(cheerful upbeat music) - Will you consider this?

This young gentleman has been on the run literally all his life, but he's done so much more than that.

This is Adam White.

You are the owner of RC Outfitters.

Rebranded; it used to be Running Central - Correct.

- And a ShaZam Racing.

So, that's a timing.

So, you'll have to get into 'splaining that to me.

But let's start with who is Adam White?

You grew up here.

- I grew up here.

Peoria, Illinois.

Greater Peoria is my home.

I grew up over in Germantown Hills, back when it was unincorporated; had always gone to school in Peoria.

My father was an orthodontist and had his practice in Peoria and surrounding communities.

So, little guy who had dreams of a future, not really knowing what that future was, but wanting to make a difference came from a family that believed in giving back and doing the best we could to leave the world a better place when we left than when we found it.

And so, just been trying to find my way along my journey and do just that.

- Well, so one thing is, as a young boy, which you were in fifth grade, and you decided you wanted to join the school cross-country team, or what was that story?

- Well, I came from a family of runners, so yeah, I was in fifth grade and joined the track team for the first time.

It wasn't, track and field cross-country for grade schools then is not what it was today.

Much more loosely organized, not nearly the volume of meets, level of competition, structured on a local level to a state level.

So, I ran, and that was about, you know, had practice in the spring, didn't do anything the other 11 months out of the year, but got together with a group.

My father and another gentleman, Jim Dickerson here in town, were the coaches, and figured out that running could be fun, but it didn't really stick until high school.

- So, that was what years?

Because running really kinda, I think kinda took off in the seventies.

- Yeah, so you're looking back in the mid-late eighties when I was in grade school, and then entered high school in the fall of 1990, and very much high-school cross country, high-school track and field.

IHSA was very much established.

Yes, it's even boomed significantly since then, but it was a well-established sport with a big following here in greater Peoria.

And I got wrapped up in that magic.

- Hmm.

Well, so running in that magic, as you came into the station today, our station president, CEO Jen Gordon said, "Ah.

I know who you are.

I saw you run when I was 12 years old."

So, how about that?

(laughs) - Boy, does time fly.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know, I think that's part of the magic of cross country, right?

The sport touches a lot of lives directly and indirectly, and it leaves a mark on people.

They remember those things.

And to have an opportunity to have been a part of that and be back here inside the community, giving back through that sport that gave me so much; it's a privilege and an honor.

- So, everything hasn't been a bed of roses for you in your journey to where you are now, but running, it got you through.

I mean, you could always return to it and just keep going.

- It has been something that has been physical.

It's been spiritual, psychological, and a force that has given me the opportunity to recenter myself and allow me to find direction and purpose at a number of different pivotal crossroads in my journey.

Yes.

- So, some of those crossroads were, you were not necessarily; well, you were in college, you weren't necessarily taking care of yourself.

You know, we all have those peaks and valleys and things, but you were able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

- Yes, I think it's no secret.

I have struggled.

I had a struggle with alcoholism and addiction, unbeknownst to me at the time, right?

I thought what was going on was normal, right?

- Recreation, right.

- But later in life proved itself to be anything but that.

So, yes, definitely in college is when it really started to present itself and years after.

So, but running was something that kind of kept it together for me.

It certainly, the struggles that I was having was keeping me from possibly accomplishing all that I might have had to have offered to the sport at the time, but it was definitely keeping me alive.

- Mm.

And you have run in how many marathons?

I mean, half marathon's probably nothing for you; it's like a walk in the park.

But all over the world, you've participated.

- I've lost count.

But yes, the sport has given me an opportunity to travel, participate in marathons and other distances, experience other cultures, and get a neat foot tour of cities that many people don't get to see from a vantage point and perspective.

So, yes, that has also continued to give me tremendous opportunities.

- So, when you are running a marathon, because, I mean, I think I run a marathon every day just with everything that I do, but it's nothing.

How do you focus, especially when you're in some of these beautiful cities and things?

I would have to be keeping my eyes on my feet, make sure that I didn't trip.

But I mean, because you are in, like, a zen kind of moment, and do you get to take in that scenery?

- Sometimes.

