One of Canada’s most prominent independent running stores, BlackToe Running, is set to open its third Toronto location in May 2025. More than a decade after Mike Anderson and his wife, Maya Anderson, launched their first store at King and Bathurst streets, the couple is expanding to The Well, a multi-use outdoor retail development in the downtown core, just a kilometre east of their original location.
Anderson says the new store will significantly differ from the King St. West and Toronto Midtown locations. The Well store will serve as a hub for products, allowing BlackToe to expand on its offerings.
“Our King and Bathurst location is full, all the time,” says Anderson. “This is an exciting development and another opportunity for us to grow.”
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Opening a store so close to the original location is a unique move, but Anderson believes the proximity will help draw more traffic from the downtown community. “The Well is humming with foot traffic every time Maya and I visit,” he says. “We were impressed, and haven’t seen anything like it before.”
The Well is a new outdoor shopping development designed to be a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly destination in the heart of Toronto. For the Andersons, it’s the ideal location for BlackToe Running’s next chapter.
Ten years ago, the Andersons left their corporate careers in the rearview mirror and turned a front porch epiphany into one of Toronto’s coolest running stores. Eight years later, they launched their second location in midtown, a few blocks north of Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. Now, with their third store set to open in May, the Andersons are planning exciting activations to celebrate.
If you had asked Anderson in 2022, after the Midtown location opened, whether a third store was in the cards, he would have expressed doubt.
“We were focused on growing what we had and getting the store running properly,” Anderson says. “You never know what will happen after that.”
The only thing the new store won’t offer is running groups, as Anderson says they don’t want to have two competing run clubs a kilometre away from each other. “The run groups we have at both existing locations are great, and we don’t want to change that,” he says.
Stay plugged in to BlackToe Running’s Instagram and social media pages in spring 2025 for exciting announcements about the new store and grand opening.
