By Mathias Eichler
The adventure podcast about trail running and mountain culture. Subscribe in your favorite podcast player.
The adventure podcast about trail running and mountain culture. Subscribe in your favorite podcast player.
Electric Cable Car is counting down until the end of the year by reliving the action-filled year 2024 in trail running. Join me.
Hardly a week goes by with me not seeing a new, or new to me hydration vest by a gear company not previously in the market of producing and selling them.
What once started out as a niche product made by very specific companies (Ultimate Direction, UltraSpire, CamelBak, Nathan) focusing on hydration is now a product offering peddled by Mammut, The North Face, Patagonia… everyone, even REI is making their own.
With the growth of our sport and the overall media attention it’s no surprise backpack makers (to frame that term loosely) would say ‘hey, we can do that too’. But I would suggest something else is the driving force here: ‘brand and logo placement’. The vest, once an obscure specialty item for ultra runners who weren’t cool enough to just run shirtless with two handhelds is now a hot item every runner has to have. Even if more and more races are requiring runners to carry gear and thus vests becoming a necessary piece of gear to carry said required gear I believe the main driving force here is that the vest is the most prominent and outward facing item a runner wears, even more prominent than their shoes. So, if a gear company is in the pro/influencer sponsorship game they will have to offer a vest just to place their logo prominently on their athletes and in their marketing shots.
Gone are the days when runners had a shoe sponsor and a separate clothing and a gear sponsor.
NNormal has to sell a race vest so Kilian doesn’t have to wear his old Salomon vests in product shots and at races.
Adidas was one of the first gear companies that had their trail team fitted out from head to toe in branded gear. So does The North Face and of course Salomon. But Salomon had been in the game for several years while The North Face and Adidas are still fairly new to the ‘race team circuit’.
Hoka doesn’t have a hydration vest yet, but as a shoe company they have been outfit their sponsored athletes very prominently in head-to-toe HOKA clothing over these last two years but when Jim Walmsley ran UTMB in 2022 he wore a pack with no brand name on it. So I assume one can expect a HOKA pack in the near future, maybe in time for this year’s UTMB. And one can hope it’s a better offering than this piece of weird branded product.
It’s kind of funny to think that new product iterations, (I won’t call it innovations), might be more driven by marketing desire for logo placement than the need to sell good product. Heck, some of the vests might not even need to be sold, just made for their athletes.
What I had already noticed when I was down in Auburn running Canyons is that HOKA was everywhere. Almost so that it felt HOKA was more prominently promoted than UTMB. Much has been said about the UTMB/Partnership, and often I’ve asked about the details of that partnership, but what’s coming into view and question is the partnership HOKA has with UTMB/Ironman, and in extend Western States. Yes, they are sponsoring the respective races but there seems to be a bit more than just a sponsor contract:
Today the US ‘by UTMB’ races which are all unaffiliated with Western States ran promotional Instagram messages announcing that Grindstone, which is also a UTMB race has been selected as a Golden Ticket event for Western States. Yes, Western States is also part of the UTMB World Series, and that relationship is also somewhat murky.
So, to recap:
This is all so very fascinating, and something that clearly requires more insight, more background info and more scrutiny going forward.
If anyone has any insight they want to share, off or on the record, please do reach out.
From the Daily:
Hoka continued its blistering sales for parent Deckers Brands, helping the company deliver record results as the brand added more than half a billion dollars of top-line revenue for fiscal year 2023.
HOKA will eat us all… so it seems and feels. But, when actually looking at the shoe choices of runners at trail races you can still huge diversity and barely any dominant brand. Maybe that’s just motivating for HOKA to push even harder?
In comparison:
Innsbruck, one of the Alps largest cities is no stranger to hosting large sporting events. Innsbruck hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1976 and has been on the regular winter skiing circuit for decades. This week the attention is on summer trails when Innsbruck and the neighboring Stubaital region welcomes runners from all over the world to compete in the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC) – (damn I wish they would come up with a better name for that event). And while this is all super exciting to follow along as pros race these trails, what makes this event unique in trail running is that for the Championships only pros, selected by their national associations will compete wearing the bib of their country. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is awfully exciting to watch and follow, but of course a departure from our regular trail running events where amateurs (you and me) can run the same events as the pros. To prevent FOMO Innsbruck has partnered with the Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival, an annual event held in the same region on several of the same trails as the WMTRC. This event has been on the calendar for several years and is organized by the Laufwerkstatt, an events team organizing various large scale outdoor sporting events in the region. So, The WMTRC is in great hands organizationally with the partnership of Tourism Tyrol and the Laufwerkstatt. And for folks wanting to get a taste of the trails pros compete on during the WMTRC, they can sign up to run the various distances at the Innsbruck Alpine Trailrun Festival.
