Matt’s ‘Brand House’ At TrailCon

Matt Trappe created the unofficial evening programming I had bemoaned was missing at TrailCon this year.

I manifested a mashup of Auteur Sportif and MoB into a brand house. Adam Copeland called it the Trappe House but I was calling it MoB Garage. It was low-key by design but also a big leap of faith. I booked a huge house on a hunch and went for it. The goal was a more intimate gathering of people (as opposed to logos) in an offline and personal setting, devoid of panels, crowds, booths and social media.

I was invited to the Sunday session but hadn’t been in town yet, so I missed it. Reading now the recap it seemed like these gatherings were a hit and I hope I can make it to one next year.

Matt also shares the sentiment about TrailCon as a whole that I had been expressing:

I love this event so much but I think it can be even better. Despite the public being welcomed it is still an echo chamber of brands and industry. We need more “regular” runners. I’d like to see breakout sessions that create smaller conversations vs public Q&A sessions. More intimate back-and-forth dialogue encourages all the questions and connections vs. just a couple isolated Q’s by the brave few willing to raise their hand. We can also continue to strive to bring more diverse voices to the conversation. One goal this year was not to repeat people on panels and I do think that was done well but going forward I want to involve more voices not only from a diversity angle but also geographically and socioeconomically. A friend who is newer to trail views it solely as an affluent sport and, while current data does back that up, I came up in this world when it was anything but affluent and I think it’s important to keep that irreverent dirtbag spirit alive.

I especially appreciate Matt also struggling with how to label the “regular” runners as he calls them.

An interesting tidbit Matt has in his “notes” section at the bottom of that long post – its worth scrolling down, I promise:

Something is up at Näak. Talk on the floor at TrailCon was that their US operations are no more. Another nutrition brand even seemed to call into question whether they might be able to fulfill their UTMB commitments. Huge yikes and opportunities abound for Precision, Never Second, Skratch, GU, etc.

Aside from the fact that there are very few runners I know who actually like Näak this could be the first big explosion in our sport. Some folks are already asking and worrying about that dreaded bike industry comparison. And those “some folks” in this instance were Ian MacGregor, CEO of SkratchLabs, so maybe he knows something we don’t – yet.