Running Supply #78
SATISFY's CEO steps down, Brooks just posted the best quarter in its 112-year history, , and why the text-over-image Instagram account economy is running on borrowed content and borrowed time.
I’ve only just finished cleaning out The Rec Room, my Boston Marathon popup with writer Lee Glandorf, Running Wylder owner Katherine Douglas, and Currently Running’s creative founder Nash Howe. I am incredibly behind on interviews but I have upcoming: artist extroardinaire Zach Litoff, creative Nur Abbas of gnuhr, and Kelsey Nahas of Zappos.
This issue has some bits on my recent work, a leadership shuffle, the earnings report that keeps the lights on, and a short editorial about the text”"-over-image” IG accounts that have somehow become primary sources.
ICYMI
Last week — two men went sub-2:00 at London (legally) on adidas’s Adizero Adios Evo Pro, Tigst Assefa broke her own world record again on the women’s side, and we got into the new nutrition arms race driving these times. Plus a bit on running brands trying too hard to be cool.
Running Supply #77 - Sub 2 Was Inevitable, Spiritually Painful Brands, and Spring Updates
With two spectacular finishes at London, we’re in a new era of marathoning. On the men’s side, you simply need to be running sub 2:05 to be remotely competitive. For women, well under 2:20. London was historically fast this year with perfect conditions and super elite fields. 2 men set the world record, Sabastian Sawe (
Seeing The End Work Rocks
The Bibrave team has been great about putting me on to stuff ever since I went on their Tokyo trip to Worlds. Thank you, Brooks Running!
For an athlete trip to Hawai’i, Brooks Running sent some pros and trail running influencers out for a rip on the local trails. They partnered with a local artist, Illikoi Goods, to upcycle vintage Brooks tees I sourced into trail caps. This is the first time I saw them come to life! Illikoi crushed it, and I was happy to be a part of the project.
I love working on projects like this, so if you’re in need, reply to this email.
SATISFIED in Paris
SATISFY CEO Antoine Auvinet is stepping down after two years at the company. He advised the brand from early 2024 before officially becoming CEO that November — just in time to close the €11 million Series B and oversee the launch of The Rocker.
Auvinet came to SATISFY from Sézane and Celine, two French houses where did luxury at scale. SATISFY was facing their own new scaling challenge; how could the brand go from menswear stores to Fleet Feet, launch The ROCKER, and handle more inventory than ever? Hard to say what comes next. Brice Partouche remains the creative lead and persona behind the brand.
Brooks Running Keeps The Lights On And The Shareholders Happy
Brooks just posted the strongest quarter in its 112-year history. +23% global growth. Second consecutive all-time quarterly revenue record. Double-digit growth in every region and every channel. China sales nearly tripled. Surprisingly, the new Glycerin Flex, their experimental daily trainer with Nike Free like segmentation, hit 4% of global footwear revenue in its first quarter on shelves. Last year closed at +16% with China up 245%. Brooks has been up YoY for nine consecutive years. That’s a great Berkshire Hathaway portfolio piece. Meanwhile their lifestyle and collab side is just taking off and the runDisney partnership absolutely prints.
“Text and Overlay” Accounts Are In Trouble
Rarely do I write about these directly, but I’ve long been frustrated with the pithy headlines and marketing photos lifted from a brand or photographer.
Instagram recently announced it will be cracking down and penalizing posts from aggregator accounts that do not post original content. The lineage is Complex, Hypebeast, Outlander Magazine — the repost-and-overlay format built into a media business by aggregators who figured out it was cheaper and faster than original work.
These aggregator accounts add very little to the Instagram noise beyond pushing the latest launch from whoever is paying them. It’s contributing to the online echo chamber of Instagram to what now has become UGC ads.
And part of the problem is that brands are supporting them, and they’re getting paid to do this. The ROI is probably higher than ads, and because very few of them disclose that the post is an ad, it seems “authentic.” Those who know, know that they’re charging upwards of four figures for a couple posts.
I realize the irony here. I mostly cover new releases and hype news. Call it gatekeeping. I feel like I’m a bit more critical of the glitz and glam, and I do not do any paid posts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — the long form stuff takes a lot of time!
I’m sure the metrics are fun and it’s great to see dopamine producing numbers in terms of shares and likes. But it’s derivative content engineered for buzz over substance. Recently I saw a post about “the emerging subculture of running fashion” and “the new running luxury” and audibly groaned. Hopefully Instagram does actually crack down on this and rewards interesting and creative work.