And for folks in the area looking for something to do they can come and watch the Trail Running Film Festival on June 9th at the finish line in Neustift-Stubai, which surely will be one of the biggest screenings on our 73+ tour.
One of mountain running and trail running’s biggest events will take place in Aragón, Spain, in September 2025, bringing together 1,700 athletes from 70 countries.
With the 2023 edition kicking off this weekend in Innsbruck, Austria, sights are already set for the next iteration, two years from now in Spain. I’m glad to see this event gaining traction. It’s a great counterbalance to the Golden Trail Series and UTMB events, even though the World Championships are the classic “watch the pros run and don’t get to participate” events we’re familiar with from every other sport. And what makes trail running so great in many ways is the participatory nature of the everyday runner toeing the line with the pros at the biggest events.
MUT, Africa’s only UTMB race along the beautiful Garden Route in South Africa – been there, natch, just happened this weekend for the first time under the UTMB banner. And here are their numbers:
1,184 racers finished the six different distances of the MUT races, 518 were women, or 44%. So, I had heard that only two women finished the 100 Miler, and while, in that race doesn’t lead to a great percentage, the overall participation rate for all six events combined is the best we’ve seen so far. Yes, a bit skewed toward the shorter distances, but overall, pretty impressive participation by women, amazing.
As a side note:
With only two women finishers in the 100 Mile race all you had to do was cross the finish line in 48hrs (the race did have 25K of vert!) and you would’ve booked your ticket to Chamonix for this or next year. There were two women who DNFed (so 50% of the women’s field). So I am not suggesting that it was a cake walk, but, I am saying… if you’re an elite, and you want a ticket to race UTMB, this might be interesting to put on your calendar for 2024.
Matt Walsh in his Substack ‘Trailmix’ ponders the same questions I have:
…if anyone has a contact at UTMB that actually knows how the business is run AND responds to emails, do get in touch…
Yes, same here.
Matt thinks the UTMB expansion model might be more of a franchise model, rather than an outright purchase of the races. Which might sense if the races are new, but for the ones UTMB partners/takes over that might not work? Perhaps the franchise part is only a portion of the race. The areas where UTBM feels they can contribute the most… and get the most out financially? Surely, providing staffing for aid stations won’t be one of the areas that will be franchised.
Matt also points to the endless ‘dunking on UTMB’ of the social media verse, so much that editors of Outside compared their announced partnership with UTMB internally akin to:
… a poison chalice and that limiting the damage UTMB’s brand could have on Outside’s reputation would be a ‘big challenge’.
This in itself is kind of funny, given that Outside has NFTs and dealt with Warren Miller Films in a very … odd way and has since created quite a reputation for itself.
And finally, Buzz Burrell, in the comments, points out the misconception in the articles headline, insinuating that the UTMB brand currently doesn’t matter to races or racers:
Yes, joining the bandwagon and becoming “(trail race) by UTMB” has bumped every race that has signed on from hanging in there to selling out, so becoming a UTMB franchise has been a win for every race owner.
The events to race for a chance for Golden Tickets to Western States in 2024 are as followed:
Several notable changes compared to last year. There’s now a race on the East Coast: Grindstone. CCC is now a Golden Ticket race, which is new and I believe for the first time, maybe? The other thing of note is that these events are now all UTBM and Aravaipa events, which in itself is quite interesting.
Back in 2015 (the first time Web Archive has the page listed) the Golden Ticket events were:
A lot has changed since then, hasn’t it?
Announced this week on various social channels:
White Mountain Endurance is excited to announce that they will be officially be joining the Aravaipa Running family of races, marking Aravaipa’s official commitment to the East Coast trail running community.
That brings Aravaipa’s race calendar to 53 races in five different states including the 5 from White Mountain Endurance in New Hampshire.
UTMB has 36 across the globe in their World Series. Five in the US and one special partnership with Western States.
If you believe, or only read the NNormal marketing blog then you might be led to believe that Kilian had:
…a perfect day on the west ridge of Everest…
on his recent trip to the Himalayas.
In Kilian’s own words:
“I didn’t reach the summit I was aiming for, but everything else. It was a perfect day.”
But according to Explorersweb:
He describes the conditions as “horrible, with blue ice underneath and a top layer of deep snow. [it meant taking] two steps up and one down for 1,000m.”
Once on the ridge, he waited three hours for the winds to drop, sheltered by a cornice. He then proceeded over mixed terrain to the base of the Hornbein Couloir. He climbed this for “a few hundred meters.”
Then he broke a wind slab and triggered an avalanche that swept him down some 50 meters. After some consideration, he decided to turn around at that point. He descended in a heavy snowfall, with his previous footprints totally buried, and two to three meters of visibility. It was “interesting,” the athlete admitted.
