How Trail Running Brands Can Truly Stand Out in 2026🏃‍♀️

This is part 2 of 8 of my summer series on community in trail running. See the whole series here.

I spent two weeks straight at trail running events last month, and my notes app is bursting with thoughts on the hits, misses, and “what’s coming next” for the sport.

At its heart, trail running is simple. You and your feet and your breath, spending time outdoors in a pursuit to feel good (either in the moment or afterward — looking at you, hill sprints).

But the business side of trail running is anything but simple, and I’ve had a first and secondhand deep look into it this year. How do you make money from an activity that doesn’t truly require specialized gear? How do you welcome newbies into a sport that’s veering more and more into an elite culture? How do you identify and acquire spokespeople who will champion your work and the sport as a whole?

Flying straight from the race I direct (Wild Woman Trail Runs) to Tahoe for TrailCon (a trail running conference sandwiched between two other race weekends), these and many other questions swirled in my mind. I flew back home with a few dominant takeaways, and I’ll take a lap with each of them over the next few weeks.

Trail running brands desperately want to stand out amongst the crowd, which is both easier and harder than ever.

Over 3 days at TrailCon, the best brand activations got me out of my head and into my body.

There were dozens of tents where brands simply sold goods: $60 branded hats stand out in my memory (though not in a good way, more of a 7th grade Hollister t-shirt way). Yes, these booths are expensive and brands need to make an ROI on them — but straight-up selling with no true experience ain’t it. 🤷‍♀️

A few brands stuck in my head by thinking out of the box:

• Skratch Labs had a “runner confession booth” where you’d enter to confess your running sins to one of their athletes on mic. Fun, controlled unpredictability, a bit “taboo”… Great! Though as you can guess, 95% of runner sins involved pooping on the trail, so it wasn’t as hard-hitting as it could be. If I were Skratch, I also would’ve leaned more into the “churchy” vibes of a confession booth to ground the experience more in our bodies and make it feel like you’re not just in a tent in a ski village.

• Patagonia had a build-your-own trail first aid kit, which as a former wilderness first aid instructor, I gushed over. You got a baggie and filled it with first aid items, which was both educational and convenient (now you have it to throw in your vest for your next run!). But I would’ve loved to see real time demos of how to use the supplies. A first aid kit is only as helpful as the practice you have using it. Again, getting participants in their bodies, not just their heads, makes the activation (and thus the brand) memorable.

• HOKA took over the ski village Coffeebar, which I think is an excellent opportunity, but left some to be desired. It’s pretty wild seeing a ski resort coffee shop morph overnight into a fully branded HOKA-meets-coffee experience, which alone got the brand in my brain. I loved the Freetrail printed newspapers scattered around the shop that were packed with articles about Broken Arrow and Western States. Print media feels rare these days, and it matched the coffeeshop vibe perfectly while adding tactile elements. But it would’ve been extra special to see HOKA add more runner hype into the coffee ordering experience: renamed menu items? A community bulletin board? Some kind of “guess the shoe mileage” for a chance to win a refill?

One brand takes the podium, in my opinion: The Precision Fuel & Hydration 100m dash!

There’s a video of me mid-air, arms stretched overhead, leaping to snatch a gel off a string at the finish of a 100-meter dash. And… I made the finals! (I’m choosing to believe this makes me an elite athlete now. 😉)

The dash, run by British fuel brand Precision, was one of my most memorable moments in two weeks straight of in-person trail running events. You signed up, got assigned a bib, and went through heats of sprinting down the village, making a tight turn around a pile of haybales, sprinting back, and jumping to snatch a dangling Precision gel-filled flask at the finish line.

It was serious while silly. Competitive but not at all pretentious. A take on a tough event (how many adults ever run at a full sprint?!) that wove in their product in a damn fun way. It was a true race and completely ridiculous at the same time — and you bet I’ll always remember Precision’s name for it.

The several heats (which left my quads sore as hell) also gave me something that the other brands at TrailCon didn’t: a full-body flashback to 25ish years ago, standing on the start line at my hometown track during the summer community track meets in Framingham, MA.

I was 8 again, running because running was fun and felt like flying. Not because my watch told me to and I had a race on the calendar. I don’t think I’ve felt that exact feeling since I was a preteen. I left the Precision course lit up and a little stunned, thinking I need more of this.

THAT’S how to stand out as a conference vendor: You get people in their bodies.

You keep it simple — as simple as “race ya down the block!” — but in a way that makes people cheer for competition, hold their breath before the gun, or even get a flashback to their childhood running days.

We spend too much time in our heads as it is. Bring us into a felt, physical experience. That’ll give you more ROI then selling a $60 hat.

I may have lost in the finals — but look at all of us SMILING.