Recent and Upcoming Releases
That being said, here’s some of the stuff that’s happened or happening that caught my eye.
Janji Race Divison
Comes out May 12, led by their new “Gossamer” fabric. They’re pitching it as their new ultralight race kit. They also added a new Pinnacle R.D. Short which is specifically made for the ultra trail distance. High capacity storage: 2 liters of gear, space for soft flasks, bungee loops for poles. I bought their trail tights long ago and always loved that capacity.
Salomon GRVL Concept + Courtney Ultra Glide 2
Salomon just released their new “GRVL Concept,” leaning hard into the road-to-trail and all-road type shoe. The Concept is their quickly produced hybrid shoe combining road super shoe tech of PEBA supercritical foam, a heft 43mm/37mm stack, and energyBLADE carbon plate. It also has an intermediate tread, and lovely grurple colorway. The knit gaiter keeps out debris while the pull makes it easy to adjust.
While I don’t love the “gravel” concept, I do love the idea of an all road shoe for folks that live outside of heavy urban areas. A little extra grip is nice, and this shoe will surely rip on about 80% of trails. If it’s sloppy, don’t worry about a crazy stack height, get some MegaGrip.
I Got Me Some Bapes: adidas x Bape EVO SL
Please, make a different shoe. Adidas’ only high energy shoe right now is the EVO SL and they are doing every collab and colorway with it. For the hype beast turned recent runner, this is perfect. Cap it off with some Oakley Redux.
This is a shoe that will sell out instantly, much like the first run of EVO SLs. I’ve written about the hype launch cycle for running shoes well over a year ago in Runner’s World. They’ll make 200 pairs of these and be on eBay for $1000 before they even come out.
Bape is pretty dead, so not sure why this is even coming out. $200 at some point in June. If these came out in 2012 I would have been all over it. That said, the mismatch and co-branding is neat. If this came out before every other collab, I’d buy it simply because it looks nice.
Hermanos Koumori SS26
HK was last covered here when their adidas EVO SL Woven hit in January. Their new Spring 26 collection just dropped featuring a bunch of earth toned active and lifestyle wear. Three picks:
Hi-Tech Polo — a performance polo silhouette done in an actual technical fabric. Shocking how few brands do this. Tracksmith did a few years ago with the Van Cortlandt Polo. It' looks sick.
Light Over Shirt — quintessential spring shacket. You know how I feel about those.
Thick & Thin Boulder Tee — I haven’t seen this texture before on a running brand tee. It reminds me a bit of the lululemon thermal texture.
Chrome Is The New Neon?
Whole lotta chrome this season between Nike x Isamaya, Altra x Pleasures, and now Saucony x Minted NY. Must have been a trend report or something because they are all coming out around the same time, independently.
Minted NY’s chrome Endorphin Pro 5 is the sharpest colorway the brand has done yet, and comes out in London May 16th and online May 19th at 11 AM EST . Marcus Milione and the Minted team have become Saucony’s most reliable lifestyle ←→ running bridge.
Erniold Zero Run and Zero Race
Aussie brand, Erniold launched two new “winter” pieces, “Zero Run” and “Zero Race” — a tiered training-vs-race-day system. The small brand has been quiet for a while, but this latest launch seems to be their most technical yet. My favorite part is the only real “winter” item is a pair of cotton gloves. Might I add this stretchy mesh looks awfully familiar? Maybe it is just a commonly found material after all…
For Later
Check out my bit on 3rd and 4th wave running stores, which features a list of the best running stores in the world. Indie Running Stores
If you’re looking to shop for any of this cool gear, check out my running store finder which let’s you filter by brand to see the nearest store.
Supply Run is a series of casual interviews with industry professionals. Anyone from runners to store owners to founders.
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There’s a difference between what you do here and the low (lower?) effort content of the aggregator/“type over image” instagram type stuff. It’s that you are also editorializing beyond the short adjective descriptor that they tag on. Those sources all feel heavily sanitized and marketing department approved, rather than actually authentic. It’s fine for the doom scroll surface level this product just got announced or teased but nothing else. Maybe they put words in the description but instagram really isn’t built for words other than over the image, which is also why these accounts are so prevalent. It’s great, I guess, that instagram is trying to dissuade that type of content but their platform has perpetuated it.
The upcycled Brooks caps are so choice 👌