September 15, 2026

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It’s Tuesday, and a new collection of toys with neutral hues from Little Tikes is sparking a debate among parents. Some are embracing less colorful toys, while others bemoan the trend, calling its proponents “beige moms” on social media.

In today’s edition:

—Andrew Adam Newman, Alex Vuocolo, Katie Hicks

STORES

Path as prologue

Interior of Marathon Sports’s new store in North Conway, New Hampshire: A shoe wall fashioned to look like stone.

3 Dots Design

In 2025, Ben Cooke, president of Marathon Sports, the running specialty retailer with 32 stores in New England, traveled to Chamonix, France, the nexus of legendary 105-plus-mile trail race Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB).

Because the event hosts numerous brand activations and shoe launches, Cooke thought he should check it out—although he wasn’t exactly champing at the bit.

“I begrudgingly went,” Cooke told Retail Brew.

Then he didn’t want to leave.

“I honestly was just absolutely blown away by the theater of it,” Cooke said.

Cooke knew that while the US has highly regarded ultramarathons, none boast the international draw and brand participation of Chamonix. So there he stood, like a Frostian trail runner whose path diverges.

“You could say, ‘Well, I hope someone does that,’” Cooke said. “Or you could be the type of person that says, ‘I’m going to do that’—and that is exactly what I set out to do.”

Marathon Sports hit the trail, acquiring eight trail races ranging from 5K to about 75 miles, assembling a women’s trail-running team with the Altra brand, and launching Dirt Camp, a three-day trail-running excursion in the Berkshires’ woods.

Meanwhile, Cooke searched for the place where someday his envisioned race could start and finish. He sought what he called the “Chamonix of New England,” a mountainous recreation mecca replete with hotels and restaurants. He landed on a gateway to the White Mountains: North Conway, New Hampshire.

In August, that’s where Marathon Sports opened its first store dedicated to trail running.

Keep reading here.—AAN

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RETAIL

Going home

Target

In June, Target and Hollister released a multiseason collection of home goods and apparel for back-to-school shoppers looking to deck out their dorm rooms and get some new fits before classes started.

The collaboration marked Hollister’s first foray into home goods, and yet another partnership for Target, which recently linked up with brands such as Champion and Parke to release product lines.

Now, third-party data is showing that the collaboration with Hollister was a success for the home goods category.

Keep reading here.—AV

Sponsored By Roku Ads Manager

Get a CTV reality check. There are lots of different perspectives on CTV advertising, so we teamed up with Roku Ads Manager to learn what’s what. In our recent article, we explore how streaming TV is being leveraged, perceived, and (sometimes) misunderstood. Take a look at what we found.

swapping skus

Today’s top retail reads.

Feeling it out: Food makers are prioritizing “mouthfeel” in new products, as texture becomes a bigger draw for consumers. (the Associated Press)

Cutting ties: Amazon suspended a partnership with a major air carrier after a Boeing 767 crashed in Miami, killing five people. (NPR)

Settling up: Abbott Laboratories has paid $385 million in a settlement related to a deadly bacteria outbreak at a baby formula factory. (the Wall Street Journal)

Less tax stress: With Anrok, you get one platform that runs it all—nexus monitoring, registration, filing, remittance, and reconciliation. It even connects natively to your e-comm stack to update your data automatically.*

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Written by Andrew Adam Newman, Alex Vuocolo, and Katie Hicks

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