One of my most memorable moments at Tracksmith was the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta. Our OTQ Program, designed to support elite amateurs, had over 120 athletes on the starting line, representing 20% of the field and proving that, as a brand, we could punch well above our weight. By 2021, the OTQ initiative evolved into the Amateur Support Program, incorporating every track & field discipline. Once again, we had an outsized impact in Eugene – it felt like there wasn’t an event without a Tracksmith athlete on the line. Five athletes made the Olympics that year, a feat we matched in 2024.

With a decade behind us, I’ve had plenty of time to think about the next ten years. While I don’t have all the answers of what’s to come, I do know we’re taking a significant step forward in how we work with athletes. Partnering with awe-inspiring individuals in our sport is simply a no brainer. In everything we do, we are armed in authenticity – and so, supporting real runners and exploring their real experiences is a natural next step in our journey.

To that end, I want to introduce you to Sam Parsons and Stephanie Bruce. Sam, who I’ve long-admired both as a runner and a storyteller, recently competed in the 2025 World Indoor Championship in Nanjing, China, representing Germany in the 3000m. Stephanie, mother of three and 2:27 marathoner, has vast experience on the US road racing circuit, including six top-15 finishes at Majors. Sam and Stephanie join us as professional athletes with elite expertise, offering varying viewpoints grounded in inspiration and insight. From providing creative input based on real racing experiences to mentoring aspiring athletes in our Amateur Support Program, they come aboard with a shared sentiment: a deep love for the sport of running.

THANK YOU, TOKYO

With Tokyo ‘25 in the books, we’re officially in the midst of the spring marathon season. Our time in the city was one we won’t soon forget, from our set up and shopping experience in SELECT by BAYCREW’S to the scenic community sessions that made their way from the Imperial Palace to Tokyo Tower. Thank you to everyone who made it out to marathon weekend – these are the major moments that we love to share and celebrate with you. Our Marathon Collection for this year's race is still available online below.

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Broken Records
As we approached the launch of our Eliot Racer, I cautioned the team that it would take time to establish a product like this. Why should people believe we can make a super shoe as fast as brands with budgets exponentially larger than ours? That’s what we’d have to overcome.

But we had a compelling fact on our side: of all of the shoes tested at our independent lab, the Eliot Racer had the highest energy return recorded. Higher than shoes from the brands you know, and have probably raced in. More impressively, its cushioning-to-energy return ratio was off the charts, meaning that it felt soft, but had great propulsion. This came down to a combination of the materials we used and the construction method. Our approach was working, and we validated that in the lab. Arguably more important, we validated it on the roads as well, as a number of athletes trained and raced in the shoe ahead of the launch. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, often with a sense of surprise. Surprise that our first super shoe stacked up against the big players. 

It's About Time, Part 2
In my last newsletter I talked about how fast everyone was running, and posited that the combination of nutrition, super shoes/spikes and new training methods were driving the results. There are also a lot of people who speculate performance enhancing drugs are also part of the equation. I’m not going to deny that, because we all know doping is a problem. But what makes that argument slightly less valid is looking at how fast high school and college athletes are running. A 15-year old broke 4:00. A middle school girl ran 10:14 for 2 miles (that’s not a typo; middle school, not high school). I remember when Adam Goucher ran 7:46 to set the collegiate record in the 3000m. Two months ago, in Boston, Ethan Strand of North Carolina ran 7:30. That’s 16 seconds over 15 laps! And Isabella Whitaker of Arkansas (via Penn), and one of our NIL athletes last year, broke the collegiate 400m record, running 49.24. We’re definitely in a new era when it comes to times. You can either grump and moan about it, or grab a bag of popcorn.