Downtown Bradenton office has a new look as Fit2Run comes full circle with relocation

Fit2Run, a rapidly growing Bradenton-based runners superstore, will move into a new office and warehouse space in February at 311 Manatee Ave. W., the former headquarters of Champs Sports.

The move represents a homecoming for Fit2Run, company president Parks Robinson said.

The 99,583-square-foot building complex next door to the Manatee School District administration building was previously the headquarters for Robby’s Sporting Goods Inc., founded in Bradenton in 1960 by the Robinson family.

Brothers Penny and Bill Robinson built the company into a sporting powerhouse and by the time they sold it to Kinney Shoe Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the F.W. Woolworth Co., in 1988, Robby’s had grown to 45 outlets.

The new owners renamed the company Champs Sports.

Champs Sports now has 474 stores in the United States, according to the corporate web page.

Fit2Run relocates to downtown Bradenton

After selling Robby’s, Bill Robinson bought Pursley’s tree farm on Moccasin Wallow Road near Interstate 75. He re-branded it as the Treehouse and supplied trees to landscapers around the Southeast.

He also developed The Loop subdivision in northwest Bradenton.

In 2006, Bill and his son, Parks, started Fit2Run. They opened the first Fit2Run store in the Cooper Creek area north of University Parkway.

Fit2Run now has 32 stores in Florida and Puerto Rico. Eleven of those were added in 2023, and the company is looking to add more, Parks Robinson said.

In 2021, Fit2Run opened its flagship, 7,000-square-foot store at 4952 Cortez Road W. The store sells shoes for walking and running with about 400 models to choose from, along with shorts, shirts, other apparel and a full-service bicycle shop.

“We are basically a candy store for runners,” Parks Robinson says.

Bill Robinson died in Houston on Jan. 2, 2020, after battling acute myeloid leukemia for over a year.

His legacy includes envisioning the Robinson Gateway Project, off Interstate 75 north of Palmetto, and working with Manatee County to turn former West Bradenton farmland into Robinson Preserve.

“He was quite a visionary and was sometimes ahead of his time,” close friend John Rice said after Robinson’s death at 70. “He was a guy who could really see trends coming. He spent a lot of time in California and brought back a lot of trends in sports and sports apparel to the East Coast. He really was on top of things.”

One of Robinson’s sons, Will, is an attorney with Blalock Walters PA, of Bradenton. Since 2019, he has represented District 71 in the Florida Legislature. Will Robinson is listed in Manatee County court records as preparing the deed for the sale of the Manatee Avenue property to Fit2Run.

Family business returns home

Parks Robinson said this week that he would drive past the Champs Building thousands of times during the course of his daily life and finally decided to reach out to Foot Locker, the current owner of Champs Sports, to see if it might be for sale.

“They put me in touch with their real estate agent,” he said.

The rest is history.

On Oct. 24, Robinson Sports Inc., parent company of Fit2Run became the owner of the complex at 311 Manatee Ave. W. The price: $6.15 million, according to Manatee County court records.

The sellers were listed as Robby’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker Pacific Holdings.

“It was a good deal for both of us,” Parks said.

“Family is key to me. Life comes around in a circle,” Parks said, adding that he already knows where he will be working in the Manatee Avenue location.

“I will be taking my father’s old office, which is pretty cool,” he said.

At a recent manager’s meeting, Parks passed out shirts with a logo of the newly acquired office building to Fit2Run staff.

Fit2Run, now operating in space in Gatewood Corporate Center in Lakewood Ranch, will transfer a staff of about 50 to downtown Bradenton.

“We will be more involved with runs and partnerships around having a healthier lifestyle,” Parks said of the move.

The new headquarters building has already been highlighted in Fit2Run green. Signage is still to come.

For more information, visit www.Fit2Run.com.