Those who have worked in a running store...

Is the other shoe in the back ?

Do you have those Five Finger shoes?

Does it come in any other colors?

"I won't wear nike, I heard they fall apart"

"Do you have any 'BASICS'?"

"I want to finally break 30:00 for a 5K this weekend. What racing flat do you recommend for a 180 pound woman like me?"

Do these shoes make me look fat?

My favorite was when my co-worker would encourage the young ladies to go ahead and try on the running bras and jump up and down in the dressing room to make sure they gave enough support.

"BAsics" and "Five Fingers" are notorious. Also when people won't shut their traps about Prefontaine. Seriously, does your running knowledge only extend to Without Limits and Fire on the Track... really?

"One of my friends told me (Insert Company here) were bad, so I won't run in them."

About 4 or 5 years ago a guy was trying on a pair of Pegasus when his wife came in,

"Why are you trying on Nikes?"

"They feel good"

"Oh, I wouldn't wear them, Nikes not like, known for its running shoes..."

"So do you actually run?"

I just like the "Uhh, I need some running shoes"

Nope, we don't carry those...

BASICS and NIKE (but not saying the E at the end) piss me off lolz

Wow, I've not heard BASICS once in almost 2 1/2 years. I've heard them called OASICS several times. I've also had people ask for pi shoes (Pearl Izumi).

But yeah, most annoying question has to be "are these good shoes?". No, ma'am, they're terrible, and I'm trying to foist them on you to help clear out stock in the back room. We're trying to sell through all of our bad shoes so that we only have good ones left. We put no thought into what we carry, and have no problems putting customers in shoes that we know they will hate.

We actually had a whiteboard up for a while in the back of all the funny mispronunciations of shoe companies. Some of my favorites included "Brooks Brothers" "Sauce-ony" "Oasics" "Azics" and many others which I can't remember.

Woman with a size 11 foot

"can you bring me a size 7?"

after bringing out 3 pairs of 7, none of which fit, refuse to bring out one more size 7 and bring out size 11 for Sasquatch, which fits perfectly"

"I said I wear a size 7"

"I want to see a manager, you are refusin' me service"

"You a racis'"

stoned irony wrote:

Woman with a size 11 foot

"can you bring me a size 7?"

after bringing out 3 pairs of 7, none of which fit, refuse to bring out one more size 7 and bring out size 11 for Sasquatch, which fits perfectly"

"I said I wear a size 7"

"I want to see a manager, you are refusin' me service"

"You a racis'"

I think by far the most amusing thing that happened on a fairly regular basis at my store was the women with huge feet coming in and swearing up and down that they were a size 6. Sometimes I'd have to say something like "oh, well running shoes often run a little small, so here let me get you a 12 and we'll see....oh look, perfect fit."

But there were plenty of times when the women refused to even try something larger (read: something that actually fits) and left.

After spending 30-45 minutes of service time assuring the proper category, fit etc to have the customer say something like "I know I can get these cheaper on-line, do you price match?"

Gotta add another vote for women who measure out at a 10 but won't try on anything other than an 8.

Pearl Izumi's were referred to as IQ's where I worked.

And my personal favorite was the really old dudes who would refer to Asics as Tigers. "I've been running in Tiger's for years."

This thread is hilarious.."So do you actually run" LOL!