Distance, the influential French running store that opened its first premises in Lyon in 2018, has just opened two stores in Japan. It’s a big step, and we’ll come to that.

But co-founder Guillaume Pontier is just as proud of the Distance outpost in Iten, the fabled Home of Champions in the Rift Valley of Kenya. Little more than a corrugated iron shack on the side of a red dirt road, the Iten store is the clearest expression of what the brand is really about: not just selling running gear but also shaping running culture.

RUNNING IN THE BLOOD

Guillaume grew up in Clermont-Ferrand, a small city in central France that happens to be home to one of the country’s strongest athletics clubs. His father, Jean-François or Jef to his friends, spent 40 years coaching middle and long distance runners for the French Athletics Federation. Pontier père attended Olympics and World Championships, oversaw national team training camps and personally coached elite athletes including the Kenyan-French runner Margaret Maury, who competed in the 5,000 metres at the Athens Olympics. Since retiring after the Paris Olympics, Jean-François has spent much of his time in Iten, a connection that would prove pivotal for Distance establishing their base there.

Guillaume’s younger brother (in a family of four boys) was a steeplechaser and cross-country runner of serious pedigree, finishing on the podium at the French Championships and competing alongside the likes of Jimmy Gressier. Guillaume himself ran cross country and steeplechase at regional level but explains he was good, not great. What he did have was passion. “I started running 25 years ago and from the beginning I followed all the results, all the competitions,” he says. “You can imagine, around the family dinner table we only spoke about running.”

That lifelong immersion in the sport would shape Distance’s identity. Guillaume isn’t a fashion entrepreneur who discovered running; he’s a runner who discovered retail.

A RUNNING STORE WITH A NEW APPROACH

Before Distance, Guillaume spent a decade working as an optician for a niche brand with sharp communication and a carefully curated product selection, a background that taught him about design, brand relationships and customer experience. He met his business partner, Xavier Tahar, through a mutual friend, a DJ who was also a runner – which feels like a very Distance combination. Xavier was working in the watch industry at the time and shared Guillaume’s eye for design and product.

Together, they spotted a gap. From where we stand, in 2026, when most mid-sized cities have their own boutique running store, it’s probably hard to imagine just how barren the landscape was back in 2018. Third-wave coffee shops were popping up everywhere, fashion boutiques were thriving, skate stores had attitude, but running retail in France was old-school. “I don’t say it was bad,” Guillaume explains, “but it wasn’t cool.” 

Internationally, the picture wasn’t much different. Guillaume points to only one comparable concept: The Loop in Austin, Texas, which started around the same time. “I think we were the only two eight years ago,” he says. A wave of cult running brands – Satisfy, District Vision, SOAR, Tracksmith, Maurten – had launched in the mid-2010s, but almost all of them had started with product first, selling online and wholesale before eventually moving into physical retail. Distance deliberately travelled in the other direction: retail first, community immediately behind, and brand later.

“We’re a real running store,” Guillaume insists, and he returns to this point throughout our conversation. “We haven’t invented anything; we just have a slightly different approach.” 

They opened in Lyon in April 2018 as a proof of concept, with Paris already in mind, and stocked many of those same niche labels listed above; Satisfy was their first brand in the shop. They also stocked bigger names like Nike and ASICS, once they could convince the majors that this little start-up was worth their time. Crucially, Distance also had its own branded products from day one – socks, caps and a cotton t-shirt – which gave customers a way to buy into the community itself. “You can buy Distance socks, you can buy Distance caps and you become part of this community,” Guillaume says. “I think that helped us to connect and to grow.” 

They didn’t just wait for the community to come to them. They built a Distance running crew in Lyon from scratch, drawing on Guillaume’s family connections to the Federation and local athletics clubs as well as tapping into what was then only a nascent run crew scene. Their events featured DJs and photographers from fashion and music backgrounds, in the pursuit of creating a space for those who also appreciate the aesthetic and subcultural aspects of running. 

