At Flostate Running, a coach builds a hub for island runners

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026

James Batey places Brooks running shoes onto wooden shelves he milled from a fallen island cedar, paper still covering the windows of his new storefront on Vashon Highway SW.

Behind that butcher paper, next door to Vashon Bakery and across from the Saturday farmers market, Batey has been building Flostate Running since March. The space was vacated by Raven’s Nest, which downsized into the neighboring storefront. He officially opens Friday, June 5.

“I know this can be a really vibrant community,” Batey said. “I just see a space where we can create a community-based store that people will rally around. It feels like it’s coming together at the right time.”

A runner and coach for two decades, Batey has spent the last two years teaching PE at the Harbor School and coaching track at Vashon High School. Now he’s adding shopkeeper to the list.

“I’m just making this all up as I go,” Batey said with a laugh. “I’ve never owned a shoe store or a business.”

Before he was coaching on the island — in 2021 — Batey was racing around the world on National Geographic’s “Race to the Center of the Earth,” paddling down the Mekong River in Laos, rappelling waterfalls in Thailand and moving overland through northern Vietnam with his team, which ultimately won the show’s $1 million prize, split three ways.

Afterward, he kept traveling, leading experiential trips for students — bikepacking, coaching and taking young people to places such as Guatemala and Cambodia.

Then, two years ago, he needed a job again. That brought him to the Harbor School and Vashon High School. Now, he said, the store is his way of creating a life and livelihood on the island.

“I wanted to create my own job,” Batey said.

When Northwest Sports, a longtime island institution, closed last November, it left islanders without a place to buy new athletic shoes. Batey had considered buying the business before deciding it wasn’t the kind of store he wanted to run. He wanted to sell running, and everything around it, so when the space on the highway opened up, the direction was clear.

Batey has spent months cold-calling shoe brands and pitching Vashon as a community worth investing in.

Alongside heritage staples like Brooks, New Balance, and On Running, he carries labels that are nearly impossible to find in the Seattle area — among them Norda, a Montreal brand making bio-based shoes and Kane, a sugarcane-based recovery sandal he carries as one of the few West Coast retailers.

He’s also developing a house line of Vashon-specific graphic tees, with a team of designers working on the look — including one Strawberry Festival design he’s particularly excited about.

“We’re trying to create a beautiful aesthetic with also island-centric vibes,” he said.

The store’s name — Flostate — comes from the psychological concept of peak performance — the point where challenge and ability converge.”When you’re in the flow state, it’s kind of like being in the zone,” Batey said. “It’s at the nexus of high challenge and high ability.”

Flostate is a hub for all kinds of movement on foot — running, hiking and walking — with a focus on shoe fittings, understanding how each customer plans to use their shoes and finding the pair that works specifically for them.

The store will also carry kids’ shoes, sandals and recovery footwear, along with a small selection of active apparel from brands such as Tracksmith and On. Running-store staples, including socks, nutrition products and hip belts and packs for longer outings, will also be available.

But Batey’s vision extends well beyond the shoe wall — he wants to build something Vashon has never really had: a community hub for runners.

“There’s an endurance community here that’s really disparate,” he said. “There’s no one space to go, no group for all ages to come together and run.”

The Wednesday after opening, on June 10, he will launch a free weekly run club at 6 p.m., starting at the Village Green or the shop, with pacers for different speeds and distances of three or five miles, open to runners and walkers alike.

The store will also offer discounts on run club days, maps of island trails and, eventually, paid training programs for people preparing for races. Those could include coached group runs, workouts in Island Center Forest and sessions on the high school track.

Flostate will also have an events arm, starting with a tribute close to home.

On July 2, Flostate will host the Foss Miller Memorial All Comers Track Meet at Vashon High School, a tribute to the longtime coach and beloved islander who died this past April after years of involvement with the school’s cross country program.

Runners of any age can enter and compete in an official timed event in any track discipline; all proceeds go to the Foss Miller Memorial Fund for the high school team.

Also on the calendar is a dock to dock run on Aug. 9 that Batey hopes will draw runners from off-island, lured by a route that could only exist here — 15 miles from the Tahlequah ferry terminal to the North End dock, a high-elevation route that can be completed solo or as a three-person relay.

This winter, Batey plans a Backyard Ultra — a four-mile loop run once per hour until one person remains, a race that could last 10 hours or 40.

He also plans to create a membership program called the Flostate Collective, offering store discounts, socks and annual store credit. A Founders Club membership, available during the store’s first six months, would include a lifetime discount, annual credit and Flo State gear.

Some of the people working behind the counter will be high school runners Batey coaches. His wife, Claire Magruder, is serving as creative director for the store, helping shape the aesthetic side of the business.

Batey is still working out some details, including the store’s regular hours. For now, shoes are still being placed on shelves. Clothing is still going on racks. The paper still covers the windows.

But behind it, a new island gathering place is taking shape — part running store, part community hub, part invitation to move through Vashon together.

“It’s really just a communal way to come together,” he said — one that, he is quick to note, doesn’t require a drink in your hand.

A weekly run club, he hopes, can offer a different kind of third place: low-pressure, physical, social and open to people who want to run, walk or do a little of both.

Flostate Running is located at 17508 Vashon Hwy SW. The store’s first free run club meets Wednesday, June 10, at 6 p.m. at the Village Green. For more information visit flostaterunning.com.