‘Trail is Outdoors New Frontier’

On TrailFans, a fanzine and platform for the trail running scene, sadly without byline:

When we walked through Chamonix during UTMB week last summer, something felt different. Not just busy. Strategic. Brand-hosted chalets weren’t simply handing out caps and gels. Founders and senior leadership had flown in from across the globe.Entire executive teams were present.
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UTMB week no longer feels like just a race. It feels like an industry summit.
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Chamonix showed us the shift. Nike’s declaration of intent validates it.

The outdoor industry has been in a doldrum over the past couple of years. It previously could rely on higher cost sports like biking and skiing to fuel their growth, but these markets have been struggling as consumers had stocked up on all their gear during the discount boom during COVID. Then Trump’s beautiful tariffs hit, prices increased and consumers stopped spending. Except in trail running. Participation is growing still and that is a market opportunity and seems to “bring all the brands to the yard”.

Trail running stands at an inflection point. And if it is now the outdoor industry’s new frontline, the responsibility for how it evolves doesn’t sit solely with brands. It sits with athletes. With race directors. With communities. And with all of us who care about what trail running becomes next.

The big elephant in the room and one that Nike is trying to address – or rather cover up by hiding behind the ACG brand – is that trail running has been supported by brands that mostly were ‘born on the trails’. These brands that have shown true staying power over the past few decades, have supported the sport, have made an attempt to understand the culture. These brands have long-standing history in the outdoors. Nike hasn’t. But they are now reviving old advertising campaigns to pretend that they have a history in the sport.

I am not afraid of newcomers, I am not a gatekeeper, I welcome the participation. I don’t even claim to suggest that these newer brands are supposed to ask me for permission, or play by some invisible rule book. But! I am also not one that’s frothing at the mouth because of one orange shoe and a train colored in the same way. It’s cute, it’s marketing, but will it move the needle? Will all this attention be a net-positive for our sport? All that shall be seen and I will watch out for and document.