Latest / The People Run Podcast / #48 Inside Cooldown | How Bailey Ness Built One of America’s Biggest Run Clubs

Transcript

#48 Inside Cooldown | How Bailey Ness Built One of America’s Biggest Run Clubs · The People Run Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_01: Bailey, you founded one of the biggest run clubs pretty much in America right now, maybe even the world, in cooldown running.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: When you started this, did you think it would get this big?
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: I was really not expecting it.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's been so cool to see.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, like take a step back and just look at what it is today.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: It's so cool to see.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: But did not expect it to be what it is now when I had the original idea.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: What was the vision at start?
0:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone sees now, like, oh, every state almost, you know, and new cities.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: I think you just announced for you recent partnership.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: Like, what was the vision in the early days?
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so a lot of people actually don't know this, but it's weird because the original idea was that I wanted to start a running clothing brand.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: I ran in college at the University of Minnesota.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: We were a Nike sponsored school.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the clothes that they gave us, I didn't feel like we're very fit for runners.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: The sports brass that were given to us were also given to the soccer girls, the hockey girls, the basketball girls, everybody else.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: And I decided that runners really needed running specific clothing.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: And when I graduated from college, I signed up for a marathon and I really wanted a new marathon outfit.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And everything that I was seeing online was either really functional, but like black, gray, boring colors, or it was really cute.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: So, like a fun pattern or fun, bright colors, but there was no pockets for my gels, nowhere to hold my phone if I wanted to run with that.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Basically, I ran my first marathon with three gels in my hands because I went with the uh and I wanted a cute outfit, and I wasn't gonna sacrifice the cute outfit to have function.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: But that was the original idea, and then the clothing ended up taking over a year and two months to actually launch.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: So, in the meantime, started a run club in Denver, and it honestly just blew up here and realized how needed it was, how fun it was, how cool it was to bring people together.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh, love seeing all the communities that were being built through the run club.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: So decided to launch it in other cities, and it is funny now because the run club side of the business is actually bigger than the clothing side of the business, and I actually have found myself even more passionate about the run club side of things than their original clothing idea.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: Why is it you're more passionate about the run club side of it now versus the clothing?
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I still love the clothing, don't get me wrong.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Like my background was in fashion marketing.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: I always wanted to start a clothing brand.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: I always felt the strong need for a running clothing brand.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And do not get me wrong, I still am so passionate about that and still love creating clothing and still continu plan to continue to do that.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: But I do think at this moment in time, it the run club side of things has you know me a little bit more hooked right now just because I have loved seeing the impact that it has had.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: And I know so many people who come to cool down who maybe didn't know anybody in a city before and now they have a friend group or felt really lost and didn't feel like they had a community after college and uh or maybe even built a relationship.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: And I do find that that side of things uh has been even more fulfilling than the clothing.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you've kind of become the connector of people, not just in Denver, but now uh you know America, if you will.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, and expanding from what I saw outside of the US now.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: So congratulations.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: We're also in Toronto, our one outside the US place, and that's been fun, and there are plans to probably go to more places outside the US too.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: That's dope.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: When did you realize like run clubs are taking over and like this is this is what I want to lean a little bit more on and double down on?
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was interesting.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: I think we were very much at the beginning of the big run club wave.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, at this point there's one billion run clubs, and I feel like there's one billion run clubs popping up every single day.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: But I think at the time there wasn't the social run club.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean there were a few around the US, but there definitely wasn't one in Denver.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really feel like there were many in New York, not many in Austin at this point.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: And again, now there's a million, but at this point I really wanted to lean into just making new friends, meeting new people, uh building community, anything like that.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's funny you say that.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: I just had a few guests on recently from like the UK, and Cooldown is the only grunt club we have in the States.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: I could be wrong, so don't come at me, anyone.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: But uh I feel that kind of is similar in the regards to the social aspect where like as someone who's moved around, like some of them are hardcore.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, if you're not running this fast, find another club.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: If you ain't wearing this, find another club.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: It's like niche down versus the social, let's hang out.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: But we're also gonna get this running.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: And we really never wanted to niche it down to like this is the run club for fast people, this is the run club for slow people, this is the run club for beginners.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I really wanted to make sure that no matter what type of runner you are, you feel welcome here.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: So there are people who are professional runners and come to cooldown as their second run of the day, and they're getting in their double in a more social way because they already had a hard workout that morning.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Or we have people who come who literally can't run for over a minute, and that's okay too.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to make sure that everybody feels welcome at cooldown.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: That's a difficult thing to do, I suppose.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you do that?
