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A new specialty shop has opened at 70 Main St. in New Canaan, bringing technical running, cycling and ski apparel from independent and emerging brands to the former gallery space that sat vacant for several years.
Alex Holmes, founder of The Amateur, said the store has been decades in the making.
“It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid to find a space with all of the endurance-focused sport brands that are driven by culture and performance and put them in one place,” Holmes said. “I spent most of my life working in retail figuring out what a modern retail concept looked like. Last year I got the opportunity in between jobs to launch this dream project.”
The Amateur carries apparel and accessories for running, cycling and skiing, with no hard goods. Running and cycling are the core focus for now, with alpine skiing added as winter approaches. The store also carries some vintage pieces for the styling element.
“Most places are hard goods first,” Holmes said. “We really want to lead with apparel and accessories because that’s where the white space is.”
The store currently works with around 12 brands in the running space, including Bandit, Satisfy, On Running, District Vision, New Balance, Hoka, Norda and Nike, with Adidas coming soon, he said. On the cycling side, the store carries MAAP, an Australian brand, and Universal Colors out of the UK.
Holmes said the target customer is not an elite athlete, necessarily, just an intentional one.
“Performance doesn’t mean elite,” he said. “It doesn’t mean spending 20 hours a week on your bike or a certain race time. It’s more about how you identify around sports. Whether you’re just trying to improve your commitment to whatever your practice is, or whether you are qualifying for the Olympics — we have some of those customers as well — it’s really about your intentionality.”
Holmes said the choice to open in New Canaan was both personal and strategic. He grew up in Northern Westchester and spent years riding and running throughout Fairfield County.
“It was right where I always envisioned this kind of store,” he said. “You’ve got a really nice cross section of running and cycling, pulling from both the Northern Westchester, New York side and also the Fairfield County side in Connecticut. I live in Westport. I’ve got a young family and I always wanted something that we could really live in and be a part of the community.”
The space at 70 Main St. was also a part of the appeal.
“It used to be an art gallery, so it was essentially like a concrete white box that we could design into,” Holmes said. “I didn’t want this to feel like a traditional retail concept in terms of the fixturing and the design aesthetics. We really wanted something that felt pretty minimal but that we could build a modular concept into. It was quite serendipitous.”
On how The Amateur stands apart from other local options, Holmes said the focus is deliberately narrow.
“We don’t do anything other than running, cycling and skiing,” he said. “We’re starting small, we’re pretty specific about the brands that we work with, and we have the fortune to carry some brands that aren’t widely distributed in the United States.”
As for the in-store experience, Holmes said he wants it to feel like a home.
“We like this idea of inviting different people, different brands into a home and having them feel welcome and fun and interesting,” he said. “We have couches. Hopefully people want to spend some time there and relax even if it’s not solely focused on the transactional element. I want people to feel welcome there no matter what.”
Holmes said his message to the New Canaan community is one of openness rather than salesmanship.
“Our goal is to be a really credible and valuable piece of the endurance sport community,” he said. “A lot of that starts with just putting ourselves out there, but then being open to listen and get feedback. The goal is not for this to be a monologue of telling people how we think this needs to roll.”
The Amateur already hosts runs and rides out of the store, and Holmes said more are on the way. The first came together organically through his wife’s running team.
“Our goal is to be a support system and then kind of get out of the way,” he said. “It’s not to drive these things that are already there. There’s a lot we can learn by being supportive of the people that are already here.”
Events will be communicated through the store’s social media, newsletter and website.
Looking further ahead, Holmes said New Canaan is just the beginning.
“The value for me about multi-brand is that it constantly evolves,” he said. “Nothing is stuck and it can continue to ride and lean into different things as this world continues to change.”
The Amateur is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit amateur.cc, follow @amateur_hq on Instagram, or contact Holmes directly at alex@amateur.cc.