How Tracksmith changed the (running) world
Matt Taylor always wanted higher quality storytelling in running and Tracksmith was how he finally did it
Tracksmith is 11 years old now, but creating the brand that pushed the storytelling envelope and became a trailblazer for the modern running scene wasn’t a flash in the pan decision. Founder Matt Taylor tells me how the kernel of the idea started way back in the mid-1990s, before he even went to college.
The kernel in question was a Runner’s World feature on Marc Davis, who Matt describes as “the bad boy in running - as much as you could be in ‘90s distance running.” He tells me how “it was photographed and written in a way that had never been done in a running magazine.”
It was actually only this year that he discovered that article was originally meant for publication in GQ in the lead-up to the 1996 Olympic Games, but GQ eventually passed on it, so it was ultimately sold to Runner’s World. It’s been difficult for journalists and storytellers for some time.
His noticing of that difference in style led to him paying his own way to visit 11 colleges with the best cross-country programs in the country. He spent a week with each one, writing every day, taking photos, shooting short films, while sleeping on whatever couch was made available to him. He posted the whole series on his own website, and called it Chasing Tradition.
“I was average or below-average in all three of those things individually, but I was really the only person creating any type of content like that back then.”
Cut to 2025 and we have Like The Wind, Citius, a million running IG accounts, untold numbers of YouTube documentaries, and hundreds of newsletters just like this one to choose from. We are spoiled for #content, and there’s a big argument that all of this was being done first by the guy who made Tracksmith. A blogger!
