Issue 69 - The Run Punk Threesome
Why I’m all in on how On, a Swiss brand is redefining run culture. Whoop drops 5.0, Canyon to Amazon, and other things catching my eye this week...
👋 Good morning and happy Friday. I’m Scott and feel free to reach me here.
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Run Punk
Remember a few years back when running felt pretty damn stuffy and elitist. In 2025, thats totally been flipped on its head and the old guard of running marketing is all but … gone?
Or at least, it's being dragged out of the room by a new era of brands who actually get it. And one of the brands leading that charge right now? On Running.
The Swiss brand hardly known for being edgy has ramped up its game this year.
This week, On dropped their latest - a three-way collaboration with PLEASURES—a gritty, LA-based streetwear brand known for its hardcore punk roots—and Austin’s own LOOP Running Supply, one of the most legit running communities in town.
Through my eyes, this isn’t just a threesome collab (which is pretty rare in itself), it’s a culture play.
On running which has mostly been known for their patented cushioning system pre-pandemic has been shooting signal flares to anyone who's ever felt like they didn’t quite belong in the sterile, "Olympian-only" world of endurance sports this year.
Even if you look at Nike - gone are the days of “Just Do It” and instead, the focus is on things like women specific ‘After Dark’ tours. Their marketing campaigns full of gold medalists in slow motion are no longer. Don’t get me wrong—those athletes are amazing, but that narrow lens never reflected the full picture of who is a “runner” and what running culture really is.
Today’s runners aren’t just elite. They’re everyone. They’re the mom training for her first 10K. The tattooed farm-to-table chef. The 40-year-old chasing down a comeback after a decade off. The weird, the wild, the formerly-injured-now-addicted-to-gravel, the ones who run at 5am just to find a moment of peace before the chaos of parenting or emails or, hellish travel.
And brands like On? They’re finally leaning into that.
This PLEASURES x LOOP Running drop feels like something new.
Like something real.
Look at the press images and it’s going for attitude and edge. Just like Bandit is doing, this design doesn’t scream “like everyone else” but whispers "I am for everyone else." The campaign honors the rawness of running—the sweat, the grit, the self-discovery—and fuses it with PLEASURES punk energy and LOOP’s communal ethos.
The message is different and interesting: run culture isn’t top-down anymore. It’s grassroots. It’s plural. It’s punk and it doesn’t care about being regular or “the norm”.
Remember back in February when On launched their ‘Soft Wins’ campaign with none other than, Elmo? It felt brilliant. Why would you team with Sesame Street’s most iconic red monster? Because Soft Wins was encouraging runners to stop being so hard on themselves. Think about that for a second.
From hardcore punk to preschool positivity, it’s whiplash in the best possible way. Because the common thread isn’t status quo. Instead it’s about you and what’s inside your own soul.
It’s about inclusion. About reminding people that running isn’t just for the fast or the flawless.
It’s for the feelers. The beginners. The misfits. The overachievers and the ones just trying to get out of their heads for 30 minutes.
Whether you like ther stuff or not, On is embracing the full emotional spectrum of why we run—and they’re doing it through collabs that feel more human than hype. They’re latching on to and building run culture. Not a place I ever thought they’d go.
And maybe that’s what running needed all along. Less idol worship, more real stories. Fewer podiums, more playgrounds. Less pressure, more punk. And of course, more Elmo.
Keep moving. ✌️
SB
The Biz
Whoop Launches 5.0: Whoop on Thursday announced two new wearable devices, called Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG. So what’s new?
The new wearables appeal to not just athletes but the common person who is interested in their health. They’re now sleeker, have a longer battery life and additional in-app health insights. Each support 14 days of battery life (still 7 full days less than my Garmin Fenix watch), which is around triple the four-to-five-day range offered by Whoop 4.0. There are others updates too but this one perked my ears up and it seems cool but maybe, unnecessary? The company unveiled a feature called Healthspan, which uses nine metrics to calculate adult users’ Whoop Age and Pace of Aging. A user’s Whoop Age compares their physiological age to their actual age, and Pace of Aging assesses how fast or slow someone is aging based on their behavior. I’m not sure I’m down for all of that?
Overall, it’s a big move for the company whose last major hardware update was way back in 2021. I’ve talked to Whoop’s PR agency, Jack Taylor, about testing these devices, especially during Unbound Gravel XL, but I’ve yet to hear. Guess they don’t care about reaching 10,000 subscribers who are interested in this sort of thing. But if I do, I’ll for sure give my thoughts as a first time Whoop user. Read more…
Vuori coming for Lululemon: Hear me out because these are two brands I don’t pay much attention to outside of folding my wife’s Lulu pants, but like we just discussed with On Running, Vuori is coming after Lululemon by announcing a long-term partnership with the entire Gerber-Crawford family: Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber, and their children Kaia Gerber and Presley Gerber.
For years, lululemon owned the high-end performance space almost by default. But Vuori? They’re creeping in with substance, style, and realness. This partnership puts them right in front of the exact consumer that values premium gear and a premium lifestyle. One where Vuori is saying, "Hey, we’re not the underdog anymore. We’re the upgrade." Shots fired, Lululemon. Too big to fail? Read more…
Peloton Talks Tariffs: I’m really interested in any company that openly discusses tariffs and what they’re expecting to pay. Peloton disclosed in its shareholder letter just how tariffs are impacting its business. Its hardware is subject to 25 percent tariffs due to its use of aluminum, while its apparel is subject to whatever tariffs end up being levied on China. For its Q4 forecast, Peloton said it expected about $5 million in headwinds for its free cash flow as a result. The fitness company now expects 2025 revenue to be between $2.46 billion and $2.47 billion, up by $7.5 million at the midpoint of its previous forecast. Read more…
Canyon Heads to Amazon: You can now buy Canyon bikes on Amazon in the US as German brand becomes the first major bike manufacturer to list on the platform. At present, the options in the Canyon Amazon store are limited to a subset of its trail mountain bikes, electric bikes and urban bikes but it's an opportunity, for the brand to spread its reach to a broader range of US riders. Read more…