Timothy Judge
“Runners, on the line”
The main goal of the research project is to get a greater understanding of the culture that lies within many areas. Culture developed from the people that occupy a space like a small community and it’s even developed from the space itself. I have chosen to research and get a greater understanding of the running apparel store, Marathon Sports, in Norwell, MA. Through this project, I will try to show how I personally fit into this culture that is there. I feel that is my best choice since it’s changed who I am indirectly since I’ve been going there for almost 3 years now and I never even noticed until I had to think about it.
Marathon Sports is a running shoe and exercise apparel retailer located in Norwell, Massachusetts; which is a little more than 5 minutes north of the Hanover mall. They offer everything from running shoes, track shoes, barefoot simulating footwear, and various clothes for running or triathlons. It’s located on a main road that handles a substantial amount of daily traffic so therefore it’s busy more often then not. It is not jam packed though like other sports retailers are such as Dicks Sporting Goods and Champs. What makes the store unique from most others is that the staff are avid runners themselves and understand what people need in footwear. They will ask you several questions about what shoes you tend to wear and what qualities you would be looking for. When you try a pair on, they also watch your stride and see if it truly works for you or not and will suggest more options. On top of these features, the store also used to offer 25% student discount on all merchandise but it’s recently dropped to 12% as I found out from my last visit.
The overall culture of Marathon Sports that I know of is of average people of both genders who enjoy running. The specifics of how much they run or how dedicated they are and what they look for in a store varies from person to person. It can be just moderate interest or be a serious runner that might even hold professional status; who knows exactly what they’re looking for and doesn’t bother with browsing for anything else. More often then not, it’s a combination either HS athletes in the area looking for track spikes, like myself at the time I started going there, or running and racing shoes for cross country. If it isn’t young athletes in school looking for spikes or trainers, then it’s the middle aged group of people that ranges from mid 30’s towards 70’s. People within that group are just looking for trainers to get a certain amount of miles a week or walking shoes to have a more comfortable day.
It would be reasonable to say that I am apart of this culture because I am like so many other people that are apart of it there. I have similar upbringings and social status along with the same reason for being at the store and doing the same types of activities as the others. If I wanted to get more in depth, I could say I also share the same values of the people there as employees and customers based on running and fitness as a way to better a person in many ways more than in the physical sense. The biggest goal is to improve someone’s personality traits through running or things about themselves such as their optimism and their willingness to succeed in life. All other basic aspects of social life I feel that I have in common include the fact that: I’m a white male as many other patrons are, I’m single, I go to school and compete, or that we have many of the same basic outlooks on life based on running and track.
The other reason I chose Marathon Sports as my site to research is that there are some things that I don’t know about it even though it’s one of my highest regarded places to visit and buy sports wear from. Something that’s a possibility is that the store very well might not have been what it is like today when it started out a few years ago; back in 2005 I think is the founding year. Inventory might’ve been smaller or arranged differently throughout the store and the selection of it might have been different. The same amount of people who currently go to the store very well could not have been the same number when it started out. Could’ve been that unknown of a business that half of the customer base was there originally to act as it’s population. Even the same type of people might be something that’s changed over time. Taking into account the type of recreational runners that were the only people that went there rather than serious runners who compete in races and high school to college athletes looking for gear to compete in that area as well. Possible things to do would be ask people that go there and see how long they’ve been going there or how they’ve heard of this place. I could also questions the staff of the building and find out what it was like when it opened? What regulations have changed since, or if they plan to expanding or upgrading the franchise or just the building itself soon.
Since I’m already familiar with this location and very passionate about what it’s based on, it would seem that those aspects would somewhat affect my ability to observe and report on the area. To be as fair and honest though, I believe that won’t be the case because there’s nothing negative for me to report about the store in a way that is obvious to me so I won’t need to have a biased opinion of it. I will try to praise it where praise is needed or deserved but if there are any shortcomings on it’s part then I will report on those as well.
