Janji Is Setting Up Shop on Newbury Street

Janji photo provided

Janji is running back to Newbury Street, and it’s going to stick around for a little while.

After a successful six-week pop-up store this spring, the philanthropic running brand is upping the ante with a nine-month stay at 328 Newbury Street, starting September 22. Of course, the shop will sell Janji‘s line of running apparel and accessories, but founder Dave Spandorfer says it’ll be about much more than that.

“We want it to be very much a hub for the Boston fitness community,” he says, adding that the store will have a dedicated space for fitness classes (offered in partnership with MoveWith), nutrition courses, workshops, and other health events. “When we have this community connection, really cool things happen.”

It’s a mission that meshes well with Janji’s outward-focused ethos. Since its founding in 2012, the brand has used a portion of its sales to bring clean water to countries that need it, with a current focus on Kenya. “As the company’s evolved,” Spandorfer says, “it’s been about how do we explore the area around us, how do we explore the world, how do we think of ourselves, as individuals and as runners, as being part of this larger thread?”

The pop-up store will help accomplish that, Spandorfer says, by giving the Boston fitness community another place to assemble. And while nine months will give Janji enough time to establish a strong foothold on Newbury, Spandorfer says it’s too soon to count on a permanent presence.

“It moves from being a sprint, with the six-week store, to a 5K or a 10K,” he says. “It’s not a marathon yet.”

Still, he adds, “I don’t think we would open a nine-month store if we didn’t think it’d be a distinct possibility to open something permanent in the near future.”

Janji, 328 Newbury St., Boston, runjanji.com.