“Trail runners are optimizers in the positive sense. I also label them as equipment and material nerds,” says Marlen Franke, trail runner and blogger at trail-kitchen.de, and she’s not excluding herself from that assessment. Trail runners have special demands of products and their manufacturers – experts debate this topic in part 4 of the Trail Running series on ISPO.com.
ISPO.com surveyed five insiders:
- Holger Lapp, editor in chief of trampelpfadlauf.de – a website for trail running and outdoor sports
- Marlen Franke is a trail and ultra runner, trail running guide, and community manager at Never Stop Munich and blogs at trail-kitchen.com
- Lars Schweizer works in the Sports Management division at the Laufcampus Akademie (Running Campus Academy) and blogs on Trailfieber
- Denis Wischniewski is the editor of Trail Magazine – the magazine for trail running, mountain running, and outdoor
- Andrea Löw, ASICS frontrunner, is the author of the trail book “Offroad – Mehr als Laufen” (Offroad – More than Running) and blogs at Runninghappy
Links to the other four parts of the Trail Running series on ISPO.com, with other expert theories, at the end of this text
“The price plays less of a role for trail runners”
Holger Lapp, trampelpfadlauf.de: “One of the biggest differences with us trail runners is definitely that it’s more about nice runs and great pictures than about achieving speeds – although thoughts of performance are gaining more and more even in trail running. For the industry, the more important point is definitely the demands on the equipment. Trail runners want lightweight, compact, but highly functional equipment. We’ve determined that the price then plays less of a role. In addition, more and more importance is being placed on sustainable production. In that, this point is still too murky for the consumer.”
“Trail runners are nerds in terms of material”
Marlen Franke, trail runner and blogger at trail-kitchen.de: “Trail runners are optimizers in the positive sense. I also label them as equipment and material nerds. The requirements for equipment on the trail - especially in the high alpine and ultra segments - are already different than those for street runners’ clothing. While before it was always about lighter fabrics and dragging along even less weight, having smaller, more lightweight backpacks that you can tighten like a vest, it’s becoming more and more about the durability and sustainability of the products.”
“Manufacturers can have a hard time ironing out mistakes”
Lars Schweizer, Laufcampus Akademie: “The trail community is, above all, a laid-back and cool community. The community’s networking is also very good. You keep meeting each other from event to event. This is also where the difficulty lies for manufacturers. As a result of there being fewer athletes in this segment, the strengths and weaknesses of a new product will get around very quickly, broadcast to all of the other athletes, and recommendations will definitely only be passed on with extensive testing. If a manufacturer permits themselves even one mistake here, it will be difficult to iron it back out again. What applies at trade fairs and events: You’ll quickly notice whether you’re dealing with someone who really knows the subject matter of trail running, or just has to watch the boot and constantly has to run the shoe test.”
“Trail runners are crazy for news on products”
Denis Wischniewski, trail-magazin.de: “The community of trail runners is, at its core, still a true ‘scene.’ That’s sympathetic, and makes a lot of things easier because you can get to knowledge and know-how quickly. Our community is nature-conscious, interested, fond of traveling, and often downright crazy for equipment and product news. The identification with the sport and everything that comes with it just seems higher than in the “normal” running community, since there are more topics that are relevant there.”
“Equipment needs to look cool, but be robust”
Andrea Löw, ultra runner and blogger at runninghappy.de:
“Lots of relaxed runners hang around in this scene who don’t really want to set a new best time, but rather are looking for intense, natural experiences, people who want to exert themselves in other ways. But since we’re on the move longer, in most cases, and run in difficult terrain, we just need long-lasting, robust equipment. Our gear, shoes, and other equipment should still look kind of cool, but they also need to be good for demanding tours.”