While the intersection between running and aesthetic allure is widely appreciated today, it’s worth repeating that this wasn’t the case in 2018. “Among our customers we have many photographers, many designers, many people working in the fashion or design industries and they love a good product … So for me, running product, the running industry, is very close to aesthetics and design,” Guillaume says. 

“Running has always been the main thing for us, but we wanted to take a new approach. So that meant good architecture, good communication, good branding. But I have never wanted to be like a fashion store. We are a running store, just with a new approach.” 

“What I said from the beginning was that we’re not only for the runner who runs 10 days per week and is only focused on performance. More and more people are running. And when I say running, you can run every day but not for performance. Maybe you just run to improve your mental outlook, and you happen to like good products. You like details.” 

Paris followed in June 2019, and then Covid hit. It could have sunk them. Instead, France’s post-lockdown running explosion proved to be a blessing in disguise. “After Covid, running was booming a lot in France,” he says. “We didn’t know that before, but it helped.”

THE PARIS REFRESH

Today, the Paris store has gone through a recent refresh, and the aesthetic says a lot about where Distance sits currently. When Guillaume dials into our video call, he is sitting at the counter. Behind him, shelves of shoe boxes are piled high in the kind of arrangement you’d associate with an old neighbourhood sports shop, not a cutting-edge running brand. Retro pennants line the walls; a souvenir saucer from the Atlanta Olympics sits among the paraphernalia.

“The best compliment we can receive is when customers say they get the feeling the shop has always been like this, from the beginning,” Guillaume says. “Before, we were too concrete, too metal. It was too designed. Everyone was doing this and it was a trend of the moment, but in two years it’s finished. We wanted something with no trend. It’s just like this, as if we have touched nothing.” 

Distance doesn’t want to look like a fashion store that happens to sell running shoes. It wants to feel like it’s been here a hundred years and will be here for a hundred more.

GIVING BACK TO THE HOME OF CHAMPIONS

Ask Guillaume which Distance project means the most to him and he doesn’t hesitate. “Iten,” he says. “I think it’s amazing.” 

His father had been travelling to the Kenyan highland town for two decades, and Guillaume himself has visited 12 or 15 times. He saw first-hand how young Kenyan athletes would arrive in Iten with nothing – no shoes, no money – chasing the dream of finding a manager or a brand partnership that might lift their families out of poverty. Jef and others had been informally carrying running shoes from Europe to give away, but Guillaume wanted to do something more considered.

Distance opened its Iten store in 2022 as a social enterprise rather than a commercial venture. The model is simple but carefully thought through: customers and brands donate lightly used shoes, such as wear-test pairs, and Distance sells them at locally affordable prices. “At the beginning we thought we would give them away for free,” Guillaume explains, “but there are two or three other running stores in Iten. We didn’t want to disrupt their businesses.” 

Two local employees – a brother and sister, both runners – are paid a good salary; the sister recently travelled to the French capital to run the Paris Marathon. Faith Kipyegon has visited the store to give a talk and lead a community run. Distance organises annual training camps in Iten through its Distance Adventure program.

“It’s not a business project; it’s a social project,” Guillaume explains. “When I say the shop is working very well, I don’t mean from a business or profitability point of view – that’s not the objective. But many people are coming to it and we help a lot of people to access good running shoes and improve their chances of training in good conditions.” 

DISTANCE RACING: HELPING REAL ATHLETES

Guillaume’s other proudest project is the Distance Racing team, and it’s deeply connected to his upbringing. Growing up around elite athletes, he saw how poorly compensated they were. “My father was training the best French athlete in the marathon,” he says. “She had the French record and everything, but what she earns is nothing close to a viable income. That’s the best French athlete.” 

Meanwhile, as a retailer, Guillaume found himself being flown around the world, gifted shoes weekly and watching influencers receive money and product for social media posts. The dissonance was too much. “I’m part of this industry now,” he says. “How can I help the true athletes, those who share our DNA, where I come from?” 

He pitched the concept to On about four years ago. The Swiss brand has been there for the store from day one, collaborating on their first product launch, a vibrant racing kit in green polka dots that sold out in no time, and Guillaume remains incredibly grateful.

