Alanna Fleisch

Holiday Shopping 2023: Athletic Shoe Factory

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For today’s installment of our local holiday shopping series, we met up with Athletic Shoe Factory owner Alanna Fleisch at the Forest Street store. 

Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: Please give us some background on the Athletic Shoe Factory and an overview of what you carry here. 

Alanna Fleisch: We’re a family-owned and -operated business since the late-‘70s. We’re a sporting goods store, so we specialize in just about anything and everything we can fit in these walls. Obviously running shoes are our bread and butter. But we have a large array of socks, apparel and equipment for all the sports—soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball.

News

Who Knew? Drying Out Your January, One Hour at a Time

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. 

There are few experiences that are more boring than someone yammering on about how successful their Dry January has been, so let me be the first to assure you that this column was written with a glass of my favorite Spanish white wine by my side. Txakoli is crisp, lightly effervescent, and dry. If dry wine isn’t the point of dry January, let’s at least call it thematically compliant and move along. 

In the 1950s, France’s government launched a public service campaign to temper the wine-drinking habits of her citizens–albeit lightly. The recommended amount was one liter per day. And while that seems hilariously high (and hilariously French), it’s also worth noting that wine in the 1950s was weaker than it is now.

Business

Preview: 50th Annual Village Fair & Sidewalk Sale

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It’s been a tradition for many New Canaanites over the past half-a-century, and this year’s New Canaan Village Fair and Sidewalk Sale is shaping up to be one of the biggest yet. Running 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, July 18, the event run by the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, and sponsored this year by William Raveis, is an installment that organizers say will have all generations talking. “It’s the 50th year of the event, and what we always have appreciated is that during that time it’s always been called the Village Fair and Sidewalk Sale, because it is a fair as well—entertainment for all shapes and sizes,” Laura Budd, marketing associate for the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, told NewCanaanite.com. “That’s something that differentiates New Canaan’s event from other surrounding towns.” “We have over 115 confirmed vendors for the day. There’s no bad seat in the house.

News

NCHS Senior Fashion Show [PHOTOS, VIDEO]

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Hundreds of parents, friends and other residents cheered from the darkened seats of the New Canaan High School auditorium on Saturday night as about 100 seniors strutted their stuff in casual, athletic, dressy and prom wear during the NCHS Senior Fashion Show. The major fundraiser for Post Prom, the annual show saw some $6,800 in tickets sold in advance, Chair Whitney Williams said. Here’s a video from the show featuring local band Triple Coil:
New Canaanite Video-NCHS Fashion Show 2015
“It’s pretty heavily attended,” Williams said as students shuffled from a pre-show dinner in the Wagner Room to separate areas to change and get made up for the runway. “We have prom fashions from A Step Ahead in Stamford and Camillo’s in Norwalk. The rest of the fashions have been provided by local vendors.”

Those included Athletic Shoe Factory, Blaze-In, Caren Forbes, Darien Sport Shop, Island Outfitters, J. McLaughlin, Jos.

Business

SLIDESHOW: 20 Things You Only Know If You Shop and Dine in New Canaan

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New Canaanites have plenty of reasons to shop and dine locally, and those reasons go far beyond the fact that the village center has scores of independent businesspeople—retailers, restaurateurs, service providers—who work here and have had a tough go with the weather these past few weeks. Our owners-on-site specialize in their fields and offer a wide range of expertise. They support most every community event that locals associate with the town—fishing derby, Waveny summer concerts, Santa’s visit, little league, Holiday Stroll, ice cream social, Halloween Parade. It’s hard to find two important community events in a row in New Canaan that aren’t sponsored in some way by Walter Stewart’s, Karl Chevy or both. Because familiarity breeds conversation and rapport, we can come to know our local small business owners and workers better than we may at, say, out-of-town chains. The slideshow above is a testament to that strong connection—click through to learn more about some of those who make up the economic lifeblood of the business district.