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Richard Edmonds | Runderwear Co-Founder
95 Plays3 years ago
Todays guest is Richard Edmonds, co-founder of Runderwear.
Runderwear is a premium performance underwear brand specialising in designing and creating chafe-free, blister free, seamless garments for ultimate comfort.
You can connect with Richard and the team on
Their website
In their Strava group
We are available on info@ukrunchat.co.uk if you have any comments or questions about the podcast.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to episode number 62 of the UK run chat podcast. Today's guest is Richard Edmonds. Rich is the co-founder of Runderware. Runderware is a premium performance underwear brand specializing in designing and creating chafe-free, blister-free, seamless garments for ultimate comfort.
00:00:18
Speaker
To connect with Richard and the team, just search for underwear on your favorite platform and make sure you join them in their Strava group as well. All links are in the show notes as well. We are available on info.ukrunchat.co.uk. If you have any comments or questions about the podcast, please do get in
Seasonal Running and Runderware's Busy Period
00:00:35
Speaker
touch. Hope you are all enjoying the freezing winter running weather. It's my personal favorite weather for running. Lovely sunny mornings with the frosty frozen grass. It's brilliant at the moment.
00:00:47
Speaker
Enjoy this conversation with Rich and see you on the next episode, which will be out next week. Welcome, Rich. How are you? Hello, Joe. Yeah, good. I'm good. I am very busy, a very busy time of year, but I'm good. The sun is shining as I look out the window and it's cold, but that always gives you a bit of positivity as well.
00:01:11
Speaker
Do I love this weather? Especially the sun's out and the frosty mornings is my favorite. It is one of the best, isn't it? There is not a lot better than that. Clear skies, frosty morning, lace up the shoes and get out there. Off you go. I was going to say, I bet you are busy.
Runderware's Marathon Involvement and 10th Anniversary
00:01:29
Speaker
It's just been all the autumn events and then into kind of the Black Friday offerings and now the Christmas run up and you'll be prepared for next year, of course, as well. I bet you are busy.
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's an incredibly busy time of year. I mean, as you say, you know, having the London Marathon as well in, you know, kind of end of September, start of October, the Expo is obviously, it's an unusual, usual rhythm that we've managed to get ourselves in post COVID. And that was very good. We had a we had a stand at the London Marathon Expo, met some brilliant
00:02:05
Speaker
A bunch of our customers there was fantastic, really enjoyed it. Great to see so many people out there doing that and other races as well over that period. But yeah, it's a very busy period, that autumn race calendar. And then yeah, straight into the kind of all things Black Friday and Christmas spirit and then kicking off in January so we can all set some goals for the year ahead. Yeah. Yeah. And of course London's back to April, isn't it?
00:02:32
Speaker
It is. It will come around quick and I'm doing it this year. Yes, I am. Um, so Jamie and I both, uh, co-found as a run to air. It's actually Joe. It's our 10th birthday, which makes me feel incredibly, uh, anxious. I can't believe where 10 years has gone, but in, uh, yeah, in April, it'll be 10 years of run to air. And so Jamie and I are running the London marathon together.
00:03:00
Speaker
I can confirm there will be some run-the-ware involved in in that and and yeah we'll be we'll be doing that together and celebrating our sort of 10-year journey of all things run-the-ware. Yeah brilliant congratulations. Thank you very much. Yeah very I remember you starting because UK run chat funnily enough will be 10 in July.
00:03:22
Speaker
yes yeah i do remember you starting yeah we were we were on very early i remember actually the first time we did it i remember exactly where we were jamie and i came and did a twitter chat hour with you and we're sitting in a pub in london doing it that was the best way to do it and yeah no it was it was pretty i can remember exactly where we were down in kennington
00:03:45
Speaker
And yeah, just found this little corner of the pub and set ourselves up. And yeah, it was it was that was the first introduction to your brilliant community. And like I say, you know, we started at very similar times. So, yeah, it's been great to see your 10 year journey, as I'm sure you've seen our 10 year journey. Yeah, yeah, I do. I got to say yours is it's very impressive because, you know, for the things that you do, you make and you
00:04:14
Speaker
product to the
Authenticity and Community Engagement
00:04:15
Speaker
community. It's so easy for the big boys to come in and essentially copy or do similar things and then spend millions on marketing to really take you out. You've built a wonderful brand and business that's really ingrained now, haven't you, in the running industry? Yeah, thanks. I think partly that is because we're from the running community ourselves.
