I am a picky person. This means I am hard to gift. My mother gave up years ago. My husband, whose gifts I have ungraciously spurned on several occassions, is nearly there, too. This Christmas, he resorted to getting me a new version of a necklace I liked that my son had broken. It was a smart choice.
All this to say, when I like something, I really like it. As you may have noticed, I try not to use this platform to deluge you with product recommendations (though I do use affiliate links). This is mostly because I know that what we wear to work out is deeply personal. It’s also because, despite chronicling the intersection of sports and fashion, I generally believe that you should own a few really good pieces of gear and wear them to death. For example, I proudly ski in the same pair of Patagonia pants I bought 8 years ago.
Still, sometimes it’s fun to share what I’m gravitating towards. Recently, I noticed there was some connective tissue to the running pieces I kept pulling out of my drawers in the morning. And that tissue is texture.
It started with a pair of Brooks Dolphin Shorts that I got from the brand in London. At a glance, they’re merely your basic retro running silhouette, but a closer look – and feel – reveals a subtle jacquard. It’s what keeps me coming back. Similarly, for Lululemon SeaWheeze I trained and raced in their Textured Mesh High-Rise Shorts, which have a tonal grid in the fabric. Not for nothing, pro runner – and race winner – Phily Bowden chose the same style.
And while I don’t need a new pair of shorts, I’m definitely coveting this pair of Ons that come in an espresso-colored technical seersucker. Be still, my preppy heart.
Texture appeals for a few reasons. First, it adds visual interest without inhibiting performance. It can even be performance-enhancing – see Radical Airflow’s circulation-improving “dimples.” And finally, texture is a sensory reward. Tactility is a big reason why natural fibers – especially knitted Merino wool or cotton – hold so much appeal.
In a world that can feel too sleek and too shiny, texture keeps things (feeling) real. It’s why everyone – Keely Hodginson included now – is bedazzling their race kits.
Eight paragraphs later, here are a few textured styles I’m wearing or have my eyes on:
Shorts: As discussed, these are the shorts I am digging: Brooks’s Dolphins, Lululemon’s Textured Mesh High-Rise, and On’s Performance Volts.
Spence: Founder Amanda Greely and her team are experts at incorporating texture into their tenniswear, which reinforces Spence’s signature performance meets lifestyle look and feel. I’m obsessed with their crepey plaid Steffi Shorts and have only barely managed to get through the summer without buying this Domino Dress, delivered in a gauzy Japanese fabric they call "Crinkle Magic.” If someone wants to invite me to the US Open, I will fold.
Halfdays: I love the frilliness of their Ynes Top, especially when paired with sporty rec pants.
Hikerkind: Everyone, and I mean everyone, is doing their spin on the Polartec Alpha fleece. Hikerkind made it unique and feminine with this cozy crossbody hoodie silhouette.
Pruzan: Their signature mesh singlet is freaky in a good way. Also cool for layering.
Athleta: Their fall line feels very Issey Miyake Pleats Please coded. I like the execution on this Plisse Jacket.
Nagnata: If you really want to indulge in textured workout wear, Nagnata’s seamless Merino styles are hard to beat.
Currently: Love me a textured baseball cap. This one is “nylon-rich” with a subtle-grid.
Swiftwick: Lettuce hem running socks? Yes, please!
How to wear them: I spotted a Quebecois mom on the ferry from Vancouver to Bowen Island in a striped cotton shirt, black running shorts, frilly socks and Nordas. I wanted to steal her whole ‘fit, hence the creepy snap.
Norda: Speaking of Norda, the sophisticated look and feel of their shoes comes from the interplay of textures. I like it best in their 005, where the open mesh Bio-Dyneema® weave (there to maximizes breathability, drain water and look cool) gets contrasted against slick reflective piping.
Credit Corner
I’m deep in my freelance era and have a few new editorial hits to my name.
I forget how Routine Pleasure, a new retailer of “outdoor stuff” from Woodstock, NY, popped up on my Instagram feed, but from the minute I spotted the brand’s swirly red R logo and light blue carpet1 I was hooked. With a look that’s part Six Bells’s Americana, part ‘70s retro and part Scandi timber, the store feels like a homey antidote to the futurist aesthetic that has previously dominated the third-wave running scene. Founded by husband-and-wife duo Russ and Natalie Tannen, whose backgrounds span music and fashion, Routine Pleasure offers a novel approach to outdoor gear, merchandising for both fast and slow pursuits. I love this “yes and” approach to the outdoors, which feels both accessible and under-celebrated. I can think of few things better than a long run followed by my favorite slow pursuit – reading a big ‘ole book. What’s yours? Read on for our conversation and a host of new brands to explore!
Lee: Talk me through where the idea for the store came from and how long you’ve been working on the build-out and launch?
Russ: My background was working in music for a long time, but I also got big into ultramarathon running. I think I started to get interested in that intersection between running and fashion, maybe like 10 years ago? When District Vision was launching, and Satisfy was launching, and all of these brands that I’ve been following for a long time.