5:58
SPEAKER_01: And from everything I've seen, cooldown, you guys have a very fun, energetic.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that's planned, but like energetic vibe too.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep that and also scale it?
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, great question.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: I think the whole thing has been always just marketing almost everything other than the running side of it.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: So always marketing the social part of it, marketing the drinks after, or anything like that that doesn't feel hardcore running, even though it is a run called, because I even still have people say to me all the time, like, I've been way too intimidated to come to cooldown because I can't run.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And I say to people over and over again, you don't have to run to come to cooldown.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: I actually usually walk when I go because I like to be the last person and make sure that nobody feels like they're getting left behind.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: So I always push everything other than running.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: No, that makes sense, you know.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: Like running is important, but also the fun side, you you kind of blend both.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: How do you pick a city to go to?
7:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, you've done a lot of them now, but like how do you pick a city and and logistics behind that?
7:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure the city has to get on board and all that.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: So it's definitely evolved over time how the cities come about.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: But uh New York was our second city, and just had some friends from college who ended up launching it there, and they wanted to start a run club themselves, but then just decided to do it under the cooldown name, and that was really how we started expanding.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: And then Austin was the third city, and I feel like at this point, run Austin's like the running capital or like the social running capital of the world.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: I think Boulder's still the running, intense running capital of the world, but uh then found some content creators to launch it there, and that one did really well too.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: So then after those three cities, I felt like people started coming to us asking to launch in their city.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And so now at this point, people will reach out almost daily.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: We'll get a couple requests saying, Hey, can I launch Cooldown in my city?
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And we just have them fill out a form.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: And anytime we are ready for like that next step, we look at that form and see who's applied or what the city is or how many requests we've gotten for that city.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: That's a big part of it too, because there's random places that I would never have thought would like we just launched an Aspen, Colorado, which is like a very small place, not a lot of people live there, but we got so many requests that it was like, why not?
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And there was no other social run clubs there, and so it just was a natural fit.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: But to answer your question, we just go off of feel.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: If it feels right, we launched there.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: Aspen uh was interesting when I saw that immediately my head, as someone who lives out here, went to like, wait a minute, isn't it like 12,000 feet in the air?
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: It it was it felt very random at first, but it really just came together, and there is a group of younger people there, and it is hard for them to find ways to socialize and other than going to the bars, even though it is a very active city, so it felt like a very natural fit to go.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, give the people what they want.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the uh the time when cooldown, like, do you have any fear when you were starting this, or like, okay, this is starting to grow really big?
9:27
SPEAKER_01: There's like this moment where it's like, oh, this is starting to get scary and intimidating.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: Did you ever have a moment like that while building this?
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: There's been fire after fire, I will say.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, for every fire, there's 100 great things that happen, so that's what keeps me going.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the fires feel bigger and more difficult, and I always have to remind myself of all the good things, but there are random things.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Like one time in a city, like none of our leaders showed up, and every we had like a hundred people there, and there's been random things like that that have happened where we have to like go back, figure out what happened, how to make sure this never happens again, and go like that.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: But and we also have like sponsors in all the cities, so like being the middleman between the sponsors and the leaders and things like that has been hard, but I think that now we're in a place where we have put really good systems in place to actually uh make that better, and it has been working out better at this point.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I don't think there's been a really big fire in a long time, so I'm excited about that.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Hey, that's good.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: I feel like knocking on wood.
10:42
unknown: Yeah, yeah.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: The uh aesthetic of cooldown is so fun.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: Like, who does that?
10:49
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep that authenticity and like you know, keep that vibe?
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so actually, the person who originally did our branding was one of my former college teammates.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: I ran, like I said, it ran at University of Minnesota shout-out bit clecker.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: She did all of our branding.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: And then that was at like three years ago at this point.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: So ever since then, we've just used the branding that she's made and created a bunch of templates out of it.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: I actually, my background was I owned a social media marketing agency before I well, also during cooldown, but five years ago I started a social media marketing agency, sold that a few months ago.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: So I am very like versed in the social media world, and I do think that that has helped with the aesthetic of things.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: And uh I love marketing, I love uh keeping the cooldown aesthetic, and so I think that's played a huge piece of it.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you guys crushed that, uh, especially the marketing.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: I I I saw when uh you guys announced a Fleet Fleet deal.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: I thought that was really cool the way you guys did it.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like, hey, here's Fleet Fleet, you know.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: It was like here's a secret and people were saying it, and then at the end, that that was really cool.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: Like uh on that, uh what do you think most brands nowadays, you know, with the big running boom we have, misunderstand about running culture as it is today in 220?