00:04:43
Speaker
I think that, you know, when I speak to customers at events like, like I say, I was at London, uh, for the, for the four days, uh, just a couple of months ago, you know, speaking to our customers there and, and, um, you know, you, because we're able to be very authentic because we're out there doing it ourselves. Um, I think that that really helps. It's not a, you know, it was never a business that was built on.
00:05:07
Speaker
Oh, how can we make money? It was a, it was a business that was there to solve a problem for people like ourselves. You know, Jamie, Jamie got pretty bad chafing at New York marathon. We had a chat about it and we went about to try and solve that problem. And, you know, we, we worked with people at our running club in London at the time. We, we'd give them samples to try. They tried it. They'd let us know on the Wednesday night club run how they felt. So.
00:05:32
Speaker
I think hopefully it's because of that that, you know, people have appreciated that we are just part of the community trying to offer a service to runners like ourselves. Yeah. Go on, expand on that story on how you came about. Yeah. I mean, like I said, Jamie got chafing. We've been friends at university. It's actually the first person I met at university. We're on the same corridor in our halls of residence over at Loughborough.
00:06:02
Speaker
And, um, I was a runner, loved running. I'd been running since I was 13. I joined the local running club, Charmwood Athletic Club, which was based at Loughborough, actually. I was, I was local to there and, um, just, just fell in love with it. You know, I did cross country in the winter and track track races in the summer and just absolutely loved, uh, the coaches, the dedication, what they gave, you know, uh, sadly, my first coach passed away quite recently and
00:06:31
Speaker
But it was just fantastic what he gave to us as kids and coming on a Monday and a Wednesday night and training on the track. And also I've got some such good, long friendships with people from that running club. I really just love the running community and I'd always wanted to be part of that.
00:06:53
Speaker
You know, and then, yeah, Jamie's got this chafing issue and we looked around the expo and we couldn't find anything.
Product Evolution and Innovation
00:07:01
Speaker
You know, New York, New York Marathon Expo is very similar to London. It's huge. Yes. And you'd think if you're going to find, you know, one of the big boys, big brands trying to do something to help that, you think they find it and we just couldn't find it anywhere. And
00:07:15
Speaker
We actually went on a little training weekend trip together to Spain doing a little bit of a very cheap, all inclusive £100 for the weekend job as young men. We were going for a run down the coastline and we were talking about it. There must be a way of being able to
00:07:36
Speaker
to solve that problem, because we were both wearing the shorts with the inner lining, and the inner lining is terrible on those shorts. It's often, you know, it's baggy, it's not really fit for purpose. And then- It's an odd that. It's an odd feature in shorts. It's weird. It baffles me, honestly. I think it's got a little bit better, but it's still nowhere near where it should be. You know, the outer, the technical part of the garment is fantastic, and it's often lightweight and, you know, super breathable,
00:08:06
Speaker
But then they put this terrible inner liner built into it. And we were wearing these things and thinking, this is a big part of the problem. What if there was something you wore underneath instead that was much more fit for purpose?
00:08:24
Speaker
We ended up, you know, luckily enough, my dad had been in the hosiery industry. I'm from Leicestershire and it was the center of hosiery. My granddad was a sock knitter. My dad was in the sock industry as well. And so we had some advice that we could lean on and say, look, how do we go about doing this? And they recommended, you know, that we look at, you know, suppliers and
00:08:50
Speaker
partners that were doing really clever things with seamless design. And so we went out and ended up finding a small kind of family run factory over in Portugal and built a relationship and obviously said to them, look, we're small, but this is what we want to do. This is our vision. This is what we're trying to get. We're both passionate runners. We want to solve this problem.
00:09:16
Speaker
And, um, and they, lucky enough, they, they believed in our journey and, uh, yeah, well, it helped us out and we got going and, and, and we launched at the London marathon 10 years ago this April. And, uh, we had no idea, I turned up, you know, voxel course, uh, um, with all the stuff in the back, all these huge lorries with Adidas and Brooks and whatever on the side. And you're like, okay.
