Anyone know of any actual specialty running shoes shops in Taichung/Central Taiwan? Kind of tired of having to buy running stuff online and would like to take a look in person to check out some shoes/clothes and try them on in person instead of having to waste time buying and returning.
Only ones I know of are RunBase up in Taipei & New Taipei and Marathon World in Taipei New Taipei, Hsinchu and Kaoshiung, and would be nice to have something closer to home instead of waiting until I find my way up North or South.
I do buy some shirts from Decathlon once in a while that I use for general workouts. Main thing is that it’s all their branded stuff so not many options or variety.
Especially for actual running shorts (with the lining inside).
Ah I forgot about that one. Unfortunately also up North. Guess I’ll add it to my list next time I’m up in Taipei to check it out.
I’m a bit surprised how in a city of 2+ million people that there seems to be no specialty running stores when my dinky little old hometown of less than 30,000 people had a few.
Running seems to be getting more popular too in Taiwan as the half-marathons I’ve attended seem to be pretty packed and full of people and the marathons my friends have been to says it’s super crowded.
Hoka and On Cloud Retailers in Taiwan cater to runners and are knowledgeable about their products. Stores offer foot arch measurement to better recommend shoe fitments.
They seem to have a growing presence in Taiwan this past year or so.
Found a store in Taichung that seems to carry a good selection of Hoka in Taichung. Hopefully the staff here are also good as well. Want to recommend some friends who are getting into running to check some running shoes out and get fitted. Might just wait until we are in Taipei though since they can try a wider variety of shoes/brands…
Still a bit disappointed in the general lack of options/variety though.
Nike, Adidas, and Asics still dominate the Taiwan Runners crowd. Saucony, Hoka , and OC On Cloud also have huge followings for the niche running segments. From my observation, carbon plated high stack super shoes ( Nike Alphafly and Vaporfly) are the most commonly worn shoes in local track events.
Found out Asics has their own store in the newer downtown Lalaport Outlet North building. Not that big, but decent selection of running shoes if you’re an Asics runner.
While I’m here I figure I’ll try asking…anyone know where you can get a custom running singlet? Want to get something with some text on it and a logo for some future 5k to half-marathon races, but so far haven’t found anything.