Interview with Michelle Fogle

At CTG, we support runners through gait analysis, full run profiles, physical therapy, performance training, and Run STRONG classes. Fleet Feet supports that same population through proper shoe fitting, running community events, and local race support. Michelle also shared that Fleet Feet hosts weekly group runs on Mondays at Hi-Wire, Wednesdays at Tap Yard, and Thursdays at Leland Brewing Company, and that they will be involved with the upcoming Battleship races.

Benefit of Watching: Viewers will learn why proper shoe fit matters for comfort, consistency, performance, and long-term movement health. This spotlight helps runners, walkers, athletes, and active adults understand when they may benefit from getting professionally fit for shoes, what to expect from the Fleet Feet fitting process, and how local resources like Fleet Feet and CTG can work together to support running, training, injury prevention, and staying active.

Address of Guest’s Business: Two Wilmington Locations:

1125 Military Cutoff Road
Wilmington, NC 28405

3852 Carolina Beach Road
Wilmington, NC 28412

She also has stores in Jacksonville:

1154 Western Blvd.
Jacksonville, NC 28564

and Myrtle Beach:

7931 N Kings Hwy
Myrtle Beach, SC 29572

Hi everybody, it’s Coach Owl from Change the Game and I’m here at Fleet Feet today with Michelle Fogel. And Michelle, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started with Fleet Feet? Yeah, as she said, my name is Michelle Fogel and I’m the owner of the Fleet Feet stores here in Wilmington, North Carolina, Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I got started in this because I wanted to get out of my corporate career and do something that was slightly more meaningful, open a business, and honestly, I want to move back to the beach.

So I had a big passion for running and experienced Fleet Feet in another city where I was living and loved what it stood for. It was more than retail, it’s more than just selling shoes, it’s truly helping every person that walked in the door. And then that extended out into the community through various donation projects and race sponsorships and all the things that I saw at Fleet Feet where I was, and it just was one of those things where it made sense, took my passion and married it with something bigger than me.

And so that’s kind of how I decided to do this for a living. Yeah, and can you talk a little bit more about how Fleet Feet’s different from a traditional running store? Yeah, so when you come into Fleet Feet, you will work with a one-on-one outfitter. And we do call them outfitters because we know that a lot of people want to know more about things that can help them outside just the shoe.

So if you are training for your first 5K and it’s 96 degrees every day in Wilmington, we are going to sit there and walk you through the other things besides the shoe that can help you because there will be challenges along the way. Or if you’re recovering from surgery and your doctor needs you in a certain type of shoe, a certain fit, our outfitters kind of know what to look for. And then other products, maybe it’s an insert, maybe it’s a compression sleeve, a brace of some sort that can help you recover faster and more efficiently.

So as I like to say, whether it’s because you’re standing on your feet for 12 hours a day or you’re about to run a 12-hour race, we have the products and knowledge here that are individualized that can really help you. And for somebody who’s never been fit for shoes before, can you kind of walk us through what that process looks like? Yeah, absolutely. So you’ll walk in, we get you down to either bare feet or socks.

We do have a 3D foot scanner and that tells us all the dimensions, shapes, arch profile, instep profile of your foot to make sure we’re matching your foot with the best shoe. And then we’ll watch you walk to see kind of the slight biomechanics and the movement of your feet and ankles and knees. And then we take you through kind of a plethora of questions, kind of what are you using the shoes for, injury, tasks, anything that might help us in narrowing down the scope of footwear to find that, you know, three to four pairs that we think are going to work the best.

And then after, like I said, after that, it could be we end up talking about inserts, we could talk compression sleeves, we could talk body glide, nutrition, whatever it might be that we all gain from those questions. So what are some common mistakes that people make when they are picking the right shoe for themselves? Yeah, so I would say the two biggest ones we see are size. You are not the same size running shoe as you are in your flip-flop casual shoe work shoe.

We’re taking everybody up a half hole. I mean, I measure to a nine and a half and I wear an 11 just because of how my foot is shaped and fills up a shoe. So, a lot of the time, the biggest problems we find are that somebody is wearing the wrong shoe size or width, which can cause things like creating neuromas, callusing, chafing, blistering, whatever it might be. So, size is one thing, and…

So size is one thing. And then two, it ends up being more of a foam-based thing. The way shoes are made now, I mean, it’s kind of crazy the amount of technology that goes into some of these shoes.

And just because somebody on TikTok or the internet says this shoe is an amazing shoe and it’s the best shoe you can find, we can definitely tell that sometimes those super fun bouncy $225 shoes for somebody maybe recovering from an ankle surgery is going to be actually detrimental to them. So it’s a lot, it’s more of understanding how a cushion system works under somebody’s foot. And then how often should people get refit for shoes or replace their shoes? Is it a timeframe? Is it a mileage thing? Is it when they get injured? Yeah, so it used to be like a mileage thing, which never has actually been true because a 120-pound, 5’2 female runner is different than a 6’4, 225-pound male runner.

So they’re going to swap out shoes at a vastly different rate. It’s also now going to be dependent on cushioning. I personally go with the body ache test.

If you are out running and nothing has hurt for a while and all of a sudden you’re running and you’re getting achy knees consistently after your run, might be time to switch out those shoes. Like I said, depending on the cushion system, we’ve got those super high-performance racing shoes that you’re going to find on the shooter shelf for $275. Those are the shoes that last you 125 miles.

But then there’s more workhorse shoes that can last you that 400 miles. So yeah, I always say if you’re seeing a shoe and it is breaking down to the outside or inside or you feel very achy after several runs, come back in. That’s when you replace your shoes.

Resizing, I always say minimum every two years. I’m big on about every year because you never know whether you’ve gained weight, lost weight, had a kid, you’ve changed a job or you’re on your feet more, off your feet more. If you start lifting more stuff at work, if you go to the gym and lift more, all those things can change your arch profile, which changes the shape of your foot in a shoe.

So Michelle, can you tell us a little bit about how Fleet Feet is involved with the upcoming battleship races? Absolutely. Love the battleship weekend. Gives you a race for all 5k, 10k, half marathon.

It is the probably more challenging course that you’re ever going to run here in Wilmington. But yeah, so we have been sponsored with that race. I mean, pretty much since I opened my doors almost 12 years ago.

But we go out or set up at the expo. We will be doing a couple of fun things leading up to that. We actually try to do some fun runs leading up to that race.

So you’ll see a fun run here at our location on Military Cut-Off on September 19th. Just trying to get the community out. It allows you to meet other runners that might be running the race.

And then look for something from us in October. But yeah, that race is amazing and it’s always a fun weekend. And are you going to be running? I don’t know.

I’m on my feet for about 14 hours the day before. So it’s always a rough one getting up in the morning. And then Michelle, if people see this and they think this is something maybe that I should investigate further, what should their next steps be? Come on in.

No appointments needed. We are here Monday through Friday 10 to 7. Saturday 10 to 6. Sunday’s noon to 5. Yeah, if you have your free time during the week between 1 and 3. Usually a calm time. But don’t worry, if you see a wait list, we get through it pretty quickly.

And we’re always here to help. Thank you so much. Thank you.