We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Middle Trail Running a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Middle Trail Running thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The name Middle Trail Running was inspired by something that we both feel is very true – every person’s running journey is unique, and there is no “one size fits all” or “right” approach. What’s important is finding the path that works best for you – your middle trail. Our goal is to provide women with the resources and community they need to find their middle trail, so they can continue to grow and thrive in their running journey.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We met playing soccer in Buffalo, New York when we were 10 years old. Over the years of playing together, including in college, we developed a great friendship and respect for one another on and off the field. After hanging up our soccer cleats, we needed a new way to channel our energy and competitive spirit, so we turned to running. To be honest, it wasn’t easy. Running during a soccer game or doing sprints during training was one thing, but the thought of just running along a trail or path for hours at a time seemed incredibly daunting. However, we participated in a few local running events (like the Color Run) with our friends early on, and experienced first-hand how much fun running can be. We never looked back.

Running has brought so much into our lives. We get to travel to new places, meet new friends, and have incredible experiences in this sport. The main reason we love it though, is because we get to do it together. We created Middle Trail Running because we want to share this love of running with other women, and bring together a community of women runners who encourage, inspire and motivate one another.

We want the women in our running community to feel confident on their running journeys. So, we designed a line of running apparel specifically for women runners. As two women runners ourselves, we thought about our own running experiences (the good, the bad and the really uncomfortable) and created a “wish list” of the fabrics, fit, and features we wanted to see in our ideal running apparel. We then set out on a mission to make it a reality.

We thoughtfully selected the best materials, silhouettes, and features to deliver comfort, style, and performance for women runners. Our first line–a classic women’s running kit–includes running shorts, a running tee, and a running quarter zip (each in two different colors!). Each item is designed to deliver a more relaxed, comfortable, true-to-size fit, and includes features we believe will help optimize our runners’ experiences. For example, our running shorts include multiple pockets to carry all of our running essentials, and our running quarter zip includes fold over gloves and thumbholes to make the transitions between running seasons seamless. We could go on and on about all of the features in our running clothes that we love! We are incredibly proud of our women’s running apparel, and hope our runners love it as much as we do.

In addition to the apparel, we want to create a community for women runners to come together, share their experiences, and motivate one another. So, we started running clubs in Buffalo, New York and Boston, Massachusetts for women runners. We encourage all women runners, whether they have been running for years or are just starting their running journey, to come run with us to meet new running friends and have fun. We truly believe that running together is more fun than running alone, and hope that through our running clubs, women find support, encouragement and camaraderie.

To help the women of Middle Trail Running feel equipped, prepared and inspired on every run, we have developed, and are continuing to develop, resources specifically for women runners. From training plans and exercise programs for women runners (which we are developing in collaboration with trainers, running professionals, and sports physical therapists), to stories about women runners in our community who inspire us, to a running blog that provides tips and tricks from one woman runner to another, Middle Trail Running is a women’s running community that comes together to share a love of running. Keep an eye out for more of these resources to come!

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We actually met over 20 years ago on a soccer field in Buffalo, New York. We both grew up playing soccer in Buffalo and would cross paths on various teams, at big soccer tournaments, and training camps. Whenever we had the chance to be teammates, we would, in part because we both loved the game so much, but more so because we loved being part of a team. Fast forward many years, and we met once again at John Carroll University, where we had, unbeknownst to each other, been recruited to play soccer. [Kayla:] “I remember sitting at a picnic table with my parents at the “meet and greet” on our first day of pre-season training, being so nervous about college, playing on a new team and making new friends. But, when I looked up and saw Genny and her dad walking up, I was both surprised and relieved. I knew I would have at least one good friend and true teammate by my side.” Over the course of our four years playing together, we became really great friends, and the foundation for Middle Trail Running was born.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Neither of us have a fashion background, so the design and manufacturing process was something that we did not have any experience with. At first, it was incredibly overwhelming. We started by doing a lot of research about the process of making clothes, so we could familiarize ourselves with the different vendors we would need to work with throughout the process. We created a product guide that outlined every specific detail (all in layperson terms) of our products–from fit to style, fabric, sizing and features–that we envisioned for our running apparel. It’s fun to look back on that guide now at some of the descriptions like, “neckline sits along the collarbone to maximize coverage” or “shorts lay flat while sitting, running, walking, etc. (aka no bubble butt)” because we have come such a long way and have learned so much since then!

Once we had that guide ready to go, we started meeting with design and production consulting agencies. We probably met with and interviewed 30 different agencies over the course of a year to find the right fit and a team who truly understood our vision for Middle Trail Running and our women’s running apparel.

Eventually, we partnered with an all-women team of fashion design, development, and production management experts who worked with us every step of the way throughout the process of creating our running apparel. They helped turn our vision into a reality by guiding us through every single step of the design, development and production process. We spent months designing each product to get the specs exactly right, then spent several more months selecting the perfect fabrics. Down to the tiny details like the type of zipper in our shorts and quarter zip, to the stitch on our branded woven tag, we worked through it all. And that was before we even saw our first sample!

From there, it was back and forth with the factory to finalize the fit of each garment, deciding what treatments we would use on each product, and whether the color dye of the fabric was the correct shade. All in, our design, production, and manufacturing process took a little over a year.

Our biggest takeaways from the process are (1) be patient and (2) speak up. We poured our heart and soul (and bank accounts) into our products, so it was incredibly important that we took the time to get them exactly how we envisioned them to be. Sometimes that meant going back for a third round of samples because the shorts weren’t quite fitting in the relaxed style we wanted, or nit picking that our logo wasn’t centered on a tag. But, at the end of the day, we have a women’s running apparel line that we are proud of and excited to put our names behind!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://middletrailrunning.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/middletrailrunning/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/middletrailrunning/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@middletrailrunning

Image Credits
Colin Gordon Photography http://www.colingordonphotography.com/