00:09:40
Speaker
Here we go. What are we going to do here? And, and, you know, we have tiniest stand you can get. And we, um, you know, we, we put this run, put the run to wear up and, and people walk past initially and they're all run to wear very good, good name. Yeah. And then they stop and then they go, actually, you know what? I've always thought. Why do I wear my normal underwear or why am I not wearing underwear? You know, and then they, they wanted to find out about the products.
00:10:06
Speaker
And we'd explain, you know, how we'd eliminated seams that can cause chafing and irritation. It was really fast drying and all these things. And, uh, and people in the running community, like yourself, they just understood why we'd done it. And I think it's because we were runners talking to runners. They just got it. Okay. Yeah. I get, I get why you've gone out and tried to solve this problem because it is a problem.
00:10:31
Speaker
And, um, and then it, then really it just kind of evolved from there. It was, you know, we sold out within the first two days of that four day expo. And, um, and I think people in the running community just, they just got why, why we were on that mission. And, and yeah, from there we, we developed the range and over time develop, you know, colors. And then we've gone into socks with our double layer anti blister socks, which my dad had helped us design.
00:11:00
Speaker
And then, and then we've gone in, you know, more recently in the last three years, we've gone to try and solve the, um, you know, the support bra element for, uh, for the female runner as well, which is, which is, you know, grossly under serviced, uh, for the female running community. We believe. And so do our customers believe. And I think what's been great, um, Joe on our journey all the way along, we have always.
00:11:27
Speaker
uh you know been led by our customer you know so people said look can you can you turn that attention to a bra you know we've gone out and done that and worked with the right people to do it um you know if if it's a style or something you know that people are looking for to help them we've gone out gone out and done that as well but you know ultimately the brand is a problem solution brand we solve chafing and blisters and you know support in bras but
00:11:57
Speaker
You know, really we see ourselves as a supporter of the run community, you know, like, like for me, and I'm sure you're the same we talked about earlier, the, the nice weather, there's nothing better than that feeling when you get back from a run. Yeah. You know, you, you feel so much better than when you first start, when you first started the role before it and it's, and, and, and that feeling at the end of the run.
00:12:22
Speaker
is what really we're trying to achieve. You know, and we, and we try and create some products that help towards that feeling at the end of the run. And, um, and that's run to where really, uh, there's been some ups, there's been some downs. There's certainly some challenges, uh, you know, to face as well with everything that's going on at the moment. And the challenges of the last, um, three years have been, you know, an incredible amount of, uh, kind of one thing after another.
00:12:53
Speaker
I did want to ask you about that. Let me just unpick something. Did you and Jamie start running to a wash through at uni or coming to the end? No, afterwards actually. Jamie was a finalist when I joined Loughborough and he went off. He was a footballer actually at Loughborough and I was a runner in training with the late George Gandy who was a very famous coach at Loughborough. Trained some brilliant people through that system there.
00:13:20
Speaker
And I was really keen on trying to be a runner and trying to be as best as I could be. Jamie really had found his love after university. He took a year out and did an Iron Man and just found that he loved the running element to it. And so, you know, we were already friends, but obviously then it was developed into right, he's like, and he's just, you know, he just got back from Valencia yesterday, did the Valencia marathon on
00:13:48
Speaker
on Sunday, he did Berlin this year. So, you know, he's still, you know, that's his, he's absolutely as passionate as he was when we first started. He's been back to Spain now, back to Spain. Yeah. Well, as you read 248 on Sunday, so he's really nice. Very good. Very good. Well, will there be any competition between the two of you running? Do you know what? I think I'm past being able to compete with him.
00:14:17
Speaker
I, a couple of years ago, I was just about hanging on still. Um, but, uh, I had a, I had a knee operation. I had a half of meniscus taken out and all that stuff. So I've had to kind of limit the amount of running, but I've increased the cycling. Um, so I'm running three times a week, but I, uh,
00:14:36
Speaker
You know, there is an element of maybe when I was running and I was running so much as a young man and in my twenties that that's maybe caught up with me, you know, trying to compete at that highest level.
