YouTube is the most streamed video app in the world. Despite that accolade I think it’s still underutilized by brands and athletes in our sport. Collectively we are constantly experimenting with the ways it can be most effective.
Should an athlete or brand create an on-going series?
Should they create long-form films?
Should they host behind-the-design, product, campaign and how-to videos?
Should brands host athlete films or should athletes put them on their own channels?
Does the vlog or highly produced film have more impact?
How can we best take advantage of this massive streaming platform?
Individual athletes are by far the most common subject of YouTube films in running. Whether documenting a race, an adventure, a season, a training session or an injury - the topic explored by most films is the individual athlete’s journey. It is all goal pursuit oriented. Those same athletes, however, are evolving to be more than the subject but also the distribution channel.
Here’s a variety of films that have dropped in the past few months (in no particular order) with my take on the stories and approaches that are working.
Shokz debuted a film on Conner Mantz with a bit of help from Maurten. - It’s 49 minutes long and has +400k views in just two weeks. It was well shot but headlines touting it as “Netflix quality” were overblown IMO. It held the same tension level for most of the film so when we finally got to the race part in Chicago it wasn’t as effective as it could have been. We did learn more about Conner and his family, however, which was great. I found the pre-race fueling segment really interesting. It switched to black and white (on brand for Maurten) while Conner discussed the products he uses. It felt like a mid-film ad but I didn’t hate it because it fit so appropriately within the story. This film won because Conner ended up smashing the American Record and people immediately want to know more. If he misses the record I think this ends up with a fraction of the views. A film tied to a relevant moment is a great bet. Shokz bet on their athlete and it paid off. Bravo.
While Mantz’ film lives on the Shokz channel, his training partner, Clayton Young, takes a different strategy. Clayton has created a film series on his own channel in the buildup to each of his races. His early Olympic series was sponsored by Asics but he has dropped more recent series with both Cadence and STRYD. He’s built up 39k subs which is more than some entire brands including Brooks (27k). His recent announcement as a Brooks athlete has 37k views in 2 just days. I’d assume Clayton’s contract includes a media budget so I’m sure there’s more to come from this new partnership.
David and Megan Roche dove head first into YouTube about 18 months ago. They’ve built 45k subs and now see 60k views on workout videos and 100-300k views on race recap films. David does vulnerability well and that pulls us in. They’ve monetized with sponsors including The Feed, Wahoo and Janji. Their Leadville race recap from August has a wild 382k views. Like Conner Mantz, it helps when you win and/or smash records.
Kilian Jornet has 137k subs, the most of any athlete in this article except Jason Tatum (read on!). Kilian has seen the power of YouTube going back to his Kilian’s Quest series with Salomon 16 years ago (that’s crazy). In the past year-ish he has really ramped up his own YouTube presence and I expect it creates a halo effect for his brand, Nnormal. The Western States training vlog he dropped last year has over 500k views. Kilian recently dropped The Season Ahead which hit 120k views in 5 days and there are certainly more episodes to come this year. The appetite for anything the GOAT does is insatiable.
Jennifer Lichter is coming. She’s been quietly learning and documenting for a couple years and is up to 3k subs. A recent strength training video hit 25k views. I’m including her as an example because I think she’s on her way and doing this really well albeit at a different stage of evolution than more established athletes like Kilian. A few of you recommended her channel to me. With Nike ACG in her corner I expect more to come here. If ACG is smart they will invest in her channel (and others) to add authenticity and value beyond the glitter bomb train stunts.
Adam Merry and the Boulder Boys created a video around Adam’s Black Canyon race. First Endurance sponsored the film and it’s hosted on the Boulder Boys channel. Beyond a podcast, these guys seem to be combining forces and sponsors to host their collective content in one place. This film recapped much of Adam’s recent race history. It is basically a race report with the storyline of “I tried, I DNF’d and I learned from it”. I missed the meaning of the 999 title but it seems like the beginning of Adam’s version of Seth’s Ruhling’s “Year of the Boy” series from last year. These guys have their own strategy going on with the Boulder Boy’s channel. It’s different and I like it.
