Running Supply Roundup #20
Paris Fashion Week is nigh, Brooks goes hype, preview of Satisfy FW25
Paris Fashion Week is this week! Plenty will be in next week’s roundup. Running brands traditionally haven’t attended or been represented at any fashion weeks, but this year we’re already seeing an uptick. Not surprised.
Quick Hits
Just as NAZ Elite cut all their 30+ year old marathoners, Hoka signed 31 year old triathlete Morgan Pearson, who will attempt to quality for both the marathon and triathlon for LA28. Morgan formerly ran pro on the Tinman Elite team, and has since won an Olympic medal in the triathlon.
Weini Kelati broke her own American half record at Houston, clocking 1:06:09. Conner Mantz claimed the American men’s record, shattering Ryan Hall’s by 26 seconds, clocking 59:17.
Some fun marketing initiatives
BPN, aka Bare Performance Nutrition, set up a fun “news stand” at the Houston Marathon expo. Love that they did something different. Seems like they had all the details right too, down to adverts on the side and faux newspapers. Not a brand I’d heard of, but keeping an eye out for what they do next.
Hoka sponsored the CYUP “Misfits” invitational, and really leaned into it. CYUP Misfits is an invitational meet for "off" events like the 300m, 600m, and 1000m, aiming to take some of the pressure of indoor and early season competition, while still being competitive. The singlets were done by custom kit designer Greg Itahara. Love the sort of comic-book-superhero theme they went with.
Whats Happening This Week
Paris Preview
If you’re in Paris, you can see a bunch of Spring/Summer 2025 previews at the Impossible Objects Showroom courtesy of TECHUNTER. New Running Order, District Vision x PAF and ROA, Satisfy, SOAR, Houdini, Balmoral Sports, and plenty of others.
Brooks taps a streetwear legend
In recent news, Jeff Staple x Brooks Adrenaline GTS 4 sneakers are coming in March. These are lifestyle shoes, but worth a mention as it is Brooks’ second collab. Easily the most hype-worthy. Staple is a renowned skateboarding and streetwear designer and founded the label Staple Pigeon. His first collab with Nike was in 2005 on a pair of Nike SB Dunks limited to 150 pairs. The drop garnered such a massive crowd to his Lower East Side store that NYPD showed up. I don’t expect quite that response for a Brooks running retro, but it’s cool to see that they’re experimenting with more collabs as well as some lifestyle plays (see my 2024 trend report). Nike’s Vomero retros and Asic’s sportstyle line have done really well the last couple years, so why not Brooks?
New Soar X RUN
Soar’s X RUN collection seems to be a high performance training focused line (higher than what they already do??). Not sure what to make of it yet, but seems like just new spring colors for them. Wish they made those khaki ones in a split length! You can probably see this and more at Impossible Objects Showroom courtesy of TECHUNTER. This is the first time the brand will be at Paris Fashion Week, and I expect the first of many fashion weeks that they’ll attend.
New Hues
A bunch of brands launched new colorways: On, adidas, and 4T2. On added to a lovely blue hue to their Cloudmonster 2 collection, 4T2 added a punchy “Dutch Orange”, and adidas teased some Y-3 versions of the Adios Pro 4 they have in the pipeline.
The Y-3 shoes usually run a little more expensive that the “OG” models, but often feature some cooler styling like the ones below. I really dig the brick red one.
In case you missed it last week
Nike Alphafly Ekiden releasing via Nike at the end of the month (Jan 31)
Nike Vaporfly 4 coming April 3, 2025
Satisfy Running hasn’t released this yet but several stockists have their new colors for Spring ‘25.
Puma Running launched PUMA PROJECT3, which is a program similar to Tracksmith’s sponsorship or Nike’s Project Moonshot. Deadline is January 27.
Voodoo Running just opened in Manchester, UK
Café Vestiaire is open in Paris. Seems like a weekly thing where you can grab some coffee and find a shake out.
That’s all folks! Stay tuned.
BPN is great. You should look up their founder, Nick Bare. He’s a big into running.
As Justin said, BPN is Nick Bare’s company (great guy and phenomenal athlete). Honestly pretty interesting to see them do something this cool, I wonder who did the design and concept. Didn’t expect it from a somewhat bro-vibe/hybrid athlete brand.