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, that's a good question.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean I think every brand is doing their own thing.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: I think there are so many different niches of all these different brands.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of them are very like hardo and like grungy and black and ripped t-shirts and things like that.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And uh I think each brand just needs to like lean into who they are, and I think they are doing that, but um I think even though you are like kind of like this elitist exclusive, you still need to find community within that elitist exclusive room, too.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's what they're potentially doing wrong, but honestly, I I don't want to say anything bad about any other brands because I do think everybody's just doing their best and we're all doing our thing.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: What's been the hardest thing, like growing this?
13:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, you just mentioned three years.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: That that's a lot of growth in three years.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: What's been the hardest thing?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: I guess the biggest thing has been like now that we are in 18 cities, just keeping the consistent cooldown across all the cities.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: I obviously am not able to go to every single city every single week.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: And you can't.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
13:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm not by myself in five different places on a Wednesday night.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, no, but I there's actually some cities that I haven't even been to our club yet, which is crazy at this point because I used to make sure that I was at every single launch, like making sure that they knew exactly what they were doing, and now I just like brief people over calls and stuff.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: But anyways, I think it has just been keeping cons cooldown consistent across all the cities, making sure that even though I'm not in Seattle, for example, that somebody who shows up to a Seattle run club still feels the same experience that they get when they're coming to a Denver run club or a Chicago run club or a Minneapolis run club.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And I do know so many people who do like move city to city, and we are in major cities that young people are moving to.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And I know people are like, oh, I moved from Minneapolis to Dallas, and the first thing I did was go to your Dallas run club because I've been part of your Minneapolis run club for the last few years.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: So I think just keeping it consistent and uh ensuring that people have a good experience no matter where they go has been the hardest.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep that consistent?
14:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, you just mentioned 18 cities, different cultures in, I'm sure 18 cities, you know.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, some are close, some are different, East Coast, West Coast, but like how do you keep cool down the way you want it?
14:59
SPEAKER_01: Authentic to cool down in 18 cities and growing.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh okay, so at this point we have amazing leaders in place.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: We have one main designated leader in each city, and they're almost the owner of their city.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: So with that, we have now put a lot of fostering into that relationship with that city leader, make sure that they really know what they're doing, like, really like teach them.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: We actually went on a leader retreat to Sedona with Ultra this was that like a month ago in April.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: It feels like a year ago at this point.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: But uh, and just really like walked them through exactly how to do it, how to grow their city, and um inspired them to go back to wherever they live and present cooldown the way that we like it to be presented.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: How does that initial announcement like vibe go?
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we're going to the city, it's officially, it's done.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: You guys already know months in advance, but how do you bring that buzz to a new city when it comes?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I so like I said, we have a forum where people fill out to launch in their city.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: So right away when we do announce that we're launching in those city, we usually try to email or text all of those people and say, hey, like yeah, we saw that you requested this.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh, here it is.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Like, get excited.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: And then also I think just like tagging as many people in that city as possible.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Because, for example, like when we first announced Aspen, we probably didn't have that many followers in Aspen.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And um, so like finding people that actually live there to create the hype, tag other people, get everybody excited so that people all of a sudden know what cooldown is and uh want to attend wherever they live.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: You're in 18 cities now, like what what have you noticed the ones you've been able to go to, or even just from afar?
16:57
SPEAKER_01: Because obviously you're in the know of a lot of these cities.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: Like, what have you noticed that's different from these cities?
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh, like what's different city to city?
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you're saying?
17:06
SPEAKER_00: I think I mean ultimately, like each city is different.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Every city has a different culture, every city has different vibes.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, New Yorkers are so much different than the people in Minneapolis.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh just like having that leader represent that city, uh, and like represent what she knows or that he knows about that city is uh probably the biggest thing because yeah, people are different everywhere and people want different things, but then you know, keeping it consistent with cooldown as well.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think running became so cool again?
17:45
SPEAKER_01: Like running now is like the whole everything vibe and everything.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the million-dollar question, I will tell you, because I have been running since I was 12.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: It was so nerdy and weird that I was on the cross-country team in middle school and high school.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: Like it was the weird thing to do.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that people love running now has really been such a huge shift, and I've loved how so many people are getting into running.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I love that it's cool now.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: I love the new culture around it.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I could not tell you why this is a thing, but I can tell you that I'm so happy to share the sport that I've loved for so long with other people.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Do you think it's replacing clubs?
18:33
SPEAKER_01: It's just social everything, hell, Tinder and all these apps is just go to run club now.
