Thoughts While Running #33
TRE was ok.
On schedule, my period arrived the day before my flight to San Antonio. I half-joked this post would start ‘so there I was, uterus falling out of my body, in a state that hates uteruses.’ For those of you not in the incredibly small world that is running consumerism, last week was The Running Event (aka TRE), a trade show with the most literal title, as if a room full of people couldn’t land a name + someone was like ‘oh I know!’
There have been some great TRE recaps already published + if you want a more in depth analysis I highly recommend checking them out here, here and here. TL;DR TRE was fine. As is usually the case, the snippets shown on social media make it look far flashier than the IRL experience of being in a windowless convention center flooded with brands all hawking their wares. Could I have not gone and still been ok? Probably. I’ve seen most of the fall lines already. But in the end I went for the people, not the product.
Arguably the largest + possibly most influential trade show in the running industry, I find it incredibly frustrating that it still takes place in the state of Texas, one of the first states to not just ban abortion but actually criminalize it. Rightfully so, there’s a lot of emphasis on diversity + inclusion within the running space but there’s a blind spot for what that means in terms of gender. As a female, there is nothing I want less than to use my hard earned money to travel to a state that literally hates me. And I’m white. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable I’d feel if I were visiting from a different country, queer or a person of color. Or god forbid, pregnant.
I half joked that I was going to host a ‘Plan B’ run in which I just show up with a suitcase of Plan B. If you know me, when I get an idea - even a half joke of an idea - I will persist. Two weeks prior to TRE, I came across Cadence OTC, a public benefits company in the East Bay working to make birth control as affordable + accessible as condoms. Cadence was super eager to collaborate + Hettas was kind enough to let us co-opt the run they had put together with Shokz. The response has been so overwhelming I’m thinking of ways to expand the concept into other cities across the US.
I was invited to a special event with Mizuno the Sunday before TRE, which meant I also flew out too many days early. They covered my airfare, part of my hotel + my pass to the show, which made the decision to attend far easier. When I got the email invite, I was flattered to even be included, because however unique or different1 my store is, however enticing it is for brands to be stocked by me, the volume I sell is tiny compared to most other stores, and as such they don’t really pay much attention to us. 2
As it turned out the original list of invitees didn’t include enough women, so I was a late add. I guess they needed to make sure our uteruses wouldn’t fall out if we ran in a pair of carbon plated speed shoes. Even after including me and a few more females, I will say the event was still very light on estrogen. There weren’t any female reps from the Mizuno US team and only one from Japan.
This would become a theme of the week.
Aside from showing up inappropriately attired for the welcoming dinner (apparently the dress code for these things is to wear all the free apparel we’re gifted immediately) I was surprised to actually enjoy 90% of the session. I miss design and being on the development side of things so it was fun to flex that muscle - and also fun to drop a ton of feedback I wasn’t responsible for executing.
What I realized after spending ~ a week with a bunch of specialty running store owners, is that I don’t consider myself a specialty running store. When I repeatedly expressed this sentiment, people asked me just what kind of store I thought I was to which I replied ‘I’m just a store that sells running stuff.’ I was the only one who noticed the difference.
Despite TRE feeling like a marathon expo on steroids + marathon expos giving me anxiety (too much shit, not enough natural light), there were some genuine highlights for me + in the end, I’m glad I attended. Like I said I was there for the people, not the product. I hung out with the RAD team because they’re just well, rad. I got to catch up with Lee, Cole and Raz and meet Andrew Chen IRL - a breath of fresh air to be amongst such likeminded company where we all love running but we all love other stuff too. I met the Courier team for the first time not in a google hang out and had to pull myself away to catch my flight because honestly I just love them all. I was on a panel with some of the most amazing + inspiring women in the active space - I left wishing I lived in the same city as Jessie + Lexy from Pruzan so we could run together regularly.
It was confirming to leave feeling that I stock the right brands because sure the products are solid but so are the people and to me, that almost matters more. The bar to be in my store has been set high because I’ve been so fortunate to work with so many amazing humans + the brands they’ve created. The majority of the brands I stock are as supportive of me as I am of them, which makes the ones who aren’t stick out.3
I love running but it’s not my life. Or rather, it’s my life in the sense I’ve chosen to make a living off it, but it’s not like my life. I had dinner one night with some new industry friends + spent 90% of it googling whoever + whatever they were talking about. The other 10% was spent ranting to the group about how Satisfy’s attempt at capturing the female market was lame and came 10 years too late. This too would become a theme of the week. Perhaps I should have asked them what they thought of Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel show in an old subway station.4
San Antonio also exceeded expectations. I had a really hard time getting a sense of the city before I left, but once I was there I found some gems. This wonderful bookstore, a tattoo shop i’ll definitely revisit and as long as I ran away from the convention center, the riverwalk was delightful. The matcha unfortunately is mostly terrible - the best I had all week was at the ON booth which I discovered only as I was leaving to catch my flight home.
I even discovered a pilates studio that was surprisingly hard - the instructor (who I would later find out was the owner) seemed so chill I was expecting to be underwhelmed. Instead I left with my abs and ass on fire. It was so good in fact I went twice + will 100% be back next year.