Richard's Personal Running Journey
00:14:48
Speaker
And so now, but you know, your mindset changes, you know, there's still nothing better for me than going out and running. Um, and, uh, and yeah, you know what, when it comes down to it and the, this start line goes at London, I'll probably have in the back of my mind that I can still, uh, I can still just about hang on. We'll see. Sounds, it sounds like it'll be fun. Yeah. Sounds like it'll be fun.
00:15:13
Speaker
Well, I bet you enjoyed, you're running then at Loughborough Uni because it's such a, you know, a big sport in university, isn't it? Yeah, it's fantastic. I mean, you know, it was always, you know, I'd been going to that track at Loughborough training with Charmwood Athletic Club since I was 13, as I said earlier. And, you know, I often saw a lot of the students and, you know, a lot of the students there were the kind of famous names that you'd follow as a kid that was passionate about athletics and
00:15:41
Speaker
You know, there was obviously some brilliant names have gone through that university. Sebastian Cohen, Paul Radcliffe being probably the most famous, but I used to love all the stories of the, you know, David Moore Croft and Jack Buckner and all these kinds of guys that were, you know, unbelievable runners that had gone, gone through there as well. And then a very, a very good friend of mine who was there at the time, same time as me, Chris Thompson in a more recent period of time, and I was
00:16:09
Speaker
Training with those guys, Ricky Sues, who went to Athens for the 800 meters. And our group was a very strong group. There was all the kind of the top runners at the time were base there. And it was really inspiring. And Loughborough generally is very inspiring. I remember one, I was there 2003 to 2006. And in 2004, where I lived in halls, I saw out my window
00:16:39
Speaker
England rugby team that won the World Cup the year before were training on the rugby pitch. So went out and watched it for a bit and they were all there you know Johnny Wilkinson and all those guys and on the top field Paula Radcliffe was doing an interval session on the grass so we were kind of like you're watching the rugby and then the England rugby team and Paula Radcliffe's doing her session and then a friend of mine Chris and I we went in to get a cup of tea from from the student union and
00:17:08
Speaker
Freddie Flint off and Kevin Peterson was sitting in the coffee shop having a cup of coffee and and that that's Loughborough, you know That's within five minutes that you know, you're watching the world marathon record holder doing a session You're watching the current world champion England rugby team and then and then you've got the England cricket You know main England cricketers kind of all within the space of like three four hundred meters In an afternoon and and and that's what Loughborough is really
00:17:38
Speaker
So I lived in London for 12 months around then. That's the only celebration I've ever been to when I was in there for 12 months. When England won the Rugby World Cup and I went to see when they drive through on the open top bus. That was incredible.
00:17:57
Speaker
Let's hope we see some scenes like that in a couple of weeks time. I've never been a rugby player or I've watched the union.
00:18:12
Speaker
People who play rugby as athletes, I mean, they are phenomenal. They're running 100 metres in like 11, 11 and a half seconds and they're 16, 17, 18, 19, so and it's like, can you imagine the dead legs that our skinny leg blip runners would get off of a rugby tackle from? Oh, I know. I actually, the reason I started running was I played rugby and I got injured and they said I couldn't, I had to have the season off.
00:18:34
Speaker
yeah and that's why i started running so you know my body shape changed pretty quickly but yeah no it's um they are amazing and and you know they when you watch them up close as well sort of you know right on the side of the pitch and you see the hits and and the pace in which they're playing it's um it's it is pretty incredible and uh
00:18:55
Speaker
yeah amazing athletes but also seeing paul are doing what she does and you know watching her sessions and seeing the pace in which she runs for rep after rep was also you know for me just mind-boggling you know how how a human can go and do that is just it's just incredible
Diverse Applications and Market Expansion
00:19:13
Speaker
Have you found with any of your products that you've got people, since you were talking about other sports, that people from other sports have picked them up and said, well, I know these are underwear, but I'll wear these for football or I'll wear these for other sports. Do you know if you get that one on? Yeah, we have a lot of reviews, actually. Funny enough, we have many things. I mean, hiking and outdoor pursuits in different forms is probably the next most popular for us.
00:19:41
Speaker
If you're spending a long time in them, you do get that. But we also get a lot of horse riders that wear it because of the seamless nature of it to help with the chafing. So we get a lot of horse riding reviews as well.
