A little over 10 years ago, Matt Taylor started an exercise in which he would hold up his running gear alongside the day-to-day clothes in his wardrobe. He immediately saw a disconnect between his classic, Ivy-leaning clothes – Brooks Brothers button downs, Champion sweatshirts – and the garish neons of his running clothing. Eventually, Taylor extended this exercise, asking to look at friends and family’s wardrobe and fitness gear. Again, he was struck by how dissimilar they were. “There was just no link between how we were dressing in our everyday life and what we put on to go for a run,” Taylor remembers.
The wardrobe studies conducted by Taylor, and the differences he discovered, went on to shape Tracksmith, the running brand that he founded in 2013. In the decade since, Tracksmith has grown into something of a global movement, with flagship stores in Boston, Brooklyn and now London, as well as a community of runners across the world and its very own Hare A.C. run club.
Launching the brand, Taylor – a committed runner who had worked in the industry for most of his career – felt that people were being underserved by the brands that dressed them.
“When I started I had an overwhelming feeling that running deserved better,” he says. “As someone who had been running my whole life and been a consumer and a participant in the industry, I felt it was lacking an understanding and awareness of the essence and purity of running.”
Van Cortlandt Singlet
Van Cortlandt Singlet
Van Cortlandt Singlet
Van Cortlandt Singlet
Running kit seemed to only exist in two extremes. Too much of it was focused on the Olympics, arriving every four years with a gold medallist endorsement, and the rest was geared towards beginners. What about the people in the middle? Those doing pre-work laps of the park, or committed to their Sunday long runs. “To us, that’s what it’s always been about, the lifestyle of a committed runner,” Taylor adds. “It’s not about how fast you are or how many miles you run, but it has everything to do with your personal desire to want to test your limits. When you do that you become a better runner and a better person.”
To fill the gap, Tracksmith created clothes inspired by the classic menswear pieces that Taylor and his friends were wearing, which were in turn lifted from classic prep styling. Tracksmith products emulated a golden age of athletic aesthetics, embodied by the likes of Jesse Owens, Roger Bannister, Lee Evans and Steve Prefontaine, and harked back to a time before lurid colours and space age fabrics.
Van Cortlandt Shorts
Van Cortlandt Shorts
Van Cortlandt Shorts
They shifted focus away from the industry’s obsession with personal bests and split times, too. The new design emphasis was aimed to speak to runners, like Taylor, who balanced their commitment to the sport with their other commitments. “Most of the time we’re running before work, we’re running after work, we’re meeting friends for coffee at lunchtime,” he explains. “Things like versatility, comfort and longevity became more important than being the fastest on the day.”
The Tracksmith design ethos manifests itself through the colour palette – muted tones like “Wine,” “Ivory” and “Forest” feature prominently – and detailing that ranges from contrasting sashes to varsity-style “Amateur” text.
Running – and running culture – is perhaps more popular than ever, but the scores of new brands tend to design for the now and the soon, rather than the always. Kit is ever lighter, sheerer, brighter and overtly athletic. It serves to announce the wearer as a serious athlete, whether they are or not.
The same approach also continues in Tracksmith’s retail locations and collaborations. The brand’s three stores work as a mix of retail, clubhouse and museum, with running antiques and ephemera spread throughout the space. Tracksmith worked with Estelle Bailey-Babenzien – co-founder of Noah – on the design of the stores, hoping to show how the brand fits into running culture while also acting as a meeting point for its run clubs and community activities.
Grayboy Tee
Grayboy Tee
“The two things that the community has influenced are the design of the space itself, to make sure we have the room to service that community element, and then the location,” Taylor continues. “In Boston, we’re right next to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, along the Charles River. Here, we’re a kilometre from both Regent’s Park and Hyde Park, and in Brooklyn we’re right by McCarran and Prospect parks, which is where the running happens.”
Tracksmith began working with Noah back in 2017 and, following Brendon Babenzien’s appointment at J. Crew, launched a collection with the heritage American label in 2022. “I’d always admired Brendon’s work, I’d known who he was, and I knew he was a runner because he’d talked about it in interviews,” Taylor explains. “Then I found out he’d been buying Tracksmith since 2015.”
Tracksmith's run clubs, such as its 'Church of the Long Run', are based out of its various stores. Taylor says they add a new dimension to the physical retail space and allow for a local community to form. “A lot of runners crave a team element, the camaraderie of it, the shared suffering, this idea that we’re doing it together,” he says. “Running is so unique in that way that it’s such an individualist pursuit but you’re doing the same thing as everybody else."
Taylor's co-founder, Luke Scheybeler, was one of the founders of cult cycling brand Rapha, and it's easy to draw parallels with Tracksmith. There is a prevailing tone of nostalgia, and a notion of purity and authenticity away from the mainstream, but moreover it's the concept of a multi-platform ecosystem that offers customers physical kit, content, unique experience and a sense of tribe.
“There’s a core running group who consume the media, read the blogs, go to the events, they raise their hand and say that they’re runners,” Taylor adds, but he also wants to reach people who wouldn’t necessarily say that. “It’s how we find and introduce the brand to the people who maybe aren’t showing up to the London marathon or reading blogs about running.”
Recently, the brand made the move into footwear with the launch of its Eliot Runner, which combines a padded sole unit and lightweight construction with a design inspired by Tracksmith’s New England roots and its preppy aesthetic. Available in four variations of ivory and navy, it is technically astute but visually muted. That is to say, it doesn't scream "runner", and that's the point.
In a decade, Tracksmith has gone from an inkling to an industry disruptor. Races in 18 cities, stores in three cities, proprietary running shoes, and collaborations with Noah, Puma and J. Crew is a long way from the days when Taylor would compare his Brooks Brothers shirts with his running tops. Now, Tracksmith is synonymous with a certain type of runner. A runner who sees it not as means of exercise, but as an extension of themself, who is committed to the sport for their own reasons, and a runner who wants to look good while they do it. In other words, a runner like Taylor.