After class on my last morning in San Antonio, while waiting for yet another terrible matcha5 in a cafe Nike had taken over, an older man started chatting me up. I was in Pruzan tight shorts and a Uniqlo puffy - apparently he thought I was with the Nike run happening that morning. I quickly corrected him, stating that I wasn’t with Nike but rather visiting from out of town. He asked who I was with, I replied myself (🙄) and that I actually owed a running store in SF. He cheekily asked if I was one of the stores they dropped a couple years ago (as if!) and I informed him I do not and will not be stocking Nike. He inquired why and I went off, hitting all the high notes - Nike’s treatment of female athletes (Kara Goucher, Allyson Felix), their toxic corporate culture (not just Business Insider bad but like NYT exposé bad), the cash grab for women that was Nike x Skims and the horrible fail that was the Nike After Dark Tour which honestly was just a rebrand of the women’s half they discontinued a decade ago, right down to the Tiffany’s necklace at the finish line.
Despite my groggy head and extreme fatigue so incredibly articulate was I that at one point I actually remember thinking to myself, mid-rant ‘wow. this is really good’. I wrapped up as my Uber was arriving and when I paused, my captive audience of one replied ‘Elliot hill was my college roommate’.
Like I said, foot in mouth was a theme of the week.
Hilariously this set the tone for panel I was on later that morning, hosted by Lee Glandorf which you can rewatch here if you feel so inclined.
This panel took place in a space TRE dedicates to smaller panel-led discussions called ‘Training Camp’ on the conference floor. The tuesday before TRE begins, there is an entire day reserved for panel-like discussions in which TRE charges $400 to attend. These panels are 60-90 minutes and usually feature larger brands and stores, focusing on a variety of topics related to the running industry. I tried not to read into it that TRE decided a panel focused on women should be 30 minutes, free, and held on a day when most people are focused on doing other things. We had a full crowd + the discussion could have gone longer. It was an honor to be included, to be amongst such talented powerhouses in the industry.
I don’t know if I’ll go back to TRE next year. Most likely yes, because I’m sure if I don’t I’ll have FOMO, and I want to expand the Cadence run. Perhaps we’ll be better staffed so I won’t have to close for the two days I’m away. Maybe a brand will offer to pay for my flight again. If I’m honest I’d rather fly to Paris for fashion week (or Copenhagen if the running brands start to show there). I think I’d get more out of it because apparel is so hard to buy off line sheets. The fit, the fabric…it makes such a difference in influencing my buy if i can actually touch/feel/try on.
For all the hype around the coolifcation of running, I’m not the first to point out running isn’t cool. Or at least, most people running aren’t doing it because it’s a trend, they’re doing it because they love it. More fashion forward brands are slowly making their way to the various corners of the world but the world of fashion in running is still small.
It actually made packing even harder, because not only was I not that excited to be going to San Antonio, I also knew the fashion bar would be a low one. It was also unseasonably cold and nothing is worse that trying to pack a suitcase full of winter attire. As a result I packed all the wrong things. Luckily/unluckily Mizuno gifted me so much gear they included a carry on suitcase. I tried injecting some personality into the outfits we were told to wear but it wasn’t easy. i’m incredibly grateful for the experience and don’t want to risk offending anyone when I say there’s a reason I only stock their shoes.
The only outfit I packed with intention was my outfit for Thursday’s panel - a Horse Sport polo sweatshirt, Spence nylon joggers + Rytme socks. It wouldn’t have been right to sit on a panel about the influence of women + fashion in running had I not been head to toe in women’s led brands. Next year I’ll be wearing the short sleeved Pruzan top Jessie was wearing because I’m absolutely obsessed.
Going into the holiday season foot traffic is picking up (thank God) but because I was away for a week with less time that expected to actually do work, I’m incredibly behind in all of my fall orders, working in the early morning hours to get them out as fast as possible. The one order I might not worry about doing is Birkenstock. After my interaction with the brand last week I’m just not sure they feel right on the wall anymore. And with such limited wall (+ storage space) I only want to work with the brands I want to hang out with.
*k
or ‘cool’ but I hate that adjective
brooks let my sales rep go back in october - she’d been w/ the brand for over 15 years + was awesome, but she was an independent rep + they were bringing them all in house. she declined bc she’ll make way more money if she stays independent. i hadn’t heard from the new rep, despite it being the middle of fall sell in season - i tracked him down at TRE. apparently i was ‘left off his list’ + when he was in SF for two weeks visiting stores neglected to come to mine. he did, however, go to the other store in the city.
My Birkenstock rep spent an hour mansplaining the fall line to me as if I had never heard of the brand, as if my mom didn’t wear them throughout her entire teaching career in the 90’s, as if I hadn’t started buying them when Phoebe Philo made them cool again in 2012. I gave up my lunch to meet with him and was forced to sit with a smile on my face, blood sugar crashing while he clearly had never been to my website, Instagram, or substack. When he asked if there was anything I needed and I inquired if I could swap a style that hadn’t been performing, he questioned if I really knew who my target customer was before pushing some insoles on me along with what might be the ugliest sunglasses I’ve ever seen.
loved it.
the worst of the trip
the blind spot about having it in texas! well said.
Hey Katherine. I’m a recent subscriber and this was your first post to arrive in my inbox. This was such a great insight into who you are and what you’re about. You’re my kind of gal. Glad to have discovered your on here. It look forward to reading more! Elle