Menswear’s Favorite Running Brand Is Coming to a City Near You—in a Converted Van
For Tracksmith, 2023 has been a sprint. The Boston-based running brand, which since 2017 has maintained a “Trackhouse” flagship store in its hometown, increased its retail footprint threefold with the opening of permanent locations in London and Brooklyn this spring.
The apparel and footwear label is now bringing the Trackhouse experience to the rest of the country—on wheels. Its vehicle for doing so is the Envoy, a Citroën Type H van that’s been converted into a “touring Trackshouse” complete with shelves of products, a mobile coffee station, and even an external spigot where you can refill your water bottle.
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“The primary objective was to give more people the opportunity to experience Tracksmith in the real world,” co-founder and CEO Matt Taylor tells Robb Report.
A key part of that experience has been a robust program of community running events, previously organized via the Boston Trackhouse or at pop-ups pegged to marathons around the world. The Envoy will export Tracksmith’s programming to the rest of the United States via a cross-country road trip that began earlier this month in Brooklyn and will reach California by the end of August.
Along the way, it will make stops in cities including Washington D.C., Ann Arbor, Alexandria, Chicago, and Boulder, serving as a mobile support station for meetups. Its current calendar promises such events as a 9-mile destination run through Alexandria’s old town on July 30, an August 3 “Twilight 5000” track meet in Ann Arbor, and a “100 Days to Chicago” destination run through Illinois’s Des Plaines River Trail slated for August 13, in preparation for the Chicago Marathon.
The Envoy will also be present at other major running events throughout the country, including the off-road Leadville Trail 100 Run on August 19 in Leadville, Colorado, and the California International Marathon planned for December 3 in Sacramento.
Wherever it’s parked, the Envoy will furnish runners with filtered water, coffee, and snacks, and give participants the chance to handle Tracksmith gear up close. “We love when people have an opportunity to touch and feel product, interact with our team, and talk about running,” Taylor says. “All of those things are just harder to do virtually.”
Given its storage constraints, the Envoy will stock a limited run of merchandise, with the brand’s recently introduced Eliot Runner taking centerstage. “Footwear is something that people like to try on, and touch and feel,” Taylor continues.
Aside from the Eliot, the Envoy will also stock tees and small accessories including hats and water bottles. Shoppers that purchase a pair of Eliots may be able to leave with stock directly, based on available inventory, or will otherwise have the merchandise shipped directly to their home address. In addition, participants can use on-site tablets to browse Tracksmith’s entire catalog and purchase products digitally.
While the Envoy’s present calendar accounts for programming through August, summer’s conclusion is not the end of the road. Taylor says the Envoy will remain active throughout the rest of 2023 and into 2024, with an itinerary that will take it through the Pacific Northwest before turning south to visit Texas and eventually finding its way to Miami. In other words, wherever there are runners, the Envoy probably won’t be far behind.
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