Sitting out this week + big brand upgrades 🔧

RUNLY NEWSLETTER #113
Thur June 5th 2025

It's a mixed bag this week.

The good news is that there is so much going on behind the scenes. Exciting things.

But before we get to that, unfortunately we've had to pull out of the Peninsula Trail Running Festival this Sunday.

If you've been following our last few events, you'll know we've had a tough time with the weather.

Back at Inverloch Running Festival a couple of months ago we had truly awful weather as an outdoor expo. Torrential rain, mud & wind.

One of our displays didn't make it, and our marquee just survived.

At Ballarat Marathon our marquee just made it through, having to deal with some more horrific weather in the first 24 hours.

And then after putting the marquee to use yesterday, it finally decided that was enough.

We've got a new & improved activation structure on order, but unfortunately it won't come in time for this weekend.

With our first indoor expo coming up at Gold Coast Marathon in just a few weeks, we've been hard at work designing and creating our activation space, and we've come with what I think is a simple, but particularly nice setup.

One thing I've been thinking about, is how do we elevate our outdoor expos?

Most grassroots events have outdoor running expos, even the Melbourne Marathon is outdoors.

But what I don't love about them, is that they can look a little bit like market stalls, instead of a premium brand experience.

It's something I've been pondering about - how we go from looking like a stall, to more of an activated experience.

That is a work in progress.

It's all part of some of the exciting things happening in the background.

In the midst of reviewing our event activations, we're also taking the opportunity to really tighten up our branding.

Don't worry, nothing major.

I actually really love our branding & aesthetic.

But it's time to take the opportunity to tighten it up so that it's consistent across everything - website, events, social media & products.

We've hired a really talented brand designer to help us bring this all to life to make the customer experience even better.

It goes without saying, but this is something that doesn't happen overnight.

Months. Maybe more.

Slowly yet surely you might notice a couple of very small tweaks to the brand aesthetic.

We've also been hard at work, maybe even harder than ever, working on our product development.

As I've always said, it's not about releasing as many products as we can. That's just not how we roll.

It's about working really hard to make the best possible products through ideation, testing & listening to what our customers are saying.

Quality over quantity.

We've been working on developing two new products. Both are based on feedback and ideas we've received from our customers.

If I'm being honest, one of them is realllly far off.

Our first sample was, well, let's just say it wasn't it.

But that's how all of our products began. An idea & a terrible sample.

Perhaps one day I'll show the first sample of the Hybrid Pro 😅

Yesterday I was on the phone with an Australian race director, and he was loving that we were the only Australian running vest brand.

But as it goes, probably 60-70% of running vests worn at races in Australia are from a single brand. You probably know which one.

They're owned by an international conglomerate who is valued at close to $30 billion (*starts sweating*).

So how does a small Aussie-owned brand compete with a company like that?

The reality is we need to be different, listen to our customers (because we actually care) and be nimble with what we can do.

That sums it up this week.

If you haven't yet, check out my YouTube vlog documenting our recent photoshoot here.

Run well,
Robbie