What Runners Wear

volume 1 : why i care about what i wear

I love getting dressed, whether it’s for life or for a run, and it shows based on my overflowing closet. I like me a fun shoe, but I love me a fun outfit. I truly believe if you look good, you’ll feel good and you’ll run good.

Back when I was rebuilding my wardrobe postpartum, I was incredibly annoyed I had to spend money on both sides of my life. I had my son in 2021, when the world was still covid-y and by the time I returned to work/running, I’d been living a sweats-adjacent lifestyle for over two years. Suddenly the clothes I had been so excited to wear for 10 months no longer felt exciting : they felt old, outdated, from another era. My pre-covid, prepartum wardrobe no longer reflected my post-covid, postpartum personality. While they physically fit, they didn’t emotionally fit. The worst offenders were my running shorts with their mid rise and 1.5” inseam, they proportionally looked like a belt and felt very 2015.

I slowly started overhauling my closet, while becoming increasingly curious about this grey zone where the clothing that outfits the two parts of my life might overlap. I like nice things however I’m also uncomfortable spending money, especially when there’s an infant to buy things for instead/as well. Best way to break the cycle was to open a running store where the money feels pretend. Jokes! I literally have an anxiety attack every time a brand invoices me.¹ Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with a lot of money but also I never was left wanting things. There were just the stores we could afford and the stores we couldn’t. We shopped American Eagle over Abercrombie, which was fine because so did everyone else at my high school.²

the aforementioned grey zone.

It’s not just the money; in a world where we are no longer numb to the effects of the apparel industry on the environment, it just feels wasteful to have piles of activewear on top of piles of non-activewear. We own the first floor of a victorian, which we purchased in 2020 and spent 9 months renovating just so we could have closets in our bedrooms so it suffices to say we don’t have a ton of space. My husband and I divide our closet equally, despite my owning more stuff and this makes each square foot inch that much more valuable. If I don’t love an item or wear it regularly, it gets cycled out because there’s just simply no room for the things I’ll maybe wear someday.

my love of a vintage tee runs deep, no pun intended.

I’ve always had a little cross over with my running fits, back before we called them ‘fits’ and it was just ‘stuff you wore running’. I’m not a fan of synthetic fabrics and have always preferred the soft feel of a vintage cotton tee, so much so my friends would often tease me for running in the rain in Vancouver, the irony being that I worked for a very popular, very stylish activewear brand and owned the least functional running gear. I’ve always erred on the side of comfort, and used to show up to races (back when I showed up to races) looking as unserious as possible. I prided myself on being fast without looking it.

J.Crew became the first grey zone brand for me. My focus was primarily on finding a good pair for running shorts (I wrote about my quest here and here) and I realized their cotton tanks (exhibit A) and their long sleeves (exhibit B) made fantastic running tops that I could also wear to work, to pilates or with sweats on the weekend. Mind you, Miu Miu was also doing this at the time, so it all very much fit into the fashion cycle of the moment. Miuccia, however, has moved on and yet I have not.

basically the same thing. (j/k)

If you come into the store, you’ll notice the clothing takes up quite a bit of real estate. Most run specialty stores lament about how slow it is to move apparel - it often feels like an afterthought compared to the vast amount of shoes. It’s been a learning curve for me, and I’ve had to course correct my buys for spring + fall, to allow time for more sell through, better sizing curves + also more space for brand diversification. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to position my store in the sea of run specialty stores - a sea that is vast and varied. I don’t fit in the mix of the ‘traditional’ ones, nor am I all chrome + cement like the ‘cool’ ones. I want to be the fun one, the one that gives people of all levels permission to be a little less serious with their run.

I was listening to a podcast recently where they were talking about Outdoor Voices and the hole it left in the active market, one that no one has seemed to have filled. Their clothes weren’t anything amazing (I didn’t love the fabrics - too scratchy + too thick) but the brand itself gave normal people permission to be active. In a world of nike driven design aesthetics + ethos, OV’s message was that you didn’t have to be an athlete to be athletic. It didn’t really resonate with me at the time - I was very much in my ‘I’m going to destroy this race’ phase of my life - but more and more I encounter people who come into the shop + the first thing they will tell me is ’I’m not really a runner,’ an apology for shopping in a store ‘for runners.’ Perhaps they used to run but now they walk, maybe they just like comfortable shoes or maybe they really do run, but they just don’t run enough miles a week where they think it justifies calling themselves ‘a runner’. My goal is for them to feel welcome, to know that they belong, and to immediately diffuse the expectation of whatever a ‘runner’ should be. I want to be the person who gives permission to someone to call themselves a runner; whether they used to run, they sometimes run or they PR every race.

In the past I’ve only talked about what I wear and why, and go forward I’ll be featuring other runners. Friends, customers, acquaintances - hard core + occasional runners of all ilk. I sat down this morning with the intent of writing the first installment of this new series, featuring a friend of mine + one of the styliest runners I know, someone I would consider a ‘hardcore’ runner but with an incredibly fun + playful sense of style. Instead I made this about myself; my long winded intro has morphed into a post of its own.

All this to say more to come, and in the meantime let this serve as a reminder that what what you wear is worth the effort, even if/when it doesn’t feel like it. Some of my most tired, I-don’t-want-to-run days can be flipped on their head with a really good outfit.

*k

1. This is true. I just upped my Zoloft and tried to sell running shoes to the paramedics who showed up at our house two weeks ago when I had a panic attack + made Matt call 911.

2. I worked at Abercrombie years later so consider my itch for camo cargo pants scratched.