The idea for the new racing team was that Distance would handle content creation and brand relationships so the athletes could focus on training. “As an athlete, creating content is not part of your job,” Guillaume says. “You need to focus on training.” 

The team now comprises six athletes, three men and three women, assembled through a mix of Jean-François’ coaching network and Distance’s connections across French athletics. The results speak for themselves: one athlete competed at the Paris Olympics; another, Clara Entresangle, recently broke the French under-23 10K record and is now in talks with a brand for a professional contract. “That’s exactly what we wanted for this project,” Guillaume says. 

Distance Racing organises three or four training camps a year, brings athletes into the stores for talks and community events and has taken the team to On’s headquarters in Zurich. It’s a model built on respect – for the sport, for the effort and for the athletes who embody both.

TOKYO, OSAKA AND WHAT’S NEXT

Distance’s latest chapter is its boldest. The brand opened in Tokyo’s Shibuya district – youthful Jingūmae, specifically – at the end of March 2026, and in Osaka on fashionable Shinsaibashisuji Street in Chūō-ku just the day before our call. 

The expansion to Japan might seem unusual for a European brand yet to establish itself in London or anywhere in the States, but Brexit complications, tariff uncertainties under the Trump administration and the right opportunity in Japan rebalanced the equation. Distance found a business partner with strong local logistics and retail expertise who could handle the operational complexity of opening in a new country. The running culture sealed the deal.

“Running in Japan is like running in Paris five years ago, just after Covid,” Guillaume says. “It’s booming right now – running crews, cool events. It’s still very old-school but it’s just switched.” 

The challenge, as always, is community. Distance’s identity is built on local engagement – run crews, storytelling, events, human connection – and that’s harder to replicate from 10,000 kilometres away. They’re confident their Japanese director has the business fundamentals on lock; now they just need to find the right community and cultural ambassador. “The human element is always the most difficult part,” Guillaume admits. “You need to find people who understand our vision. They need to understand running, they need to understand business – they need to be everything.” 

“We don’t want to become just a retailer who sells shoes and that’s it. We want to have good storytelling, put on good events, have a good community. And so this is what we will now start building in Japan.”

He’s optimistic: “The cool thing with the running world is that it’s a small world. Everyone knows everyone. So it’s easy to connect and find the right people.”

Those original cotton tees, socks and caps planted a seed. In April 2026, during the Paris Marathon, Distance launched Drop 1, its first collection of technical running apparel. Long-sleeve tops, short-sleeve tops and shorts: the basics, deliberately so.

“We had a lot of feedback from customers,” Guillaume explains. “They’d say, ‘This t-shirt from another brand is perfect but it’s missing a colour, it’s missing something.’ So we brainstormed with the team and said, ‘Okay, we think this type of product is missing on the market.’ “ 

The design philosophy draws on an unexpected reference point: Nike’s Gyakusou collaboration with Undercover designer Jun Takahashi, which ran from the late 2000s to the mid-2010s (and is now widely rumoured to be making a return). Guillaume sees a gap between the muted earth tones, “grey, black, khaki”, favoured by some of the niche brands and the full-neon approach of mainstream sportswear. “For me, running is playful – it’s colour,” he says. “A khaki or black base with a touch of neon yellow or pink. I think that’s what’s missing on the market right now.” 

Drop 2, planned for early next year, is where Guillaume says the brand really wants to go. It will feature more ambitious garments, with seamless construction and other performance-focused details. “The basics are what we’ll sell a lot of,” he says pragmatically. “But Drop 2 is more where we want to go. It’s more impactful; I think we can do a good campaign with good storytelling.” 

Distance now has six stores across four countries, a racing team, a technical apparel line and a social enterprise in Kenya. From that corrugated iron shack in the Home of Champions to the new storefront in Jingūmae, the thread is the same. The slogan above every Distance door reads “For All Runners”, and they mean it literally. Whether you’re a young Kenyan athlete lacing up donated shoes or a Tokyo local discovering the store for the first time, the promise is identical: a real running store, with a slightly different approach.