I mean, make no mistake, I have to be aware of my surroundings, but I think it's like anything else.

We practice.

We all have things that we do and have done, most of us, for a regular basis.

And with that, we tune in our conscious mind and our subconscious mind.

And there are things about whatever it is that we have been practicing; our life's work, if you will, that becomes second nature to us.

And through that gives us the opportunity to possibly open up peripheral awareness, such as taking in some sites of the city at times that otherwise might not be able to.

So, I think that it's credited to doing this quite a bit.

And yes, the practice has been able to focus, get in a zone, maintain a rhythm, and then through that, be able to go from a tunnel vision to an expanded vision.

- Speaking of expanded vision, so years ago, you purchased Running Central, and it was in that little corner store at Sheridan and Main Street.

I mean, it was just about as wide as this set is.

And then, the stock room was in the upstairs or in the back, and then look what you've done.

- I'd say it's look what we've done.

It's a team.

I've been blessed to have teachers, mentors, supporters on the outside.

I have been extremely blessed to have been graced with men and women young, my age, senior to me, on my team over the last 20 years that have been unwavering in their support, their loyalty, to the vision of that which RC has been trying to cultivate and bring to fruition.

So, yeah, it's the business has come a long way.

- Mm.

It's not just shoes anymore, shoes and running socks and things.

You've also added some pretty nice brand items of clothing, athletic-wear to your stock.

- Yes, yes, it has.

I think that that's one of the things.

When I bought the business almost 20 years ago, some people looked at me and said, "Adam, why would you do that?"

You know, it was a mature business that'd been around for 30 years.

Conventional wisdom would've suggested it had plateaued, and with that, the only place to go is to actually decrease, and that the consumer base was possibly tapped out.

And I looked at it a little bit differently.

I said, "You know, opportunity's around us all the time, it's whether we see it or not.

And running is more than a sport, it's a lifestyle.

And there is an opportunity for us to take the bones of RC and to build and expand upon that.

And that is, one, it was recognizing who our customer was, and that was being able to serve people with just quality shoes.

Our foot's the physical foundation upon which... - Our body moves.

- And it carries us through our life's journey.

- Exactly.

- So, it's not just about running, it's about understanding the rim and the tire that's on that rim.

And then, the next phase of that was recognizing that a person might use running a tire for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, maybe an hour and a half over the course of the day.

But what is it that we wear on the rest of our day?

And if it is a lifestyle, what is the lifestyle in other assortments, I.E.

apparel and footwear, that we can use to compliment the bones of our knowledge in technical footwear to be able to create a health performance store?

And that's really more of where I see ourselves today and the niche that we're serving here in the community of Greater Peoria is we're a health performance store.

- Well, people come from all over.

I know that friends from Indiana come to your store.

Well, there is a connection there, but because you're like the only one and you're one, are you the largest running retail store at one point in the country?

- What was that?

- Yeah, the stats have been thrown out.

I think, by physical footprint, we are still considered the largest specialty-run store in the US; not necessarily by volume or pairs sold or anything of that nature.

There's certainly some larger stores.

But I think that when we really talk about how we have evolved, and are we a specialty run store, are we a lifestyle store, are we an out-store store?

We've almost found ourselves as a unicorn in the space of specialty retail and in who we are.

And so, but yes, from a physical footprint, we're significant.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And yes.

- And you enjoy it.

- I love it.

- That's the best thing.

- I'm living my dream.

I mean, it's not work.

Yes, there are times where it is work, but I always heard, when I was younger in life, you know, men and women who had careers that I looked up to, and I'd ask them about their work, and they would tell me, "Adam, it's not like work.

What do you mean?

I love what I do.

Even on the hard days, I love it, and I'm blessed to do what I do and have this opportunity."

And I said, "I want what you have."

- [Christine] Yeah.

- And I'm getting to do that today.

- And you found it.

Well, you did have one kinda nightmare.

- [Adam] (laughs) Ahead of you.

- Well, the one that really the nation learned about was during the pandemic, and there was an order that non-essential was shut down.

And so, you challenged the governor of the state of Illinois, you sued him and said, you know, "Hey, you know, I've got mouth to feed, I've got a family.