00:19:56
Speaker
And actually, we have supported football and rugby teams in the past, you know, there's been Harlequins players, there's been Wolves football team, Exeter football team, you know, that have got the product. So yeah, there is there is definitely
00:20:14
Speaker
there is definitely a lot of crossover. We actually have, you know, recently started sort of talking about this, that we're born by runners made for activity, because there's so much crossover benefit you can get from these technical products that can help, you know, I'm going skiing with with the family over kind of the
00:20:33
Speaker
Christmas New Year for a week and you know first thing I'll pack is base layer, run-to-wear base layer, I'll pack the run-to-wear long my long boxers you know so you can wear them underneath because you know you're out there all day you know doing that activity and you know the last thing you want to do is is get any chafing rubbing and you want to feel comfortable so yeah absolutely huge crossover
00:21:00
Speaker
Although, you know, we tend to market really, you know, to talk to the running community because that's our passion and that's our mission. But certainly there is a big crossover to other sports as well. Yeah, makes sense. Makes perfect sense. What's it like when you, that process of bringing a new product to market?
00:21:26
Speaker
Well, you know, we've always had a thing at Runaway where we've only ever bought it out when it's ready. We try not, you know, to set timelines on these things. It's sometimes difficult from a business perspective, but we're very, very keen that we only bring something out when it's absolutely spot on.
00:21:44
Speaker
But it takes a long time. And how the process really starts, to be honest, is, as I said earlier, it's the customers. You're getting customer feedback. We've got some fantastic team members that pick up on all these messages. I look at all the messages, but we have customer service, person Molly, who's just brilliant.
00:22:03
Speaker
her, she sits with me, you know, and because she's like, got to be the closest person to me because she's listening and hearing all of the feedback that we get all day long. And so she's, she's an absolutely brilliant sounding board of what people want to have.
00:22:21
Speaker
And how it would normally start was, okay, right, we collate this information, we've had lots of people asking us for this. And then we go on a journey of development. And once we feel ready, that that product is ready, we'll go out and we'll talk to our community that we've built up over the last 10 years. So you started with the...
00:22:43
Speaker
with the underwear. Yep. And then you moved to talk me through what you went through then? Yeah. So, I mean, you know, we started off with the men's box and brief, women's brief, and, you know, we then end up, you know, kind of moving out.
Product Quality and Customer Focus
00:22:56
Speaker
Women's, we have five styles of women's underwear now, three of men's. We started doing socks quite early on as well. We, we particularly want to, you know, we're about solving problems and blisters was always a bit of a pain for me.
00:23:12
Speaker
Uh, if you excuse the expression, cause it was literally a pain. And, um, as I'm sure as everybody is a runner has experienced a blister and you know, I, I was getting the sense that I could understand why, what kind of sock gave me a blister, uh, as a runner. So we designed our, you know, anti blister socks to help with that. And I'm really proud to say that, you know, they've been a huge success and still going incredibly strong for us. Um,
00:23:41
Speaker
10 years later. And then we moved into, okay, people were saying, well, look, you do this fantastic underwear. Do you think, you know, one of the things I can't find is really good, comfortable bass layers that aren't what, you know, kind of a compression bass layer.
00:24:01
Speaker
Because compression wear can sometimes feel quite restrictive on the upper body for a lot of runners. You're breathing heavy, you're having to move. So you want it snug enough that it acts as a barrier for heat and keeps you warm, but enough movement in it that you are feeling comfortable and you can enjoy every mile you run.
00:24:24
Speaker
And so we set about using kind of our seamless technology within base layer as well. So, you know, long sleeve base layers and short sleeve base layers. And that has proved to be, you know, a real hit with our customers because it's just, you could wear it, you know, kind of all seasons really. I wear it on its own.
00:24:47
Speaker
kind of spring, autumn, but in the winter, you know, you want to layer it with maybe a jacket or whatever, but it's a perfect layer to wear underneath. So there's a lot of versatility in it. You know, you probably wouldn't wear our long sleeve base there in the middle of July, but around the kind of, you know, September all the way through to April, May, sometimes, you know, you can you can really get use out of it, which is which is which is fantastic. And I think
00:25:14
Speaker
I think that you know that that was the kind of journey and like I said about three years ago we launched our first bra and you know the bra has been a really interesting journey we obviously had to get some specialist help in and we we worked with our running community and you know we really do it still very grassroots we just we've just had a new bra that we're working on and we've had we've had to get you know 50 different women into the underwear office in different sizes that we've
00:25:42
Speaker
And they're all kind of like, you know, we've got kids now and we've got like, you know, we're roping in the WhatsApp groups from the school message groups. Is anyone a 36F? You know, it's the weirdest, you know, request, but that's what works for us. You know, we get people in and we try it.
