bandit 3

mornin' merry makers 🎽 👟 🩳 🏃‍♀️💨

today's letter is about a brand that made me remember why i once loved running so much.

i used to be the kind of runner who thought 26.2 miles was a good way to spend a sunday. two marathons, endless halves, long runs that left me both sore and high. then life got busy. running slid from sacred ritual to occasional hobby to something i do…. sometimes

bandit makes me want to change that.

i first heard about them from amanda gordon, a former behind the stores guest and die-hard runner. what hooked her (and now me) wasn’t the gear. it was how bandit builds community first and commerce second.

their mission is simple: “evolve the full experience of running.”

from nyc basement-born sock brand to full-blown cultural moment, bandit is doing retail differently too. today’s letter maps their route.

off to the races 🏁

stories i'm watching

jet bros: brothers, nick and tim west helped sell jet.com to walmart. during covid, nick started making socks in his brooklyn basement after being let down by every pair he trained in.

bandit, literally: the name is a nod to bobbi gibb, the first woman to run the boston marathon in 1966. unofficially, because women weren’t allowed. the brand’s anti-establishment energy is more than cute branding. it’s cult-building.

you’ve made it to the good part 😎