Step change
A new breed of running brand is appealing to a new breed of ultra-discerning runner
shorts will set you back £270. (You can get a decent pair of running shorts from Nike for £20.) Campaign films featuring long-haired, tattooed models are woozy and set to slide-guitar riffs, often filmed in the deserts of California or Utah.
“In cycling,” says Dean Cook, menswear buying manager at Browns, the London-based fashion retailer, “you’ve got these brands like Rapha and Pas Normal Studios that are designer brands but also built for performance. Satisfy falls under the same aesthetic.”
Browns was an early adopter. A couple of years ago, Cook moved to cater for a new breed of consumer, those who expect the same from their running kit as they do their diver’s watch or racing bike: function plus style, and a certain element of snobbery. Satisfy is not to be confused with “athleisure”, perish the thought, nor with “streetwear”. The idea is not that you wear it when you’re not running, but that when you are running, you know it sets you apart.
District Vision, another brand available at Browns, also makes running equipment, though with a focus on super-lightweight eyewear, made in Japan. The website claims a “holistic approach to athleticism” and the idea that physical performance starts with mental wellbeing. Beyond its products — clothes made in California, and a hand-carved incense holder, among other things — District Vision recently unveiled its Mindful Athlete Course 2020, a 16-part series of guided meditations.
“District Vision is an accidental combination of technical excellence and spiritual grounding,” says co-founder Tom Daly over email, slightly mysteriously. “It seems like we all have a much more holistic understanding of our physical and mental selves and maybe District Vision somehow speaks to that.”
Daly, a Brit, and fellow founder Max Vallot, a German — former employees of, respectively, Acne Studios and Saint Laurent — launched District Vision in New York in 2015. Partouche, who launched Satisfy that same year, believes these brands came to market at exactly the right moment, coinciding with an upswing in mindfulness, wellness and a desire for those at the top end of the market to put some distance between themselves and the ubiquitous sportswear behemoths: Nike, Adidas, Puma et al.
Another of Browns’ hip running brands is perhaps the hippest of all. Hoka One One, named after the Maori phrase for “time to fly” (pronounced “oh-nay oh-nay”, not “one one”), was originally established to create shoes that could better handle the vertiginous descents of a long-distance trail run. The results offered the requisite cushioning and stability via bulbous, oversized soles, which the serious running fraternity has roundly endorsed — two
Hoka shoes feature in the top 10 of Runner’s World magazine’s best shoes of 2020 — but the maximalist design appealed to the fashion pack, too.
In 2020, you’re as likely to see a pair of Hoka’s “Tor Ultra Low WP JP” or “Speedgoat 4” in the throng outside a Paris fashion show — if Paris fashion shows go ahead in 2020 — as you are at the local running track. The French brand hits that sweet convergence of cultish aesthetics and technical brilliance that appeals to coolhunters today.
When Dean Cook was looking to establish Browns’ fledgling sportswear department for the style-savvy, one of his first ports of call was Hoka One One. “The fact that we are bold and lean into our identity has likely helped to hasten our adoption,” says Matthew Head, the brand’s director of design. “We are unapologetically ourselves and I believe that authenticity resonates.”
Hoka has just launched its first line of technical running clothes, perhaps less visually arresting than the footwear, but no less functional. “We’ve been working on this for around two years and have used premium materials to ensure the pieces are up to the task,” explains Head.
The collection is “responsible”, too, using recycled materials throughout. But most importantly: you can run in it. ○