Why we're raising $100k for Apex Speed Run 📈

Hey friends, greetings from Lisbon 🇵🇹

In 2006, we started North America’s first parkour classes.

In 2009, we opened the world’s third parkour gym.

In 2016, we created the world’s first online platform for parkour education.

In 2022, we built the USA’s first permanent World Chase Tag course.

Now, we’re building and crowdfunding the world’s first network of speed runs, set in outdoor/public spaces, designed to challenge everyone and find the fastest athletes in the real world.

→ Contribute ETH to our crowdfunding campaign on Juicebox:
https://juicebox.money/v4/eth:66

→ Contribute via PayPal, credit, debit, Apple Pay, etc:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YDVC5C94CSDUC

1. to create an open-source network of speed run training and competitive opportunities set in outdoor, public spaces worldwide

2. to grow the network to at least 100 countries, 1k courses, & 10k players, as well as its own IRL championships and gamified app (e.g. Strava, All Trails, Kaya, etc)

3. to pioneer a decentralized sport/science hybrid niche to further the research and development of better athlete/coach education in parkour, plyometrics, cross-training, falling, self-defense/preservation, general movement skills, etc (DeSport / DeSci)

We’re reimagining the digital speedrun meme and bringing it into the physical world. Apex Speed Run is free and open to anyone, any time. Run it for fun, with friends and family, to compete against yourself, to climb the leaderboards, or to find your way into our future IRL championships events.

Apex Speed Run embodies many core values of parkour, including freedom, application, exploration, and outdoor training, by offering a permissionless, scalable format suitable for all levels.

Our public, decentralized courses create new training opportunities, competitions, and communities that anyone can join and participate in, making speed parkour more authentic, affordable, and inclusive for more people worldwide.

• 118 courses set in 61 cities and 15 countries

• 300+ additional locations identified in 100+ cities and 50+ countries

• 50 courses on Google Maps (500k+ views)

• 565 runs by 147 players (10M+ views)

• Top athletes including Taylor Carpenter (WCT MVP + Pan-Am champ, SPL podium x2), Olof Wood (WCT world champ), Andrés Fierro (Exatlón México champ), Bekah Jackson (WCT MVP + Pan-Am champ), Joey Jepsen (USPK national champ), Rob Schihl (WCT world champ), Ella Bucio (FIG world champ), Kaden Lebsack (top ANW athlete x2), Megan McQueen (SPL world champ), Michael Sliger (WCT world champ, SPL podium x2)

  

• General public: Access to free, outdoor training opportunities that build fitness and skill

• Public spaces: Parks, plazas, & more revitalized as hubs for movement and community

• Course setters: A new way to earn by building public parkour infrastructure

• Parkour athletes: New opportunities to train, compete, & earn

• Parkour coaches: More engaged, goal-oriented students who want to train & compete

• Parkour gym owners: Objective ways to motivate, incentivize, and produce better athletes

• Parkour communities: Spaces for challenging, shared training experiences that foster social connection and support networks

• Parkour economy: Compounding new growth and pathways to monetization via training, course setting, competing, coaching, event organizing, etc

• Speed parkour: Grassroots growth of speed parkour, the underlying sport of ASR

• Other sports: Cross-training opportunities for athletes, coaches, & gym owners from different sports (e.g. climbing, ninja, OCR, chase tag, track & field, MMA, dance, circus, etc)

• Other careers: Public training and assessment opportunities for jobs that may benefit from practical parkour skills (e.g. military, law enforcement, firefighters, security, arborists, teachers, architects, stunt performers, personal trainers, etc)

Your contribution accelerates the growth of the world’s first decentralized sport.

• Initial goal: $100k (100+ new courses, setter pay, prize money, community outreach, etc)

• Stretch goal 1: $250k (250+ new courses, Strava-like app with map, leaderboards, gamification, etc)

• Stretch goal 2: $1M (1000+ new courses, IRL championships events worldwide)

How we use the funds depends partly on how much we raise and where we set new courses. The first $100k raised will be used to more quickly scale Apex Speed Run courses and players worldwide (e.g. travel expenses, setter pay, prize $, remote collabs, etc). Anything over $100k will go toward our stretch goals.

All supporters on our Juicebox crowdfunding campaign will receive our $SPEED token proportional to the amount contributed. These tokens have no purpose but may be used for future community governance, token-gated merch, airdrops, etc.

• 1 digital collectible which may be used for future governance, token-gated merch, airdrops, etc (must be done through our Juicebox crowdfunder)

• 1 short Apex digital training program (Coaching the Climb-Up or Power ↑ Program)

• 1 long Apex digital training program (Parkour 100 Series or Parkour Strength Online)

• Sponsor 1 course for 1 year *

• Spot on our founding partners page

• Tag/mention in at least 1 email to our email list (29.2k)

• Tag/mention in at least 1 IG post (33.8k)

• All Apex digital training programs (CTCU, P↑P, PK100S, PSO)

• Sponsor 2 courses for 2 years *

• Spot on our founding partners page

• Tag/mention in at least 1 email to our email list (29.2k)

• Tag/mention in at least 1 IG post (33.8k)

• All Apex digital training programs (CTCU, P↑P, PK100S, PSO)

• We’ll come to your city to set at least 3 new courses, including at least 1 with your core team (up to 5) + we’ll hold a free, community speed jam on at least 1 course

• Sponsor 3 courses for 3 years *

• Spot on our founding partners page

• Tag/mention in at least 3 emails to our email list (29.2k)

• Tag/mention in at least 3 IG posts (33.8k)

• 1 sponsored IG giveaway

• All Apex digital training programs (CTCU, P↑P, PK100S, PSO)

• Please contact us to discuss title sponsorship opportunities, including sponsoring the ASR map, leaderboards, course stats, top athletes and setters, prize pool, etc

* Course sponsor fees keep this project free for the public by covering initial course-setting costs and minimal ongoing admin costs for verifying new runs, updating stats, etc. It’s like adopting a highway, but more fun 😅 As a course sponsor, you choose the course you want to sponsor and with which name/brand/organization (first come, first served).