Francesco Puppi has also dove into YouTube in the past year. Coincidentally, he has also racked up some big wins within that time. His most recent vlog-style video documents his training before heading to the US for an extended stay that started with Black Canyon. Notably for me is that the film is sponsored by Hoka. This is what we’re starting to see as a result of a media budget in athlete contracts. I don’t think this film gets as many views if it lives on Hoka’s channel. Brands supporting athletes to create their own content is becoming the norm.
Enter another Hoka athlete, Hans Troyer. He has quickly built a sizable channel with 43k subs. His recent vlog-style video on his Black Canyon win has 150k views (again, helps when you win and there’s a moment attached).
Hyperlyte struck gold with their film, The Kid, about Hans last year. It has a crazy 2 million views and put Hyperlyte on the YouTube map. They had virtually no subs and were a new brand when they dropped that film, proving that while a larger audience helps get a video started, it does not determine success in the long run. This film struck it bigger than just about any other recent film for a few reasons:
1) It was surprising and provided friction. He lived alone in a camper without his wife to train. That’s wild.
2) It was relatable for many runners aspiring to run professionally and smashing themselves to make it happen.
3) It made being a fan of Hans a participatory event - people now hold up loaves of bread when he races. Don’t understand why? Watch the film!
Altra dropped a film with Tara Dower and her recent success from the Appalachian Trail FKT through the Long Trail FKT. It has hit 110k views in the 3 months since it launched. It’s an excellent film (vs vlog) that really showcases her personality AND her performance. I loved the balance.
More recently Tara’s own channel also released a film on her 2026 Black Canyon race. It dropped March 12th and has 34k views. I would think this film was funded by the media budget stipulated in Tara’s contract and thus lives on her own YouTube channel. It should be noted that Tara’s 40k subscribers top Altra’s 22k.
Bandit has stayed consistent in their YouTube strategy. Their DIALED series has been going for years with some episodes popping off for 100k views but most still clearing 10k. The most recent episode features an employee running Tokyo and finishing her 6th major. It hit 11k in the first 5 days. Their unique behind-the-design films have been growing from 50k to an impressive 300k views. Their latest episode in a series on chefs who run (Dine & Dash) has 285k views in just two months (check the excellent title and thumb).
Saucony recently dropped a brand short called The Runners that hit 20k views in 3 weeks since it dropped. It’s creative and well shot but maybe tried to do too much. It shows us 5-6 shoes from lifestyle to elite racers, covers several runners in different situations and even a person on a bike, clearly a fear not to leave anyone out. The guy’s feet fake bouncing at the traffic light near the end was too much for me. I did love the VO of running interviews/reasons and it’s a really cool idea to capture all the various runners that might hit a one block radius within a few minutes time. The long one-shot sequences really keep our attention and make us wonder what/who we will see next. The thumbnail and title are super basic, however, and I think will limit this film’s success.
Brooks sent a production team to Patagonia with their trail athletes earlier this year. The result was an expedition-style film about the athletes connecting beyond a racing/competition environment. It showed their human side and their love for running in the mountains. The expedition-style story was different for Brooks but I really liked it. It reminded me of older TNF climbing films or Salomon TV pieces. We got to know and connect with the personalities of the athletes not just their performance stats. The athlete camp/trip pieces are less popular than they used to be which IMO makes this film from Brooks a smart and unique play. Bravo. It has 12k views and dropped last month.
As a very small brand, Open Fuel hit a home run by partnering with Will Murray. This film tells a bit of his background and covers his race at Javelina this year. If an athlete hits it out of the park in a race the film almost always does well. It’s a similar approach to what Hyperlyte took with Hans Troyer when they too included their founders in the film. We are driven by curiosity about Will Murray bc of his big win/record at Javelina. 18k views is a great start for just 170 subs.
There are some big players I’m not listing here. Although it has evolved, Salomon TV has been a staple in the trail running space for decades. The early seasons really paved the way for all trail running films we see today. They sit at 295k subscribers and regularly hit hundred of thousands of views on their films.
Salomon’s sister brand, Arc’teryx, is making a push in the trail running space with their 201k subs. They have put out premium ski films with +500k views and I would anticipate they are thinking of the same strategy in trail running.
