How Velocità Pioneered Brazil's Running Specialty Market
Founded as Sport Now in the 1990s, the brand shifted its full focus to running in 2002 and built its reputation on expert advice.
Before establishing itself as a benchmark in road running, Velocità began as a general sporting goods store. In an interview, Alexandre Estefano details the brand's shift to a specialized model and the evolution of Brazil's running market.
From General Sporting Goods to Road Running
When the project that gave rise to Velocità began in 1996, the Brazilian sports retail market operated under a completely different dynamic than it does today. The business was launched under the name Sport Now, created by Carneiro and Felipe Estefano—brother of Alexandre Estefano, the brand's current managing partner. The original concept was to cater to multiple athletic disciplines, operating as a traditional sporting goods store.
Over the years, the founders noticed that running products were posting the strongest growth and delivering the highest sales differentiation. At the turn of the millennium, the road running scene in São Paulo was beginning to gain momentum with the emergence of the first running consultancies—such as Marcos Paulo Reis and Run Fun—alongside races organized by entities like Corpore and the Pão de Açúcar race circuit, which expanded the race calendar beyond legacy events like the São Silvestre.
Observing the running specialty store model that was already well established in the United States and Europe, the partners decided to pivot the business. Around 2002, the company dedicated itself entirely to running and rebranded the operation as Velocità.
The Specialty Store Concept and the Japanese Era
The creation of Velocità introduced structural innovations to the runner's shopping experience in Brazil. The retail space was designed to put the athlete at the center: it separated men's and women's product curation, offered in-store gait analysis, and integrated dedicated areas for events and race kit pickups.
During that era, the domestic performance footwear market was heavily dominated by Japanese brands. Around 70% of store sales were concentrated in Asics and Mizuno models, which introduced technical concepts like gel cushioning and wave plates, while popularizing shoe categorization based on overpronated, supinated, and neutral gaits. Technical consulting thus became the foundation of running specialty retail in the country.