Episode 251 | Matt Taylor on Brand Building, Storytelling, and Creative Expression
the morning shakeout podcast
the morning shakeout podcast
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 80 minutes
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Summary
Matt Taylor is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Tracksmith. He recently stepped down from the CEO role, which he held since 2014, to return his focus to what drew him to the brand in the first place: its creative expression.
I recently sat down with Matt in Boston to trace the full arc of his journey, from a cold letter left at a hotel for IMG founder Mark McCormack, to embedding himself in top-tier college cross country programs for Chasing Tradition, to funding the early days of Tracksmith with an Usain Bolt iPhone game. We talked about how each of those pursuits helped shape the brand he eventually built, and also got into what has always set Tracksmith apart: narrative-driven storytelling, reverence for the history of the sport, and a refusal to be everything to everyone.
This is a wide-ranging conversation about creativity, craft, entrepreneurship, and what it means to build something with genuine staying power that I've been waiting to have for a long time, and it did not disappoint. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed having it.
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Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the Morning Shakeout podcast. |
| 0:04.3 | I love to run, period. |
| 0:07.2 | You can always run faster. |
| 0:09.2 | Forever, you're going to feel something. |
| 0:12.0 | You're going to run into roadblocks, but that's also going to teach you how to handle things in life. |
| 0:17.3 | I don't think we want to be like rocks where we're not affected by anything. |
| 0:23.6 | It's not maybe a physical thing, but it's a mental thing. There's like two voices in me in alpha and beta. |
| 0:26.6 | All I was really trying to do was just keep moving forward. |
| 0:31.6 | Every single runner knows what that means. |
| 0:35.6 | My life has a purpose and maybe it's not what I thought it was going to be, but... |
| 0:40.3 | There were times when I didn't think I would be able to come back. |
| 0:44.5 | There's a lot of people that had different gifts, and they don't use it. |
| 0:48.8 | I think if we all use our gifts, we could do something really special, not for ourselves, |
| 0:53.2 | but our family. If we're really good, we could do something really special, not for ourselves, but our family. |
| 0:58.5 | If we're really good, we could do something for our community, wherever we live. |
| 1:07.6 | Welcome back, everyone. |
| 1:19.7 | It's your host, Mario Frioli, and we are here with a fresh episode of the Morning Shakeout podcast. And here, as always, to help set it up for me is my right-hand man. Chris Douglas. Chris, welcome back to Morning Shakeout H.Q. |
| 1:30.2 | Happy to be here. Let's get right into it. This is a conversation with Matt Taylor, who is the co-founder and now chief creative officer of Tracksmith after stepping down from the CEO role. |
| 1:34.9 | He and I had the opportunity to sit down in Boston and talk for an hour or so. |
| 1:39.9 | What did you think of it? |
| 1:41.2 | Well, I thought it was great. |
| 1:42.1 | And, you know, I think Matt Taylor is one of these folks who, as you mentioned, he's now the creative director. |
... |
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