The Barkley Mythology Machine Lives On

A Trailmix of news and opinions on the business of trail running

Hey pals,

I'm the ultimate procrastinator. Someone who will spend hours consuming, reading researching a thing before actually doing it. Announcing a paid subscription is one of those things.

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The reason i've been dilly-dallying on announcing a paid tier is because i simply haven't been able to find time to create more than what i currently do.

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Onwards,

Matt

The Barkley Mythology Machine keeps on trucking.

The mythologising of the Barkley continues after Laz made the almost impossible course even more impossible with 2025’s addition finishing with one fun runner. As is also tradition various documentaries were fed into the lore including Singletrack and Dirtbag Diaries separate takes on Jasmin’s success, with Jared Beasley announcing a new book on Laz and the draw of the Barkley. The gravitational pull of the myth now makes the Barkley one of the biggest events in ultra running’s annual calendar regularly pulling in thousands of followers, runners and non-runners alike, giving any new writing, video or podcast on the race a guaranteed audience. Want to make a hit? Make something related to the Barkley.

It’s a fascinating tale of how a world is made. Start with one machiavellian founder and an impossible goal (until it was possible…), keep changing the goalposts to maintain the difficulty of the mission, and limit who can attempt completion. Throw in a dark backstory, distinctive rituals and coded language to add texture. Oh and put it in a location without great cell signal to make ongoing coverage an impossibility.

Slowly as more and more people attempt and fail at reaching the goal, the legend is built. Lore goes around as towards what happens in the woods when few people are physical observers of it. Participants tell their tales of the beast's psychological and emotional toll, yet like a jilted lover never let go of the hope for one last chance. These stories are scattered across an array of media. First personal blog posts, then specialist podcasts and documentaries, before ascending to national pieces on this weird cult-like following of an impossible dream. The machine is built, the world is made, and the annual cycle of familiar tales of failure fuel its steady formation.

What makes the Barkley's media presence unique is how it thrives on scarcity. The lack of official coverage creates space for community-generated content, allowing the mythology to grow organically through multiple perspectives rather than a controlled narrative. Each failed attempt documented becomes another chapter in the race's legendary difficulty, while the rare success stories take on an almost mythic quality.

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In the face of growing competition, Nike opt for bombardment

Nike isn't having quite the comeback story they were hoping for. Revenue declined 9% year on year in their latest Q3 report despite cutting their operational expenses by 8%. With a company that size, the turnaround was always going to be at the speed of an oil tanker pulling a U-turn.

What has ramped up quickly is that their "demand creation" efforts (or marketing spend in other words). Nike grew their marketing spend by a sizeable 8% over the year, leaning into a three country (UK, US, China), five city approach to build community engagement on the ground and media activity in the air. You can see that in their double Super Bowl ad (a cool $14m on that alone) and women's night running series "After Dark Tour".

The twist? Every other running brand is also raising their ad spend. The motivations are largely the same too - to capture the insane growth of the running market and to create a new distinct positioning after years of same-same messaging. This means they'll be using the same tactics in the same channels as each other.

Take On who in 2024 grew their marketing spend 41% to $313.8M, up 65% alone in Q4 citing a heightened investment in 'brand building'. This week Puma also announced that they're also increasing their ad-spend by 40% in 2025 to splash their new positioning globally.

This all comes at a time when the ad market is going through a period of uncertainty driven by Trump's yo-yoing of policy announcements. Last week US ad spend estimates were revised down between 1-2% for 2025 by multiple analysts with marketers reporting that investment decisions are currently in limbo until the political environment is less rocky.

In one way, the less competitive ad spend market works to the running market's favour as these companies will be using more broad reach, more costly ad formats to build their brand reputation to the biggest audiences (think TV, VOD or billboards), formats that other categories will be pulling back from to reinvest in channels that provide a greater short-term impact. Put simply, they'll be able to reach more people cheaper.

However, as I mentioned recently, Tariffs are hanging like a sword of Damocles over all running brands who rely on China and Vietnam for their production, countries on Trump's tariff dartboard. In their FY2024 report last month, On highlighted that 90% of their footwear is made in Vietnam, a reaction to Trump's 2018 tariff threats, making them very vulnerable to any policy changes.

Brands would have two options: absorb the increased costs, reducing margin and shifting ad-spend allocation to more short-term objectives; or pass the costs on to customers, inflating consumer prices, reducing their overall category spending and constraining the number of potential runners in market in the short term, increasing cost of advertising. Both of which will alter the marketing investment deployed by these brands making Nike and all running brands competition for attention easier or harder.

The consequence for the average runner is that they'll see both more expensive gear and a bombardment of ads over 2025. When Nike are whacking $1.1bn of spend into marketing in the last three months alone (vs On's $318M in the whole of 2024), expect to be seeing a lot more of Nike.

If we had a group chat…

Salomon decided they needed an official announcement video of their international team all dressed in black head-to-toe rain gear running on and off a stage whilst a dude read out names from a phone - an obscure dance when sped up to x4 speed. Spectacle aside, the PR they’re putting behind their investment in a ‘sports performance team’ is evidence we’re starting to enter the optimisation era of trail running performance. Let’s see if the investment pays off!

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I’ve been enjoying the Footprint by Callum Jones recently- yes, another running newsletter, but one where big themes in running are effortlessly couched in compelling stories. What more would you expect from a Guardian journalist?

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My favourite story of trail running this year? Oh, just Tom Evans who upon signing up with new sponsor ASICS but unsatisfied with their shoe quality, decides to send his new trail shoes to a cobbler to sand off the sole and replace it with Vibram. Little did Tom know said cobbler is the Key Cobbler, a well-followed account on IG that posts videos of him resoling shoes, one of which was Tom’s. The video evidence is down, apparently causing tension with ASICS according to my sources, and we thought that was the end of that and Tom learned his lesson. Alas two weeks ago he posted, then deleted, another video striding across the Peaks in what looked like Vibram-soled ASICS (I won’t post it here for Tom’s sake, but bless, he really doesn’t trust the grip of those ASICS…)