So, I had an eye on this space. And at the same time, Natalie’s been working in fashion.
Natlie: I’ve got less of a running background, but I’m working the slow side of the store. I’d been working in fashion, merchandising, and wholesale, and lots of the things that we need to make this store come to life.
Russ: I’d say that the way the store actually came to life had a lot more to do with the location itself becoming available. We thought that this could have been in the city at one point. It could have been in another town upstate at one point, but we live most of the time in Woodstock, and this particular location we heard about coming available just before Christmas last year.
It’s so rare that retail spaces become available in Woodstock. And this one in particular had originally been the record and book store in the sixties, then an arts and crafts store for forty years through ‘til Covid. Most recently, it was a home goods store.
It’s a very special location. When David Barry was living here, it’s where he’d go to buy his paint. Bob Dylan used to go here to buy his records. It’s very prominent as you enter the main crossroads in the town.
When we heard the space was coming available, that was the catalyst to say, “Okay, so this idea of creating this modern outdoor store, that we’ve been talking about, maybe this is actually the moment to do it because this is just like such a perfect place to do it.”
Thinking about Woodstock and its history, not just with the outdoors, obviously being in the Catskills, but the arts and crafts movement, and some of the sort of slow side of the store.
When we got the lease signed in December, that was when it really started to come to life. And then we picked up the keys in the middle of April and opened in the middle of June. So we had a really hardcore four months at the start of the year, which was about really refining the concept of the store. We knew we wanted to do something that was more premium, in terms of brand mix and to provide value to people in terms of bringing brands into the store, which they could typically only find online. But I think when we got to this point where we realized that actually the types of products we were saying could fit into these two broad categories of fast and slow, that was kind of when the store concept came to life. That started to shape how we thought about merchandising the store and everything from there.
Lee: And then how did you land on the name?
Russ: Routine Pleasures is the name of a documentary about model train collectors in the ‘80s, that is also a perfect name for an outdoor store.
It was a piece of luck that a friend was watching that film and said, “Hey, this might be a really good name for the store.”
Lee: Talk to me about merchandising. How did you go about finding the brands that you wanted to launch with?
Russ: When we were thinking about fast and slow, we wanted to be sure we had an even balance between the categories. Slow is gardening, birding, fly fishing, which is huge in the Catskills, camping, yoga, meditation. So we’re trying to think about all those slower things, and then we’re thinking, “Okay, what are the best brands for each of these categories?” So yoga, meditation, we have beautiful cork yoga mats from Rituil, which are only sold through us on the East Coast and one store on the West Coast, other than through them. Walden, which is a beautiful meditation-focused brand, for fly fishing, we have Nation FC, which is a Catskills-based fly fishing brand. We’re just trying to find these very premium brands in each of those categories. And trying to think, “okay, if we had one or two brands per category, like what would that look like?’ Rather than flooding people with choices, just trying to find the best thing.
And then I think on the fast side, that will evolve a bit more as we go through the year. So right now it’s focused on running and cycling, and we have a broader brand mix for those categories. They’re big categories for us, but still, you know, for running shoes, we have only three shoe brands. We have Norda, Normal, and Speedland, and Satisfy’s Rocker. So, we’re still keeping it tight and shoes that you see less often.
There’s a great shoe shop opposite us in town. So it’s nice that you can buy Hoka’s there. I think we’re we’re more premium there, and then in the winter that’ll move into cross country skiing and downhill skiing. We’ll adapt to some of those faster sports that are more seasonal.
Natalie: A lot of the brands are authentic to us as a couple and our experiences. Two of the brands, we’re their only wholesalers. Land and B.C., which make these amazing activity aprons and vests, we’re the only retailer for them in the whole of the US. And then Kijima Takayuki is this amazing hat company. Both of which we found on our honeymoon a couple of years ago and were people that we loved.
We have an amazing basket company from a woman called Jane Crisp. She’s from England. I had just been buying her stuff for years as gifts for anyone I knew who was interested in gardening.
It was so exciting when we got opened the store that we also got to find some of these special, undiscovered brands that we’ve loved for so long and bring them into the store. I’ve got an old friend. I used to work with them at Rag and Bone 12 years ago. He’s making custom flies for the shop and these great fly boxes. So it’s been a beautiful experience promoting some of these brands and people who we just love as individuals as well.
Lee: Are people shopping and buying from both fast and slow sides? I’m curious to know how people are gravitating to both elements. What have you learned about your customers?
Russ: I think it’s exactly that. It’s our dream realized in that people are coming in and picking up, cute candles from Happy Organics and then buying a running top. The mix is definitely there. One of the most exciting things is this constant call out, where people are coming in and saying” Oh, you have Unna, we can try this on!” A lot of the stuff we have in the store sells out so fast online. We’ve got a lot of merchandise, especially right now, that’s almost completely gone online.