18:39
unknown: Yeah.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think people like strike out on so many different things.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, maybe people are trying to meet people at bars, maybe people are trying to meet people online, maybe people are trying to meet.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: I think there's so many different ways to try to meet people, and you know, they're probably at the point where they're striking out in a lot of different areas.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, okay, let's try the run club and see if I can make a new friend group there or meet a significant other there.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: And so I do think that that's probably part of it.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: I show up to uh cool down, which you haven't yet, so you better come soon.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're gonna love this question then.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: I show up the first time.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's uh Wednesday, like you mentioned evening.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: What should I expect?
19:27
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like?
19:28
SPEAKER_01: What am I uh seeing and thinking uh as I get to cool down?
19:32
SPEAKER_01: Let's draw it out for the audience here.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: So because you live in Denver, I'll talk about Denver.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: So you'll join our Denver Tuesday.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: You will come to cool down.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Probably it's your first time, so you'll get there at 620, but then you'll quickly realize that nobody shows up till 6.31 when people walk up and they're like, is this the big run club?
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And there's five people there at 620.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, it must be your first time because just wait.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, around 6.30, there'll be 200 to 700 people surrounding you, ready to go run.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: We keep it very casual.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: People will probably go up and chat with people.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: The leaders will walk around, chat with people.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if they see a new face, a lot of times they'll go say what's up.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we'll just do a quick announcement.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I do not like to make them long.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: No one wants to be talked at for a long time after a long day of work.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: So probably like a quick three-minute max announcement of the route.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'll say that you can go whatever pace you want, whatever distance you want, and just go talk to somebody new.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: We'll usually have people turn to someone next to them and say hey and shake their hands or give them knucks.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And then from there, uh we'll all just casually go run or walk any distance or uh any pace you want, and then we'll end at whatever bar we partnered with that night.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we will have sponsors out who are like giving out free product or discounts or uh maybe doing a raffle, and then people will just sit, grab a beer, grab some water, and socialize with each other.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's not a crazy, it's just this typical run club, but it works.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like a very relaxing post-work day.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, exactly.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: We don't want anything intense.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's had an intense day of work, probably, or maybe an intense day of motherhood, fatherhood, whatever it is, or anything, and it's just a place to relax, chill, and get some socializing in, maybe some miles if you want to.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: Given that, like there's many paces and all 200 plus people.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: What's the the distance like?
21:53
SPEAKER_01: Are is it a typical 5k or are we just depending on the day?
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we always say like one to Five miles, um, because a lot of people will only walk a mile, and that's totally okay with us.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: I do know some people who just come for the post part or not even the running part, and that's okay, like whatever your heart desires.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh but yeah, some people a lot of times we'll meet at Sloane's Lake in Denver, so that's a two and a half mile loop.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: That's your favorite.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a lot of people will run around that twice and get a five-mile run in if they want.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: It's it's really whatever your heart desires.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: I always I always say that.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: How do you uh partner with these these brands and and you know, bars post the event?
22:42
SPEAKER_01: How do you decide that?
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we have year-long partnerships with Ultra and Garmin.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And Ultra is our only shoe sponsor.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: They've been the most amazing sponsor.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Their office is here in Denver, so uh it's nice because I get to go into their office sometimes, feel like a corporate girly for the day, and then go back to a very, very small business.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: And uh they've just been so great, their shoes are amazing.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: I had never tried Ultra before we started chatting with them, and then now I am hooked, I am on the Ultra train.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then Garmin, same thing.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've used Garmin my whole life, so I was already locked in with them.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Those are our two year long sponsors, and then other than that, we'll do like a bunch of different ways to partner.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: So, like sometimes a brand is like, I really want to partner in Austin.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Can I just activate there?
23:41
SPEAKER_00: They're so focused on that, and they'll pop up in Austin.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're like, We want to hit all 18 of your cities in one week.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: How can we do that?
23:50
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll work like, for example, we have a thing with Salt Stick coming up and with Bombas, where they're sponsoring for the entire week across all 18 cities, and we're gonna highlight their product in all those places the entire week.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: So a bunch of different ways, but it's been so fun to work with partners, and um, we've had amazing sponsors throughout this time.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: I I the the list of the sponsors has been so cool.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Like it's so fun to be talking with United Airlines about how we can partner, and it just feels so random and cool, and never thought that that's how the run club would end up being.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Bailey, as a fan of the sport and someone who ran, you know, and just well, we're talking about United now, so just life.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do you still get excited when you get these emails, like like probably brands you looked up to or like places you never thought, like, hey, let's partner 18 cities.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: Do you still like open that email?
24:45
SPEAKER_01: Like, what?
