Atlanta-based running specialty store Big Peach Running Co. opens its newest location Saturday in South Fulton, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday inside the Sandtown Crossing Shopping Center.
This will be Big Peach’s 12th Georgia location, opening just months after the company celebrates 20 years in business.
This particular opening is a special occasion. The store will be owned and operated by franchisees Ric and Dawn Ross, who believe they’ll have the first Black-owned running specialty store in the state of Georgia.
“This has been a white-male-driven business for years and you’re just now starting to see a lot of Blacks and females come into this industry,” says Ric Ross, who before this venture spent more than 30 years in the music industry as a radio and promotions specialist for Atlantic and Capital Records.
He now spends most of his time running his Music Education Group nonprofit, which partners with Atlanta-area schools to teach life skills and workforce development.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
“We said we wanted to have a shoe store 20 years ago; we just weren’t specific on what type,” said Dawn Ross, Music Education Group’s CFO and “the money person,” as affectionately nicknamed by Ric.
“We’ve seen a shift in how much of the Black community has got into running, and since Ric is a runner it just made sense to have this kind of store,” Dawn added.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
The idea to open a Big Peach in South Fulton was born from Ric’s decades-long relationship with the retailer’s founder and “chief running officer” Mike Cosentino. As a longtime runner, Ric was one of Big Peach’s most frequent customers since the first location opened in Brookhaven in 2004.
“We just had really fun conversations and got to know each other on a personal level,” said Cosentino.
Before founding Big Peach, Cosentino was an account executive with Coca-Cola. “Fast forward to the (2020) pandemic and some of the things that happened in the Black community, and that includes Ahmaud Arbery, and now we’re having conversations that go from not just being personal, but quite frankly, intimate.”
Those conversations explored race through nuanced talks about African American visibility in running, on both the participant and business sides.
Credit: Contributed by Black Men Run Atlanta
Credit: Contributed by Black Men Run Atlanta
Around the same time Ric set out to create his own apparel line, Bold Running Club, he approached Cosentino with the idea of opening a new Big Peach store through the company’s Peach Partner franchise program.
“When Mike and I started talking about this, one of the things I mentioned to him is that only 1 to 4% of running specialty stores in the whole country are Black-owned. We’ve got to change that” said Ric, a “Grady Baby” Atlanta native who ran track and field for Charles Lincoln Harper High School in his teens.
Cosentino admitted that while there is no hard data to prove Ross’ assessment, the lack of Black representation at retail conventions over the past 20 years supports it.
Ross said securing the initial investment of more than $250,000 in early 2024 wasn’t as difficult as he and his wife expected, after preparing for such an opportunity for years. Instead, the hard part was finding a suitable location for the store.
As a resident of South Fulton and former co-director of the city’s development authority, Ross has pushed for more health-conscious businesses to open there. So naturally, he wanted the store in his neighborhood.
“It’s crazy that we’ve got to go into the city of Atlanta just to purchase a good pair of running shoes,” said Ric, noting that finding existing retail space in South Fulton is a challenge because the city is still developing.
“Why don’t we have that in our community?” he asked.
According to Cosentino, Big Peach prefers opening locations in high-traffic shopping centers that already have health-centered tenants such as boutique gyms, yoga studios, and nutrition and vitamin stores. Ric Ross didn’t find the perfect spot until summer 2024, when he came across a former Allstate insurance office in the Sandtown Crossing Shopping Center.
They began construction, then he and his wife saw that a next-door Batteries Plus store was leaving, opening another space that required less demolition. That space being directly next to an Arden’s Garden juice and smoothie bar sweetened the deal.
They opted to stop building in the Allstate space and started over in the newly available space, which allowed them to lower their costs.
Booker Edwards, a South Fulton resident and member of the South Fulton Running Partners — which claims to be the oldest Black running group in the U.S. — feels the area has been long overdue for a running specialty store and looks forward to seeing Ric execute his vision of creating a place that builds community.
“There’s definitely a lot of endurance athletes, runners, cyclists, swimmers, triathletes, Ironman, you name it, here in South Fulton,” he said.
Credit: Gray Quetti
Credit: Gray Quetti
“(Ric’s) perspective is so much more than just having a place where you can come buy a pair of shoes; he wants it to have a barbershop vibe.”
While anticipation is high for Saturday’s grand opening, the Rosses’ aren’t waiting until then to introduce and connect the business with their neighbors.
In December they partnered with running apparel brand Brooks to supply 120 employees of the ATL Enforcement team at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport with shoes suited for people who spend long hours standing. Just before Christmas they hosted a pop-up outside the soon-opening store using the company’s “Big Peach on Wheels” retail truck, from which they sold running apparel.
When the store opens it will be designated under Big Peach’s “Run-Walk” category instead of its “Run-Bike” and “Run-Hike” distinctions. This means the selection of shoes will cater to a wide audience including experienced racers, occasional runners, walkers and people looking for shoes for long hours at work.
They can also try Big Peach’s high-tech shoe-fitting process — which includes a foot scan, video analysis and shoe demo — for free.
“I look at these shoes as artists. When someone says ‘I love this shoe,’ that feels like a No. 1 record because they’re experiencing something that they never thought they could.”
Cosentino said there are already plans in the works for a second Black-owned Big Peach — this time in the Smyrna-Vinings area later this year.
“We could probably find a lot of other people who would qualify as being really likely to succeed if they were a Peach Partner in Marietta, Cumming or Cartersville or other places we have locations,” he said, admitting that South Fulton wasn’t on his list of potential expansion locations.
Still he credited the Rosses for their role in launching Black ownership at the company.
“I believe through every fiber of my being, that if we do not have Rick and Dawn, a South Fulton Big Peach does not work.”
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