Lindsay Dakota is a Co-Founder of Naked Sports Innovations. You're probably familiar with their running bands, but maybe not as familiar with their running vests or their new trail racing shoe. Maybe you also also noticed athletes like Adam Peterman and Camille Herron crossing the finish line of this year's Western States 100 using their gear. Regardless, if you're a long-time listener of Singletrack, you know our first love on this show is chatting with the entrepreneurs building on top of and around the world of trail and ultra running and we return to those roots in this episode.
Lindsay and I talk about what it's like running a gear company in our sport, the opportunities he saw to innovate on existing trail running gear, the outside influences he brings to our world, general commentary on building and marketing a vision from 0 to 1, and all sorts of stuff around Naked's current and future lines of products. I hope you enjoy.
Sponsors:
- Kodiak Cakes - use Singletrack15 at checkout to get 15% off your next order.
- InsideTracker - go to insidetracker.com/singletrack to get 20% off your next order.
Timestamps:
(1:55) - inspiration to be an entrepreneur in the trail running world
(5:05) - the historical timeline and evolution of running bands and vests
(10:54) - building a new trail running gear company and carving out a niche against established, well-known brands
(12:33) - the biggest areas of opportunity for innovation in trail running gear
(16:34) - thoughts on competition and their innovations being absorbed by bigger brands
(21:30) - the zero to one process for getting a trail running gear brand off the ground
(23:25) - typical day for the Co-Founder
(25:33) - marketing the brands through athletes
(29:48) - changing demographics of the sponsorship landscape
(33:40) - Naked's current and future product line
(40:36) - innovation from new versus established running gear companies
(47:33) - miscellaneous questions
Additional Episodes You May Enjoy:
- #3 - Jimmy Daly | Social Media, Content Creation, Branding For Trail Runners
- #7 - Mark Gainey | Co-Founder of Strava, Trail Running, Athlete Creators
- #8 - Larissa Rivers | Trail Running Stores, Sports Marketing, Strava
- #11 - Matt Taylor | Tracksmith, Brand Marketing, Growing The Sport Of Trail Running
- #20 - Zoe Rom | Trail Runner Magazine, Running Journalism, Diversity Talks
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