Why Your Favorite Cycling Brand Is Now a Running Brand, Too

Cycling's Lightbulb Problem

Cycling has always had a burlier barrier to entry than running. “If you’re 25 years old and you have an entry level job and want to start being more involved in the outdoors, it's a lot easier to buy a pair of running shoes than to become a performance cyclist,” Portal co-founder Patrick Stangbye says on the topic. “The threshold to enter some of these gear-heavy sports is quite high.”

Stangbye also notes that the exclusivity of cycling has not done the sport any favors. Whereas a carbon fiber performance bike used to cost between $1,500 to $4,000, now high end bikes can routinely run north of $10,000 USD. Add an expensive technical wardrobe to the mix—good kit like Velocio’s Merino Luxe Jersey goes for $199, MAAP’s Cargo Bib costs $315, and Specialized’s S-Works Torch Shoes are $499—and suddenly the purchasing power of your target audience dwindles even further.

Sure, avid riders are willing to shell out for costly bikes and bibs, but the problem for the companies making them is that these are once-in-a-while expenses. It’s the old lightbulb problem—if a company makes a product that doesn’t need frequent replacement, then once the market of potential buyers has acquired the product, the company will become obsolete.

“There is a specific pool of cyclists who are willing to spend that amount yearly on that level,” continues Stangbye. “And they’re not repurchasing immediately.”

The Multidisciplinary Athlete

Running apparel and footwear can often function just fine on hikes, at the gym, and in everyday life. On the other hand, nobody's rocking cycling bibs to run errands without a bike or helmet nearby to signal why. This versatility is something that brands are keenly aware of, and underlining in collections designed for style.

“Making quality apparel today is so expensive that, at least for us, it has to have more than one use case,” explains Alec Wilimovsky, a founder of actiwear label Ocean&San. “To me it doesn't matter how cool your split shorts or singlet are if I'm not comfortable wearing it off the race course.”

Ignoring the market potential of expanding your sales to include both runners and cyclists would seem unwise, considering the Venn diagram overlap of runners who cycle and cyclists who run is pretty large, and potentially growing. This is something that upstart brands like Portal have been able to tap into without needing to go back to the drawing board. It’s in their DNA.

Ian Elliott, Chief Marketing Officer for MAAP, believes the rise of the multidisciplinary athlete has been particularly evident in the last several years: “I think there’s this incredible trend right now of moving away from the stereotype of an athlete to more of a multidisciplinary approach to wellness. It’s not just about the runner or the cyclist. It’s about the way those activities coexist.”

Portal wanted to capitalize on the polymath athlete market by providing the same versatility as mountain brands—which tend not to be activity-specific and often make products for hiking, climbing, and trekking—but for the endurance crowd. Stangbye noted that many of his friends aren't single-discipline people; they enjoy running on roads and trails, and riding bikes on pavement and gravel.

“Unless you’re on the top end competitive level, some of the products that you use might overlap a lot. There was too much overlap in our wardrobe,” Stangbye says. “We see ourselves more as a kind of traditional outdoor brand, but we just focus on endurance activities. We enjoy trying to create products that can move in between these activities.”

(Run) Culture is King

There may be another less tangible phenomenon at work, which is that running brands have managed to establish a cultural cache that cycling brands haven’t quite matched. In short, running is cool.

There is an upstart energy to brands like District Vision, Tracksmith, Janji, Satisfy, and Bandit that feels authentic and grassroots. The founders of several of these brands have backgrounds in fashion as well as true athletic chops, and have brought edginess and style-forward design to their products. Running clubs are booming all over the world and major marathons are drawing record numbers of applicants. The cost to get involved in the sport? A pair of kicks, shorts, and a tee.

“Fundamentally, people want to belong,” says Elliot. MAAP’s founders have a background in streetwear, and that has influenced their own aesthetics and partnerships. The brand recently did a collaboration with Public Possession, a German record company, that featured stylized bibs as well as lifestyle apparel like t-shirts and hoodies. “I think the larger aim is: how can we show up in a way that is just going to get the world absolutely psyched on the sport?” said Elliot.

Stangbye views the struggle for cycling brands to strike as deep a chord with their audience as a communication issue. “Running is a bit less serious on a recreational level,” said Stangbye. “These brands make performance products, but their communication is adding another layer to it. If you want to be a cowboy, you go to Satisfy. If you want to be mindful, you go to District Vision. In cycling, it’s very directional toward performance. What is missing needs to come in this other layer of communication.”

To others, the vibe of cycling is just right. Running may be having a moment, but it's a loud one.

“I don’t believe running has a culture that cycling lacks,” said Wilimovsky. “I think it certainly has a hype and accessibility that cycling doesn’t, but cycling culture is alive and well. It’s just a little quieter. Which is why a lot of people, myself included, love it.”

The good news is, you don’t have to take sides. You can identify with a specific brand or sport or you can wear it all, do them all. Just don’t be surprised if your favorite brands go multidisciplinary as well.