00:26:01
Speaker
And yeah, and we've just actually just done a fantastic bit of work with the University of Portsmouth. So they're about an hour away from us. We're down in Dorset and they're actually one of the world's leading authorities on bra testing, sports bra testing. Yeah, they're fantastic. So they've had brands from all over the world, all the big brands send their products to be tested at the University of Portsmouth.
00:26:23
Speaker
And they've got this very specialist bra section to the university. And so we've had our bras tested recently with them and we've got a fantastic new video that's on our website and YouTube and social channels. But yeah, we could see that our bra, you know, our power bra reduces
00:26:44
Speaker
Uh, movement by 72%, which is an enormous amount when you're running, especially when you're running, you know, for a long period of time, uh, for, for the women. And, uh, and, and yeah, so, you know, we, we do take that really seriously. And, and like, you know, this is a, this is a, you know, they'll test loads of different people on a treadmill with all sensors and in a underwear bra and a different bra and in, you know,
00:27:09
Speaker
and they do all the examination and they tell us, you know, and actually it's one of the top, you know, in the top percentiles of the bras they've ever tested and they've tested hundreds of them. So yeah, we're really proud of that. That must be, if you think about that in terms of sizing and things like that, that must, you know, the sheer
00:27:31
Speaker
number of sizes and the different products that you need to have a range. Must be a lot more than your socks, for example. Am I right? It's very hard. It's a very hard business to do. I think I talked about this earlier, but honestly, Joe, if you looked at it from a kind of business head and went, right, is this a good thing to do with the size of business we are? The answer would be absolutely not.
00:27:58
Speaker
We couldn't not do that because that's not our brand values. You know, if we're going to do it and help support the running community, we're going to do it properly. So you're right. It is difficult. We do 63 sizes. And honestly, Joe, we get asked all the time for more sizes. You know, why don't you do X? And I, and I feel so bad every time that happens because I want to do it.
00:28:23
Speaker
But I do wish that they would bang on the door of the big brands to do that, rather than us, who are probably already massively overstretching themselves when it comes to those sizes. But we do it because it's our values. And certainly the really big brands could do a lot more to help. Yes.
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah. And they come into you because they must, you know, they must be getting recommendations about the quality as well. Yeah, that's it. And, you know, we will, we will, you know, constantly look at trying to increase those prices, prices, sizes, not prices, definitely not prices, increase the sizes. And, and that will, that will, you know, eventually evolve that we can cover, you know, everybody, because we want everybody to be able to run and experience the joy that, you know, we all feel.
00:29:15
Speaker
Sorry, just to take you back. You mentioned, was it your dad and your granddad who worked in socks, did you say?
Family Influence and Support
00:29:22
Speaker
So were they involved in the... It seems natural to work with them on socks. Do you know what? I always said, I will never go into this industry. Really? Yeah, I remember actually coming back from training one night, maybe about 15 years old, and my dad was talking about socks. He's so passionate about it. And I remember saying to him,
00:29:44
Speaker
Right, I've had enough. I'm definitely never going to work in socks. And here I am, 20 years or so later, and I'm talking to you about anti blister socks and running. But my granddad was a knitter. So he came out of, you know, the kind of the Second World War, went into the hosiery industry in Leicester and, and it was a knitter for his whole life, whole career. You know, just
00:30:11
Speaker
one of those incredible strong stoic men that, you know, worked somewhere for 45 years. And that was it, you know, and that's what he did. And yeah, and then my dad got a kind of management training contract at the same sock factory as a young man and started to do all of the learnings around it. And
00:30:36
Speaker
And that was, you know, he's still as passionate about it. As you say, it's taken him all over the world. Obviously, the industry in the UK slowly went away in the kind of 90s. It got really tough and he had to work away a lot when we were younger in different places around the world to help them with their sock factories.
