Victoria’s Reid wins award

Rob Reid, owner of New Balance Victoria and Frontrunners Victoria, has won a prestigious North American New Balance award.

Reid, well-known in the B.C. running community, was given the New Balance Company Riley Award at a conference in Las Vegas earlier this week. The annual award recognizes New Balance store owners in the U.S. and Canada who have done outstanding work in the community.

Reid — who has owned the New Balance Victoria store for 10 years – has been active in Victoria with many community programs. The Terry Fox Foundation, Running Moms, Sole Sisters, the Telus Community Board and the Every Step Counts program he founded in 2009 are among his passions.

“It has been great being a retailer with a company like New Balance where I can sell a shoe, and then leverage the business to be involved in many community projects,” says Reid.

In 1988 he opened Frontrunners. In 1996 he started Runners of Compassion to fundraise for local and global initiatives. The Shoes for Youth program was then developed offering support to over a dozen Vancouver Island based age group athletes, who struggle with the costs of competing and equipment. Frontrunners/Runners of Compassion have since provided nearly 1000 pairs of shoes to underprivileged youth on Vancouver Island. Frontrunners also promotes a healthy and active lifestyle to more than 500 runners each year, through their running clinics and running retreats. Reid has been Race Director for the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon for 20 years.

The New Balance Company Riley Award has been in existence for five years. It is named after the founder of New Balance – an English doctor William Riley – who started the New Balance Arch Company in Boston in 1906, to help people with problem feet.