People are coming in and just touching and feeling and getting, a little mix of everything. I think what’s so exciting is that they’re buying it and they’re using it that weekend or that day. It’s not like it has to be purchased for a future idea of an activity. You roll straight to the creek and use those those swim trunks.
There’s been a lot of people who come in on a Friday and they’ll come in and buy like a Literary Sport pair of shorts and a Tabisuke Tabizo vest and we’ll be at the counter and they’ll just be like, “Yeah, I’ve been following these brands online for the last two, three years and I’m coming up here this weekend to go trail running or go for a huge hike” or whatever it is. It’s their their escape from the city for the weekend and they’re just so glad to be able to try on all these things and and get them and then use them straight away. It also means we have a really fast feedback loop from the customers.
We brought in the Norda 055 a couple of weeks ago, which was our first big new product launch since we opened. It was so nice to be able to sell a bunch of those shoes and then get messages from people the following week being like, “Whoa, I just ran a ra race in these or Whoa I just ran the in these and it was so good.” I think it’s part of the benefit of being in the Catskills, people are obviously doing a lot of outdoor stuff and mixing it all up, too.
Lee: Talk to me about events. How have those been going? You launched your series with Kite Making, right?
Russ: We really wanted to have weekly events at the store. We’re going to have an event every week through the end of October. We were partially inspired by our landlord, who was the owner of the arts and crafts store. They had very regular events in the space and he said this is a key to success in Woodstock, having these other things happening. Even if it’s just something with a glass of wine, you’re going to get people back into the store.
We’d already had this idea of treating the store as a venue and thinking of it as a venue that needs to be programmed and not just a retail space. There’s twocategories of events that we’re really doing. One is a series called First Encounters. The whole concept is that, regardless of the type of event, it should inspire your next outdoor pursuit.
So yes, we has a kite making workshop, but we also have, coming up this weekend, live owls in the store from a rescue center called Ravensbeard. They’ll bring in five owls, one of which is so tame you can actually stroke it. We’re tying that in with our birding products and thinking “okay, we live in this place where there are owls and all these amazing birds of prey” maybe it is a good idea to grab a pair of Knox Binoculars and go out there and do that on the weekend.
It’s everything from flower pressing last weekend to we have an artist, Steven Weinberg, coming in a couple of weeks to paint fish on things. And we’ve also been doing active events like we had a group run, which was amazing. We’ve got another one coming up in a couple of weeks. We’ve got bike rides. We’ve got one hosted by Slug coming up on Labor Day weekend, which we’re about to announce.
We also live in York City and we are very tuned into the explosion of the weekly group run. I see the value in that and I but I feel like they make more sensein a city versus being somewhere where our audience and our customers are way more transitional. It’s a lot of people that will come Upstate for one weekend a year or a couple of weekends in the summer. So the idea of hosting a weekly event, it doesn’t make as much sense versus making a big splash around a monthly or more loosely programmed run and active event series.
And, again, that will transition into the winter. We’ll do a cross country skiing event and stuff like that, too.
In towns like this, where there’s so much heritage and and there’s so much tradition, you don’t wanna be the new store that like comes in and is like, “We’re new and we’ve got fancy running clothes.” We wanted to make sure that we were also super community driven in a way that felt like real and not, “here’s a fake event for you to come and spend money at our store.”
Truly, do you want to learn how to fly fish? Because, if I wanted to learn how, I don’t really know where to start. So, we’ve got some of the best of the best coming in to speak about these activities in a way that just feels like you don’t have to be afraid to start. You don’t have to be afraid to try. Hopefully, we’re giving back to the community a bit.
Natlalie: We want people to come hang out. That’s our dream, if people come in and open a Mexican Coke, and just hang with us.
Lee: Are there any new brands that you’re bringing in for fall or anything that you’re really excited about coming up?
Russ: Everything’s still so new to us, right? So, we’re still really excited about all the brands that we brought in and launched. On the running side, having brands like Literary Sport, Unna, Kuta Distance Lab, even bigger brands like Satisfy, District Vision, all next to each other … These are all such great quality running brands that I feel really happy that people are able to put together these outfits. Then you’ve got brands like Raide, who have started to introduce more apparel since we’ve launched. That’s a really popular brand for us.
As we get into fall and winter, we’re kind of seeing that I think a lot of the brands are realizing that we’re a good space for them to be selling not just their main lines, but some of the collaborations and things that they’re coming out with.
So we’re a stockist for the new MAAP and Public Possession collaboration on the cycling side. A few months ago, we didn’t have access to that type of product. We’re getting in some of these exclusive things, which is fun.
And then we’re also bringing in in winter some brands that are more specific to the cold weather. So Klattermusen and their skiing apparel, a lot of Raide’s ski apparel, Purple Mountain Observatory. Super technical jackets and things like that.
And so the store will evolve into like cozy season stuff and really hardcore stuff for the time outdoors.
Lee: I love that you’ve leaned into the opportunity to play with with some of these up-and-coming brands.
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