Yes, sometimes staying alive, learning a lot in difficult conditions, making the right decisions, and being lucky to return to ones family is more than just “interesting” but actually “feels perfect”. I’m confused my the marketing speak, but glad to have him still with us. I bet his family is too.
Singletrack – Episode 275:
This week on Singletrack I am chatting with Nicole Amyx, filmmaker, ultra runner and colleague of mine at the Trail Running Film Festival. Nicole shares how she blends her passions of filmmaking and running, passed down from her parents, into an inspiring life just outside San Francisco. We chat about about the importance of finding a great story when making a documentary film and how running can give us balance and peace for everyday life.
It’s been fascinating following Kilian and Emelie on their “marketing trip” to the Himalayas. Say what you will about using a family vacation with kids for promotional purposes but what I find most intriguing is to see all the bespoke gear NNormal created for them. It’s brilliant product placement for NNormal getting their logo into all these cool shots, but what I want to know is how these items are made. There are backpacks, gaiters, duffel bags, high altitude mountaineering pants, jackets, etc. They can’t just use a third party product and slap their logo on it. All these items were made just for them for this one trip. Yes, there’s R&D experience that can be gained, but for NNormal, a brand co-owned by Camper, a classic fashion shoe brand, this is quite a departure and requires some in-house expertise (or outsourced expertise) to pull all these items of. Especially since the mountaineering equipment is supposed to keep them alive on the mountain, that’s not just a simple gear bag.
I’d love to know what mountaineering boots Kilian used on his summit attempt.
Vert.run “the #1 leading app for Trail & Ultra runners of all kinds” (lolz, what does that even mean?) is now offering the official online coaching for all UTMB races.
The unofficial coach for UTMB is my coach Matt Urbanski at Team RunRun. Better, I promise!
Dylan Bowman defines the mission statement of Freetrail:
… we’ve never explicitly defined what we mean by Trail Culture and what the specific attributes of Trail Culture are.
It’s good to see a media outlet to not just focus on pro athletes chasing sponsor contracts. All their points are super valid. Fluffy, but totally something I can subscribe too.
I am super excited about this brand new “By UTMB” race. It’s in a terrific location, feels very ‘were I grew up” and therefore is totally on my list of races I want to run one of these years (okay maybe next year_… except that my attendance wouldn’t help these sad sad gender split numbers:
Combined there were 3,568 finishers, 765 were women or just 21%. Not great, not great at all.
My buddy Nick Triolo travelled to L.A. to Strava’s annual ‘tech conference’: Camp Strava. He highlights the main announcement for Outside:
In short, lots of tech improvements are in the pipeline that are all about partnerships with other, existing companies and expanding the platform with more integrations.
PCT DAYS celebrates and promotes hiking, camping, backpacking & outdoor stewardship and offers a bit of something for everyone, whether you are an outdoor enthusiast or new to outdoor recreation. Over 100 exhibiting sponsors will be offering the latest outdoor products at the Gear Expo & Marketplace. Attendees can participate in activities, games, presentations, gear raffles, listen to live music, and meet with old and new friends in an amazing setting.
I very much love this.
One of the few remaining (did you see what I did there?) things that seem to be alright with the UK:
In Scotland, there is a right to walk through the countryside, leaving no trace, with some exceptions such as not trampling over land that is growing crops. Under a Labour government, people in England would be granted the same rights.
To tag on to the post I wrote a few days ago about public land permitting being handed by public agencies to private entities and they in turn start price gouging as this is the American Way. Here’s a story of a lawsuit being filed against the private contractor managing Recreation.gov, a website for the public used to obtain camping permits, wilderness permits and other recreation access.
In some sense it’s great that for this big big country, with lots of National Parks, Forest lands, and BLM areas that a website like Recreation.gov exists and someone looking for a campsite or backcountry permit has a one-stop shop to obtain those and plan their vacation. But, due to the size of the operation only mega corps have a chance to respond to the RFPs by the government that solicit help in managing these portals and services.
Here’s the company that got awarded the contract to manage Recreation.gov:
Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American government and military contractor, specializing in intelligence.
A military intelligence company is managing campsites in National Parks? Yes, this is a somewhat gross simplification, but it shows the challenges of our federally managed public lands. Recreation.gov by-and-large is just a time-based shopping cart system like AirBnB or Expedia. It’s not a complicated website, yet the Federal agency awarding the contract to Booz Allen decided that a company with a history of military intelligence gathering is right for the job?
In similar vein, most National Park lodges and visitor centers are managed by ‘concession companies’ that bring their expertise from managing sport venues and conference centers. Yes, people go to our National Parks for the natural wonder and beauty and not for the warm hospitality, but if you’ve ever been disappointed in the mediocre overpriced hotdog offering at a National Park lodge, here’s your answer.
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