I have employees who have families.

This is just not right."

So, tell me about that battle.

- Yes.

That was a tough time indeed.

So, the full story, and I'll try to keep it as short as possible, but pre-COVID, the store was really struggling financially.

We were past-due with all of our vendors.

We were on credit hold with many of our vendors and actually in the process of moving to collections.

There were some other things that had happened here economically in our community starting in 2015.

Caterpillar had gone through their own woes.

And we had, over the several years that followed the preceding COVID, we had had our own regional economic struggles.

We were not immune to that.

And I had invested in 2014 in a much larger footprint, a pro-forma that had calculated high sales, mid sales, low sales.

And we were not hitting those benchmarks.

Our sales had dropped.

So, then COVID hit, and the world kind of froze.

And with that, all those collection agencies and creditors also froze.

They weren't coming in.

So, we had a little bit of a reprieve, right?

- Right.

- But then, so the governor issued his edicts and that things were going to be shut down, and we're trying to do things online to the best that we can, and electric companies, banks, lending institutions, everyone had kind of said that things froze, and we're having a few moments to breathe.

Well, then people figured out Zoom.

And it's 30 days later, and it's 45 days later, and remote adaptations were quickly taking root.

And with that, the phone calls reemerged, and we were finding ourselves back in the hot seat.

And this was everything.

I put all my chips on the table with this business, with both businesses.

And obviously, people aren't doing road races.

Everything's being canceled.

- Right, exactly.

- But now, the creditors are coming calling.

And I went, "What am I gonna do?"

And I spoke to, I was having a conversation with one of my mentors, a good friend, and Rich said, "Adam, I could be mistaken, but I don't think the governor has the legal authority to do this - [Christine] To shut you down.

- I said, "Hold on a second.

What do you mean?"

He said, "I'm pretty sure it's 30 days.

And anything beyond 30 days requires our state government to approve.

You might wanna have an attorney check that out because I'm not an attorney, but I'm pretty sure."

So, I picked up the phone, and I called my brother, who is an attorney, and I said, "Look into this for me please."

Tell me if it's true.

And he calls me back 30 minutes later and said, "I'm pretty sure it's 30 days, and these extensions are not legal.

- Can't do it.

- I said, "Well then, that's really simple.

I'm opening."

And he said, "You wanna do that?"

- Good luck.

- I said, "Yeah, I do."

He said, "Well, you could get in a lot of trouble for that."

The law is the law.

And I've followed the law, and we all need to follow the law.

And if he doesn't have the authority to do that, why does Target, Bass Pro, Walmart, who are selling shoes, socks, and apparel, why are they essential, and why am I not essential?

- [Christine] Correct.

- And the last time I checked, I'm pretty sure that a doctor, a podiatrist, or chiropractor didn't refer any of their patients over to Walmart to get fitted for good shoes.

- Fitted for shoes.

- Meanwhile, I get those referrals on a daily basis.

The logic, the math ain't mathing.

- It just isn't there.

Right.

- And so, one thing led to another.

I spoke with my team internally.

That was a big part of the equation is I surveyed my team and said, "Do you wanna work?"

- [Christine] And they did.

- And 75% of them through numerous surveys consistently came back, "We wanna work" - Good.

- Okay.

So, I consulted an attorney here in town, and we put the lawsuit forward, as much as anything to put a shield between us and the powers that be, because there was a lot of fear-mongering going on.

There was a lot of threats that were coming from places out throughout the state.

And I really looked at things and said, "Decisions made out of fear only bring about more fear, and there's a lot of decisions that are being wielded right now that are truly coming from a place of fear, not logic."

And I tell my child, I was telling my daughter, and I had been raising her to say that, you know, courage is standing up when we are scared and doing what we believe is right.

And if I was going to sit down in this moment, then I was actually compromising everything- - That you believed in and that you were teaching her.

- That I was teaching her as much as anything.

- [Christine] Right.

- And so, I said, "I need to stand up and step forward."

And that's what we did.

And it ended up, you lost the battle, but you still, I mean, you won the war.

- We were able to stay open, and the where we won the most was that people came into the business who might have forgotten about us, knew people came into the business for their own respective reasons to support us.

