market Street Athlete is at 2232 NW Market St.; 206-789-1265.

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