NEW YORK — Athletic women have a new store to scout out.
JackRabbit Sports opened its first location in Manhattan last month, at 42 West 14th Street in Union Square. The 3,000-square-foot unit focuses primarily on three sports — running, cycling and swimming — and features a range of apparel, footwear and accessories for women for those activities.
“Our philosophy is that we focus on customer service,” said company founder and owner Lee Silverman. “It’s not unusual for us to spend 30 minutes or more working with customers to find the right running shoe.”
The concept is part of a growing trend of specialty stores for athletic women. Nike now has 12 NikeWomen stores and is opening more; Lucy Sports and LuluLemon are opening rapidly on the West Coast, and Finish Line is developing a new upscale athletic store concept for women called Pavia.
At the same time, women’s athletic apparel has become more fashionable in recent years. The Adidas by Stella McCartney collection has been a hot seller at retail, and Nike, Puma and other brands have introduced stylish and directional performance apparel designed to fuse fashion and function.
Silverman opened the first JackRabbit location in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood in 2003, after more than 10 years of working in sales in the high-tech sector.
“I had gained a lot of weight and I realized that I had to do something, so I began running and one year later had lost 30 pounds,” he said. “At the same time, I was looking to make a change professionally.”
Although he had virtually no retail experience, Silverman quickly immersed himself in the business as he continued to develop his own fitness regime. Now an avid triathlete, Silverman brings his own passion to the stores and wants to make athletes of all levels feel comfortable shopping there.
While many Manhattan sports stores are jam-packed with merchandise, JackRabbit has an open and airy design with room for customers to walk around comfortably. Among the brands JackRabbit carries are Nike, Adidas, Asics, Sugoi and New Balance, as well as Speedo, Tyr and niche brands like Prana, Be Present and Pearl Izumi. There is a small selection of men’s items.
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The store also has a customized bicycle area in the back where knowledgeable sales staff help customers put together the right bike, while the footwear section has a high-tech video system where salespeople work together with consumers to watch how they run and determine what footwear would be best for their needs.
While the Brooklyn store draws 85 percent of its customer base from the neighborhood, Silverman’s hope is that the Manhattan location will draw people from all over the city due to its proximity to many train lines, as well as to gyms and offices.
Silverman declined to give sales for the store, but said his stores are currently tracking above Fleet Feet stores, which have average sales of about $800,000 per year per store. JackRabbit grew by over 30 percent in revenues from 2004 to 2005 prior to the opening of the Manhattan location.
Unlike many other athletic stores that are plastered with marketing materials and advertising signage, JackRabbit doesn’t do co-op advertising and the store doesn’t have signs from any of its vendors.
“We stand behind everything we sell and we aren’t depending on co-op material to drive our business,” Silverman added.
He also doesn’t have investors and is building the company one step at a time. The salespeople don’t get paid commission but get a salary and percentage of overall revenues, which is designed to help them work together as a team.
Silverman said he thinks there is room for more JackRabbit locations in Manhattan.
“There are so many people now who are doing triathlons,” he said.
As a way to market the business, JackRabbit sponsors local triathlons, as well as running and swimming classes designed for all levels of fitness enthusiasts. Silverman said he is looking at new training activities as a marketing tool, including some which have a distinctly New York flavor.
“We want to sponsor training sessions for singles,” he added.