And they then suddenly saw all the different assortments that we had expanded into in 2014 in a different light.

And suddenly, there was a newfound traction, internally and externally with our business, that has propelled us and gotten us to where we are today.

- That's just awesome.

And then, you have, we don't have a whole lot of time left.

You have ShaZam Racing, so you're doing how many races a year?

- ShaZam Racing was a dream that my business partner, Brad Henson, and I had a number of years ago.

We officially formed it in 2012.

We're both runners here.

He ran at Richwoods, I ran at Notre Dame, ran against each other, but the sport gave us so much, gave us everything that we have today, and we wanted to find ways in which to give back.

And ShaZam Racing is an event-management company.

We put on some races here in town, but we also time and score.

And this year in 2025, ShaZam will time about 250 events between road, cross-country, track and field.

Wow.

It's just, it's been an amazing ride on that business as well.

- So, okay.

I mean, all these wonderful successes, then I just found out that you're also a musician.

So, we can spend a little time talking about that - Was a musician.

So, it was very important, particularly to my mother, that her children be well-rounded, and well-rounded is different for all families and what that means.

But for her, she knew that I did like sport, but she believed that music and having an appreciation for the arts was a very tangible vehicle to create well-roundedness in her children.

And so, all of us were classically trained between the piano, and then an additional stringed instrument.

And the stringed instrument that I picked up was the cello.

- [Christine] Amazing.

- Yeah.

- Just amazing.

So, do you still tickle the ivories or play the cello at all?

Or when do you have time?

- I do have my cello, but I do not take it out of the case.

And I know my mother would love for me to play a little bit more and to bring it out.

My daughter, Ava, she plays the flute.

And so, that is my opportunity to stay in touch with music and watch her and her journey grow.

She's in the marching band over at Washington High School and just having an absolute heyday with that experience, so.

That's how I stay in touch with my music, is through her.

- With that part of your life.

- Yes.

- Well, that's wonderful.

So, you've always been a dreamer then too?

- I would say so, yes.

Always had, the brain has been spinning and had ideas about how can things be bigger, brighter, more magical, more impactful, and how can a smile on someone's face get a little bit bigger?

And if there's something inside of me that has an opportunity to lend itself toward helping with that smile, I've been drawn toward it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Pretty amazing.

And all your life?

- It seems to have followed me, or I follow it, yes.

Yeah.

- Well, I would like to thank you for being here and for telling us all about your journey.

What's ahead?

- Ooh, what's ahead?

I think that, you know, obviously what's ahead is watching my daughter navigate the journey of high school.

I mean, time flies, right?

- [Christine] So, she's a sophomore?

- She's a freshman.

- A freshman, okay.

- So, she's a freshman over at Washington High.

And just really watching that young lady blossom, that is right now, one of my greatest joys.

And then, as far as the businesses are concerned, it's just continuing to lean into my team.

I'm blessed that I have a very gifted group of young men and women and older who have a lot to offer, who are seeing this world in which we live in, and I think that they have their finger on the pulse, perhaps a little bit better than I do.

- [Christine] At different stages of life, sure.

- Right.

And so, really trying to find ways in which to step back and raise this next generation and to let them get their fingers into both businesses in a more significant manner, so that the business has an opportunity to carry on.

Time flies.

I can't believe that I've been doing this for nearly 20 years.

And the mistake, the biggest mistake that I will make right now is not recognizing that the next 20 years- - [Christine] Will be different.

- Will be different, but it's not gonna go even faster.

And if I do not take significant steps to really embed the next generation of leaders into both businesses, then that will compromise their ability to be viable a quarter of a century from now.

So, that's really where my focus is, is how do I make sure that the appropriate succession plans for both RC and ShaZam Racing are not really being implemented today?

Because if they're not being implemented today, there's no way to be.

- They're gone.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- So, 'cause time will fly.

- It does.

We know that.

- Yes.

- Well, thank you for being here.

and sharing this story.

It's been wonderful.

- Thank you for having me.

- Finding all this extra stuff out about you.

- Yeah, absolutely.

It's a pleasure to share.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

And it was a pleasure to have you join us.

And until next time, be well.

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