00:30:57
Speaker
You know, he's, he's so passionate about it. I think he's, he's incredibly proud of what we've done at Rundaware. And, uh, yeah, he's always there to help us on particularly all things socks. Uh, there's not, there's not a man in the world that understands, uh, that, that world better. And we're very lucky. So we combined his knowledge with our passion for running. It kind of really worked to, uh, to create some fantastic socks.
00:31:20
Speaker
Nice. I was going to say you must be proud. That story you've just told us there, that'll be a Christmas dinner story that will.
00:31:29
Speaker
Have you got kids? I have, yeah. I've got a seven and five year old. So yeah, I don't know. Let's see if one of them goes into into the sock world one day. We'll see. Yeah, I'm not going into socks. Well, your dad said the same. Yeah, it's I think I think at the end of the day, you know, it's
00:31:53
Speaker
I was very lucky, he drove me around the country doing cross country and doing running and athletics events and so he's seen my journey, my passion for running and then to see that kind of
00:32:11
Speaker
to work within the world that he's grown up in as well, in terms of the hosiery and the understanding about how to make quality products. I think he's very proud of seeing that journey. Yeah, rightly so. Lovely story, that.
Adapting to the Pandemic
00:32:32
Speaker
So what you mentioned earlier, what's the last couple of years been like?
00:32:36
Speaker
Well, um, obviously it's just been a roller coaster, hasn't it? For everybody and not, not just for people like me with businesses, but I think, you know, for everybody has been affected from it, you know, in so many different ways. Um, you know, the, the, the COVID, uh, pandemic was, um, was an interesting one because, you know, what, what was quite nice straight away, obviously we had a lot of people out running, which was great because that's what we're trying to promote all the time. You know, people out running and enjoying their running. Um,
00:33:06
Speaker
And that was great to see. What was very sad was we had nothing to run for, you know, there were no events, there were no, uh, kind of milestones. It was, it was running to keep fit and it was running for enjoyment and headspace and all of those things. But a lot of the running community did miss meeting up at events, meeting up a 10 K or their park run or whatever that might be.
00:33:29
Speaker
And that was difficult because, you know, for Runderware, we do provide a service to help people achieve a goal. It might be to run a marathon or a half marathon and people will use our products to help them in their training and their race day to try and do that. So that was definitely a challenge. The other challenge just from a, you know, team point of view is our team had grown and
00:33:55
Speaker
you know, suddenly you're together as a team and the next minute, you know, you're kind of directing things from your landing in your underpants, in your underpants, trying to keep everybody positive and everybody moving forwards and doing the things that we want to do.
00:34:13
Speaker
Yeah, we tried to channel in positive ways. We did a, I did a 60 day challenge at home. I went live every day for 60 days. I was a personal trainer before underwear. So trying to bring that knowledge of like, you know, fitness training and what to do, you know, a lot of us can go out and run, but you know, what do we do to stay strong, um, around that so we don't get injured and all those things.
00:34:36
Speaker
So I did a live every day for half an hour and the kids got involved and it was a bit chaotic at times from the living room. But, you know, we tried to do things for our community that were a bit outside the box and tried to, you know, use our experience to help. And then obviously, you know, there were there were lots of issues with freight and, you know, getting things in and out. And then there were, you know, obviously we've had this economic crisis where
00:35:03
Speaker
you know, rightly so, people are worried and thinking about what they can spend and what they can't spend. And, you know, that puts pressures on us all. So, you know, there's been a period of, you know, certainly in the last three years where there has been some real challenges, but I think, you know, it's like anything, it's like being injured as a runner.
00:35:27
Speaker
You know, you learn, okay, what can I do differently? And how can we build resilience? And, you know, what can we do to adapt? And, and, and often those things are things that, you know, some of those things are things that you will take with you and change, uh, in what you're doing as well. And, um, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say it's completely easy because it's really not, you know, it's very, very difficult. Uh, and it, and it's going to be a hard period of time.
00:35:52
Speaker
But I would just think, just like a runner, get out the door, put one foot in front of the other, and just keep running. And good things will happen. Yeah, you demonstrated that doing 60 days as well, alive. That's not a short amount of time, that isn't. No, I tell you, I got to day 30 and I thought, maybe I should on 30 days. This is a low old stretch.