Surprisingly, it was May of last year when On last dropped anything longer than 60s. That film was 12 minutes of almost ungraded and uncut BTS from a trip to Austin to capture the On x Pleasures x The Loop campaign. Surprisingly it still has 60k views which is interesting. Last April they also dropped a film on Simon Gosselin running Western States that hit 43k views. Aside from a place to post their 30-60s campaign ads, YouTube seems to have fallen out of favor in On’s strategy this past year.
Hoka’s YouTube channel is rough if I’m being honest. The Humans of Hoka series is creating some well made films but they don’t seem to be integrated well into the rest of Hoka’s marketing. Recent HoH films hit just 2k views while a couple of the top performers last year hit 9k - that doesn’t cut it for me when you consider the budget they are likely putting into these. Their other series aren’t much better either. Both the Keeping Pace and the Beyond Doubt series hit just 1-2k views at best. In fact, Hoka’s channel doesn’t contain ANY films with over 10k views until we go back to the HoH film on the brand’s founders in August 2024. Within that time a couple isolated product videos, a campaign ad and a UTMB course preview popped off with higher numbers but zero films or series found success. Hoka has a huge athlete team and while it’s great that they invest separately in athlete channels, they are missing out by ignoring their own channel. I’m guessing there isn’t much/any ownership of YouTube internally.
Overall the biggest theme here is that brands are investing in athletes as more than the story but also the distribution channel. The vlog-style content on athlete channels is more humble/personal than the premium films, product videos and how-to’s on a brand channel. The strategy to invest in athlete channels allows brands to do a couple things:
Grow the athletes’ personal brands. If all of these films live on the brand’s channel they’re often removed if that athlete signs with a different brand. This way they become long-term assets for the athlete vs just disappearing.
Create a more authentic and in many cases a larger channel into the brand. Brands always find ways to turn us off with a disingenuous product shot that reminds us we’re watching an ad. We take their stories with a grain of salt. Letting the athletes express themselves directly gives us more personality, truth and entertainment yet still brings us into the brand’s orbit. Plus many athletes have build a larger following in months than brands have built in years.
That being said, balancing investment between athlete channels and the brand channel maximizes impact. A brand channel done well is critical to reach an audience directly, gain relevance within the culture and become top of mind. The best brand channels do this with unique BTD films, product videos, campaign shorts and of course successful films like we see from Shokz, Altra, Open Fuel, Bandit, Salomon, Arc’teryx, Brooks and Hyperlyte.
Other themes and opportunities I see:
It’s a gamble, but when an athlete wins a race or sets a record the YouTube story will pop off and extend that success. This has and will always be true.
I previously wrote about culture stacks and interest groups. Bandit found success by overlapping with a chef. Salomon featured a musician.
Athletes pull off a YouTube series better than brands. Athletes treat each episode as a continuation of the previous. Brands seem to treat each episode as a separate story with little connection to the others aside from the title.
Brands produce beautiful films while athletes nail the intimate vlog-style stories.
There’s opportunity for more team, camaraderie and relationship stories vs. the individual story. I’d love a follow-up story about the relationship between Tara and Rascal - between the athlete and crew chief/friend.
Get your thumbnails, hooks and titles figured out. They contribute massively to success.
The combined channel strategy at the Boulder Boys is unique and potentially powerful but does come with some risk if these guys move or the group fractures.
Lastly, I wanted some perspective around where running stands versus other major sports/athletes so I looked at the NBA assuming there would be a big difference. Jason Tatum recently collaborated with the NBA, NBC and the Boston Celtics on a 5 part series that documented his return from an achilles tear. They dropped episodes weekly in the weeks before his return to playing - less than a year after the injury.
Jason Tatum alone has 355k subs which doubles that of Kilian, yet Tatum’s most recent episode has 100k views in the 10 days since it dropped - less than the 120k view that Kilian’s Season Ahead video gained in just 5 days. The numbers in running compete with what we are seeing in the NBA and in some ways running is winning. This demonstrates that runners show up on YouTube and that the opportunity here can’t be ignored. If you are a brand or athlete thinking about a YouTube strategy, the time is now to get it figured out. Let’s talk!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.