Reading · Running Supply with Cole Townsend

Another late week post here, I’m in a busy summer period! Some great stuff cooking up for the Fall between Rec Room and an upcoming yet-to-be-announced engagement locally.

This past weekend I had my first run walk/back and am on my first and hopefully only return-to-run training plan post knee surgery. The Lululemon SeaWheeze Half marathon was actually perfect for that. Low stakes, participation focused, and more about the experience than racing. Enough on me, skipping to the recipe…

In this ‘sletter, some big moves late summer with energy from SAYSKY, Garmin, a new sunglasses brand, Fleet Feet’s social strategy, District Vision, and more.

Got a quote in GQ UK on Brooks Running’s play in lifestyle. In run specialty they have been akin to IBM — “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM” and similarly have had reliable growth YoY. This has given them plenty of room to play. They’ve been working hard on the collab and lifestyle side to generate some more exciting things. Catch them at UTMB with one of my faves, Alex Zono.
UTMB is coming up in a couple weeks. I won’t be there (yet, email me?) but am excited to hear about what goes down. Expect a HOKA Tecton X4 on the podium.
Unfortunately the Grand Slam Track athletes are still waiting on paychecks. I really hope that works out. Seems like that’s more related to red tape than anything.

Lee Glandorf just got a byline in Outdoor Magazine about running in the Soar Race Briefs. One might say that’s bold at 39, but I hope to be in the tiniest race shorts running for blood at that age too.
Katherine Douglas helped style the Diadora Corsa launch, and photography + creative campaign by Matt Trappe. See more of that below. Kudos!

Last week Raide dropped an incredible new women’s line, all the new trail racing shoes have embraced the bootie, and Nike is getting freaky with their prints. Wyrd Running is making some fun stuff out East, Hylo dropped their updated Impact 2, and someone cloned On’s LightSpray?

A few newsletters ago I shouted out some of the work Fleet Feet has been doing on social. Educational and engaging Q&A’s with experienced runners answering questions from the comments. They recently put out an edgier video (not too dissimilar from SOAR’s DNF Anonymous but a different approach). This is how the second wave running stores need to adapt. They can’t just rely on foot traffic and traditional sales when 60% of Gen Z and Millennials are buying shoes online. The way of traditional fittings isn’t dead, but failing to adapt to the new market would be a failure.

The aim of this video seems to be social reach rather than advertising—there’s a light plug Fleet Feet’s shoe fitting. I think shoe fitting is often overrated, but trying stuff on in stores is absolutely not.

What I appreciate though, is that it speaks to GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome, which is a cursed behavior and growing disease in the run space. I don’t suffer as bad as Eric, but have GAS tendencies. There are a lot of Erics out there. Great detail with the stupid nose strip too. They got a sweet cameo from Kofuzi too. Great work by Max Coatney and team on this.

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Not usually a name that gets thrown around for hot hot heat. The new Topo Pro Series was super popular and the recent elite sold out in minutes on their website and is hard to come by at retailers. They aren’t always taking swings so great to see them get a win when they do. Peep the Reddit AMA with Product Director Russ Stevens.

Song for the Mute x adidas Adizero Evo SL

Not their first nor their last collab, adidas debuted some of their SFTM work at June’s Paris Fashion Week. The collab took some handdrawn inspiration that feels squarely aligned with the Australian label. The brand brought in some hand drawn illustrations and scribbles for this capsule evoking a their iconic narrative style. The capsule features both the popular EVO SL (woven) and SuperNova Rise. Couldn’t tell you what the SuperNova is for but looks sharp enough. More chrome, baby. Coming August 20th to adidas stores in Sydney, Melbourne, and Shenzen.

Norda hit the chrome train in their latest update on their core line colorways for fall. They also introduced a Norda 055 G+ which has microspikes for the most aggressive terrain. Chrome me out.

Fun marketing launch from Puma x SAYSKY on what is noted to be their “final” collab. Very different and toned down visual language here. Big fan of the business attire themed apparel, even if the footwear was a bit bland. Don’t hate the simple Big Cat logo there, but would have loved to see the business attire motif carried more through the footwear with some chalk stripes or the like. They have a Deviate NITRO Elite 4 and MagMax NITRO 2 available in addition to the apparel dropping August 20th.

Hingeless design, titanium arms tension fit

Founded by Gary Black of Black Optical, Kuro Athletics is a luxury tier endurace option for sunglasses. If money is no object, this is your brand. Optician-driven design, custom-developed lenses with proprietary materials, tint formulas, coatings. Handcrafted in Japan. Single-lens architecture; co-injected nylon rubber temples with adjustable stainless-steel inserts; beta titanium tension arms for grip. The SOAR of performance shades. Bonus they’re all RX compatible.

The performance eyewear space was far less saturated than premium everyday eyewear, especially when it came to prescription compatibility. Second, we wanted to raise the bar for design and quality in this category. And third, as a runner and cyclist myself, there was a personal motivation. We were looking for eyewear that aligned with our brand values—clean design, premium materials and a logo-free aesthetic, which was missing from most performance options on the market. — Gary Black

DV is back with some updated colorways and silhouettes on their core line as well as apparel. Theme here is airflow. Nothing radical, but cool looking shades. Black Optics was one of their first accounts and spoke super highly of them. The Altitude Master and Junya Racer are the signatures here and photocromic lenses are getting a lot of love.

Diadora’s “biggest launch” this year is their $155 high stack lightweight trainer coming in at $155. The Italian brand is often on the premium side of the spectrum but this time brought a very respectable trainer to market with a SCF midsole and TPU foam insole that suits every day training and every day runners. Great retro silhouette here that I love that. Hopefully the women’s side get some better colorways. This blue and pink joint is peak Diadora. Shout out Katherine Douglas of Running Wylder for helping style this. Not only does her store carry Diadora but she has mad creative chops.

Often the marathon Majors collections are pretty ho-hum for brands but some of the Saucony ones this year stand out with decent colorways. Very wearable, no year to make them feel dated. the NYC one is by far my favorite with the soft blue and gold. Often these collections hit the sale section and hopefully these are different. I’d love to see a brand flex more here.

I much prefer their punchy collabs with the Keith Haring Foundation, leveraging the bold modern patterns and Keith’s iconic illustrations. Not sure when this is coming out but boy I love patterns.

Brooks has already put out some cute thematic footwear with their RunDisney line, and more recently worked with Free People Movement on an exclusive collab. FP Movement already sells a number of their shoes, but the collab brings in some fresh FP themed motifs to the Glycerin 23 and Glycerin Max 2. They’re continuing to do a great job of reaching core runners, whether it’s the folks showing up at specialty run stores, or the new wave of run clubbers hitting FP. Cute colorways and some fun ribbon and fuzzy laces.

All it takes is a cute colorup and some fun fuzzy laces

HK and New Era are back with their latest collab. I have a bit of a hometown bias for New Era, which is headquartered in the City of Good Neighbors, Buffalo, NY. HK flexes their international appeal between them and adidas. This collab is a bit more understated than their previous punchy heat map graphics, but I really dig the chainstitch styling.

Not sure who at Garmin identified Carnival as someone to collab with, but the streetwear store in Bangkok have some motion. They’ve pulled off collabs now with Garmin, asics, Saucony, Disney, and Vans. Their running side carries everything from Alex Zono to SATISFY. It’s not all that compelling of a collab visually, but clearly must appeal to a certain community. This is more of a co-brand than a collaboration. Not sure how Carnival as a brand comes through here. 1+1 = Asian streetwear market peneration?