Since 2004, we’ve lived and breathed parkour—training, competing, and coaching dozens of champions in parkour-based sports. This gave us a front-row seat to a recurring cycle: raw disciplines getting packaged, polished, and pulled away from their roots.

In 2010, Ninja Warrior emerged as a perfect application of our parkour skills. Apex athletes crushed it for a few years, but then the cracks began to show: a shift from pure talent to TV-friendly spectacle, obstacles more fantastical than functional, fairness exchanged for flash. As a community, we gradually stepped away as it strayed from what originally drew us in.

Meanwhile, parkour competitions were picking up steam in the late 2010s, and Apex athletes excelled once again. Competitions by parkour gyms and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) were growing and competing on a similar timeline. Both leaned into purpose-built courses, invites, qualifications, and fees.

Gym competitions, hosted by parkour brands, tried to keep things closer to parkour values, but FIG? A shameless, full-fledged gymnastics takeover—outdoor, sure, but purpose-built and a cultural mismatch all the same. Not only were we there from the start, but Apex was the first to publicly denounce and withdraw from FIG events.

Then, around 2020, World Chase Tag (WCT) exploded onto the scene. We jumped in early and saw great success—6 championships, including the 2022 world title. But the deeper we got, the more familiar it felt: commercialization, centralization, corporate takeovers, and the gradual death of its grassroots origins.

From the proliferation of ninja and parkour competitions in the 2010s, to WCT in the 2020s—we’ve been in the thick of international sporting trends, watching the vicious cycle on loop. Niche sports keep trading simplicity for complexity, accessibility for exclusivity, and autonomy for money.

Enter the open-source, decentralized nature of Apex Speed Run—permanent, outdoor speed courses set in public spaces that cut through the noise: just you, the environment, and the clock. No paywalls, no fluff, just free training and competitive opportunities, open-sourced to anyone, anytime, anywhere. We keep building for the love, and because it sharpens our skills. Better yet, new people keep joining the project, running courses, and loving it too.

We have momentum, but to more quickly grow and scale the project in 2025, we need your support. It’s not about fighting or tearing down what already exists; it’s about building a better alternative that embodies the original values of parkour.

Funding will help us set new courses, reach more communities, offer prize money, and create a platform built on authenticity, inclusivity, and athlete-driven innovation. We’re ready for a new form of competition that rejects gatekeeping, greed, and exclusion, and embraces freedom and opportunity instead. With your help, Apex Speed Run will lead the way.

“As someone entirely new to parkour, I was delighted with how accessible it was. It’s as fun and challenging as you choose to make it. The way runs are defined is simple with minimal rules. I started slow to get a feel for it and then raced my own time once I got comfortable.

The community-built nature of the project is perfect for rewarding creativity in finding and creating new runs, allowing folks from anywhere to participate, and inspiring those who have never tried parkour to give it a shot. I’m excited to see how Apex continues to expand their community using Juicebox and other tools and talent at their disposal.”

“I love the family-friendly nature of it. Thank you for what you’ve created.”

“ASR courses allow more self-conscious people (like myself) to compete without the performance anxiety. You upload a video of your best time on your own terms. I see the potential for this to become very addictive.”

“ASR courses are accessible to everybody. You can challenge yourself or make it as safe as you want. One of the best parts is that it encourages people to do parkour outside. Also, it gives you some structure but allows you to be creative in your own way. All the courses are permanent, so you can return and rerun them to track your progress.”

“I’ve done 17 ASRs and absolutely love them! They helped a ton with my overall speed and commitment, and I can’t wait to do more!”

“I’ve been fascinated by ASR for a while now, and I finally got to give it a shot! Now that I’ve started, I’m hooked. I can’t wait to keep practicing, and come back to this challenge to see how much I can improve, and explore other locations.”

“ASR is incredibly fun. I love the setting process, and the accessibility of public spaces is genius. I love training outdoors with the crew and reimagining hometown spots. ASR is creating lines I’d never attempt solo. That’s the magic—it pushes boundaries in familiar places.

I loved to see ASR’s vision for taking parkour competition back outside where its roots originate. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed the push physically and mentally. Ryan’s a menace when it comes to setting, and I have to say that I love it. I was forced out of my comfort zone on nearly every course.”

“The way ASR is designed makes it accessible to all people. Anyone can come to a course and try the run with what they have. You don’t need much skill. You can walk it at first, and then you can jog or run it.

ASR is also a great, new way to measure who’s the fastest. I go to other competitions, and I support them too, but they’re often in a gym, and that’s not true to parkour, per se, because we train in outdoor environments. To have a system in place for people who want to test their skills in real-life, urban environments, and see how their skills measure up in the real world—I think that’s extremely important for our community.”

With your support, we'll redefine parkour and other time-based obstacle sports, foster community, promote wellness, and ignite exploration.

Invest now to be part of this global movement, where your contribution drives the creation of a sport that's truly open and accessible to all.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already contributed time, money, and energy to this project—we couldn’t have gotten this far without you.

Reply with any questions or concerns, and we’ll get back to you soon.

→ Contribute ETH to our crowdfunding campaign on Juicebox:
https://juicebox.money/v4/eth:66

→ Contribute to our crowdfunder via PayPal, credit, debit, Apple Pay, etc:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YDVC5C94CSDUC

Cheers,
Ryan & Taylor