New look, same sole: Charm City Run founder keeps Baltimore moving

Josh Levinson has built one of Baltimore’s best-known retail chains over the past quarter century — and he’s found it’s more like running a marathon than a sprint.

Charm City Run, which has seven locations in the region and beyond, was inspired by the popular and now-defunct RunTex specialty running store in Austin, Texas.

Levinson attended business school at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1990s, and he and his wife often ran around the nearby Lady Bird Lake, formerly known as Town Lake.

His wife, Kara, gave him a RunTex marathon training program as a Valentine’s Day present after they overestimated their ability to run one. It was a wonderful gift, he said, because he saw how a business could become a “community movement.”

The couple loved RunTex and what it stood for, and they could imagine one in their hometown.

RunTex’s owner, Paul Carrozza, gave Levinson his blessing to franchise the brand in Baltimore. Both men eventually changed their minds, but the idea for a running store stuck with Levinson.

The Levinsons and their young son moved back to Baltimore in the summer of 2001. Charm City Run’s first location in Timonium held its grand opening about a year later.

Charm City Run turns 25 next year, and it now includes locations in Fells Point, Annapolis, Bel Air, Columbia and Frederick. There’s also a Charm City Run at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, and a van that serves as a mobile store. More than 200 people work for the local company, Levinson said.

The business’s logo is changing ahead of its milestone celebration: Charm City Run is dropping the familiar red, white and blue colors and shoe tread image in favor of a simple purple, a new font and an “R” in the shape of a running shoe. It’s also reminiscent of a running trail.

“A new mark with an old sole,” banners in the stores read.

Charm City Run tapped local advertising firm Planit to help create the vision.

Levinson hopes people will continue to equate Charm City Run with movement, and “hopefully, they think about community, about local businesses and really cool shoes.”

What’s your favorite part of running the business?

I love being in the store, working side by side with the staff and helping customers.

I find myself, after a shift in the store, which does not happen nearly enough, that I come home recharged. I talk to people around here about retail therapy, but for me that means working retail.

On the other side, I love coaching. I love the people that we’ve brought into this world, the people that have made their lives Charm City Run.

What’s something you wish people knew about Charm City Run or the retail industry?

Something that I wish everyone knew about local retail is what we do for our employees, what we do for our community and what we do for the environment. When you spend $1 here or at any of the small businesses in your area, it’s not going to a corporation in Minnesota or California. We live here, we raise our families here, and we treat our employees right.

We have a self-imposed obligation to give back in time and money. We invest in the community in every way, and that’s what local businesses do.

Charm City Run is celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, and you’re rebranding ahead of that. Why now? Why this anniversary?

Our logo is in a lot of places: finish lines, races, clothing, all of the marketing materials for events and the website. It shows up a lot in the community, and it’s been showing up for 25 years. To change that comes with risk.

But there are also times when you reinvest in your brand and you give it a fresh look. It speaks to the future, reinvestment and energy.

Our logo was looking a little dated — traditional and great. (The company’s former logo was created by one of Levinson’s business school friends nearly 25 years ago.) We wanted to get more modern and fresher. We wanted something that spanned all the uses a little bit better.

Our new tagline is “For the movers of every kind.” That’s what we’ve always been. I think some people still, to this day, look at Charm City Run and they say: “That’s for runners.”

What’s been the appeal of doing business in and around Baltimore?

The appeal to doing business in the area is that I knew it at my core. You know, I grew up here. I knew where people lived, worked and played. Having that familiarity is an unbelievable advantage.

When you see chains move to a new town, they’re just basically going off demographics and statistics. There’s no emotion there. They don’t know where people like to be or the proximity to trails and that kind of thing. So, for me, that was a huge advantage for Charm City Run.

And then I always say I feel so fortunate because Baltimore is small and big enough, so people in this area really care about each other. They care about small businesses.

Also, we have perfect weather for running for most of the year.

What does the future hold for Charm City Run?

I think we’re on to something with Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and vacation and coastal areas. People are their best selves in those environments. They want to exercise; they want to get moving; they want to experience the outdoors comfortably.

I think we’ll be looking at acquisition opportunities for people who are exiting the business. That could be anywhere.

We’ll be looking to continue to grow our events and start events in markets that make sense.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.