00:36:21
Speaker
Luckily, we had enough people. I think we were getting over a thousand people. We got some great letters in actually. We had even people that kept the recordings and then watched it back. We had classes at schools that were doing it and all sorts of stuff. It was actually really, really good. I got quite a few letters and postcards from people thanking me for doing that and made it all worthwhile really.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah, nice. Very good.
Celebrating a Decade of Runderware
00:36:53
Speaker
So what's next for underwear then? Well, celebrating 10 years, I think, you know, you never know what the future holds. So I think we're going to really enjoy, you know, after this Christmas period to build up to London and celebrate 10 years of, you know, building a British business. There's not too many out there within our running.
00:37:14
Speaker
industry that, you know, by the running community, you know, people like yourself, Joe, which, you know, been going for a long time, part of this community doing, adding some real value to to everybody, and we're going to celebrate it because that's what life's about, right? And so we're going to just try and enjoy, you know, telling the story, talking about all things run to air.
00:37:39
Speaker
looking you know try and get some training in if I can in the build I've suffered from one of these these old colds that are going around the last week or so which has derailed it but I'm but yeah try and get some miles in and get ready for London and yeah just just really build up to celebrate we've got some new colors coming out to celebrate the 10 years we've got a we're gonna have a 10-year color that comes out as well which is
00:38:03
Speaker
which we're looking forward to. And so that will kind of launch in the early spring. And yeah, so we've got a lot to look forward to ahead of the spring marathon season and 10 years of underwear. Will you be at the expo again?
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, we are going to be at the expo in April. So we'll have a, so we've got a stand ready for the, uh, for the expo in April. We'll also be at the national running show in Birmingham in January. Um, so for anybody coming into the January, uh, I think it's a 21st, 22nd. Yeah. So we'll be there. We've got, um, bra fittings going on there as well as all of the rest of runways. We have two stands, one opposite each other. If you have a kind of long stretch, what we,
00:38:51
Speaker
call the bra bar where people will be able to try on all the bras in their size and get fitted properly, which is really important to do as a service. And then we will have our underwear stand as well. And then we're also at the national outdoor show at the NEC in Birmingham, which is in March, a small stand, but we've got this
00:39:11
Speaker
lovely merino, merino wool version of Runderwear now and it's really you know becoming popular talked about earlier in the kind of outdoor pursuits world and and we're going to go and take that product and talk to people about about it and talk to people about our story. Very good. Well I hope on the Saturday before you run London you get some help on your store because those expos they're hard work aren't they? You know what this year
00:39:41
Speaker
You know, we're, we still do it. You know, we're not, uh, we're not sort of like, right. Okay. Runaways. 10 years old. I'm not doing the expert anymore. I was there all the time, uh, set up on the Tuesday, um, with, with one of my colleagues and, uh, yeah, I loved it. But by the end of it, you are exhausted. So yes, definitely having the Saturday off, if not the Friday. Um, because I know just how tiring your legs are. You felt like you've ran a marathon at the end of those four days.
00:40:12
Speaker
They're sort of, well, they're 10, 11 hour days and I think it's 10 till eight is the show time. And yeah, 10 hour days. So it's, yeah, super, super difficult and something that, you know, does feel like a marathon by the end of it. Yeah. Mitch, thanks ever so much for coming on.
00:40:34
Speaker
I enjoy these chats because you get to just learn about the people behind the brands. I know that the brand is very approachable and part of the community, like you said, but it's nice for people to hear. I love talking to John. Like I say, it's been nearly 10 years of talking to your brilliant community as well and being part of that.
00:41:00
Speaker
I think anybody that creates community, and as I talked about very much at the start, how I found the running community so welcoming when I was a teenager and joining that world, I think is fantastic and we need more of it. So yeah, no, it's brilliant and I really appreciate having the conversation. Cool. Cheers. Let's just remind everybody where they connect with RunDware.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, so you've searched for underwear on all the kind of social channels, Instagram and Facebook and even on TikTok now, which I don't know much about, but the guy's a TikTok in a way. And of course, for us, Strava is our kind of main community channel. So we have a lot of people on our Strava club.
00:41:55
Speaker
and then website wise it's rundaware.co.uk