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I we were talking to Epic Pass the other day, and I was like, I love Epic Pass.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, make this work, like let's do this.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, absolutely.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'll ever like get over that.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: And um, there are so many brands that I'm so excited about, and other brands that are on my dream brand list that I hope one day we can work with too.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Um like exciting.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yes, it's it's so fun.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: I truly like love this job so much.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe this is my job, and I can't believe this is the company that we're building, but I'm so grateful for it.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: What have you learned most so far um building cooldown running?
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, what have I learned most?
25:33
SPEAKER_00: That's a really good question.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh the run club side of things, I would say I've learned that oh my gosh, I don't I think I've like just learned that there's so many different types of people, and I already knew this, but like I feel like it just drilled it in more.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's so many different types of people, we're all doing our best, we're all like having different stories, we're all like moving to new places, we're all you know, struggling to find friends, whatever.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: And um, I think I've learned that like community can be found in such a unique and cool way.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: And then the clothing side of things, I think I've learned the most like that it is a very difficult business to get into, and it is like manufacturing's hard, uh you know, shipping's hard, packing orders is hard.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: It's so much manual labor, honestly.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I think I learn at least one thing every day, even if it's a small thing, but yeah.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Talking about clothing and the struggles with clothing.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, first off, wait a minute.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: You mean I can't just slap a t-shirt and put my name on it?
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people come up to us too, and they're like, oh my gosh, I love your merch.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it's not merch, it's like clothing that you like build tech packs around and like takes a year to make, and like it's so complicated and technical, and yeah.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, what was your question?
27:15
SPEAKER_01: No, you get funny you say that.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh I have seen the all clothing and stuff because I've had to show my girl and stuff like that, and she's like, Oh, this is really cool.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, I like the quality and the cutouts and stuff.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: So I I know a lot goes into it, but you know, it's that's crazy that people think merch, but yeah.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um has this whole journey changed your relationship with running at all, if you will?
27:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would say absolutely, like, yeah, no doubt in my mind that it's changed my relationship with running.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: I think just like seeing the like I was in an intense running situation, like running in college, and then I think just seeing this wide array, the spread of different types of runners there are, and like uh how it can like truly change people's lives, I think it really has like shifted my mindset with it, and I literally could care less what type of times I run now.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Like it is really just a way for me to continue to build community and like bring people together.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: Bailey, three years in now.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: If you think of Bailey three years ago and cooldown running, what comes to mind?
28:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I feel like I was so naive of what it was gonna become.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: I did not think it would be this huge run club across so many cities.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: I think I really just thought I was starting like a little clothing brand.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, and now it's not so little anymore, the clothing brand, and then definitely not the run club.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I think I just would be in shock to see what unfolds over the three years.
29:03
SPEAKER_01: Where do you think running culture and just community in general is going over the next few years?
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's really changing a lot right now.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: But in your, you know, you're in the industry, like where do you think it's going?
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I think like running is gonna continue to get even more social.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: I think there's so many different like fun ways to run right now.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: I think people are putting on really like you unique race experiences.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: You're not just like running the standard 5k or the standard half marathon.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: I I mean people are shifting into high rocks where you're also lifting in between running.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: Or uh I think a lot of brands are putting on like very unique experiences.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: So I think whoever can come up with like the next really cool running concept is gonna really crush it.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: Cool down high rocks.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: We have to start partnering with high rocks soon, so that'll be fun.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, for an event in New York, I think it's June 2nd.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: So any New York people listening, go out.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be in New York for June uh second and third.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, you should go.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: I'll send you the info.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, it'll it'll be a event.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, that's why we'll we'll touch on that.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and you'll meet our amazing New York leader, Elena.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: She's a gem.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: No, I love where the sport is going.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Love what you guys are doing in cooldown line.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: I know you said you're all in, not all in, but like the run club is taking a lot.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, where's the clothing going?
30:35
SPEAKER_00: I want to expand our men's offering.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: We really haven't launched a men's line yet.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not forgetting about you men, a lot of them are like, hey, what about me?
30:46
SPEAKER_00: So super excited to launch something really cool for that, and then also really excited with our women's line to get into winter gear.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: We've only had sports bras and shorts and some tank tops.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: And uh this winter we're hoping to have a line, and we've been working very hard on that as well.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited for winter gear and have some guy stuff coming.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Get ready.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Bailey, I appreciate you coming on the People Run podcast.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh, love what you're doing with Cooldown Running.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for giving us some insights into a little bit behind the scenes of cooldown.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't, including myself, go run cooldown running.
31:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh but thanks for coming on, guys.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this has been the People Run podcast.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: Catch you on the next one, guys.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.