The Renaissance Athlete: How Former D1 Athlete & Artist Zach Litoff Has Worked With The Biggest Brands In The Sport, Re-Shaping What Running Means To Him, & Creating A Photo Book From The OLY Trials

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The creative force behind Litoff Studios, Mr. Zach Litoff himself, joins the show today, ready to discuss his new book.

Zach seamlessly intertwines athleticism and artistry–blending his elite athletic background as an NCAA Championship steeplechaser with his innovative design work; this has led him to work with major brands like Nike, New Balance, and even Apple.

Recently, he led the rebranding of the iconic Bay to Breakers race for their website, infusing it with fresh, modern visuals while honoring its rich history.

Zach grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where he became enmeshed at an early age with drawing, climbing and running. At Monarch High School in Colorado he came in third in the state two-mile championships, third in the mile, and fifth in the 800m.

At Santa Clara University he helped build a strong program, finishing as an All-American steeplechaser with PRs of 8:32 in the steeple and 13:52 in the 5,000m.

Zach went back to Santa Clara and got his Master's in Marketing, and has since started his own company doing design work, marketing, photography, video production, web design, content creation and blog creation. Whew!

Zach's latest triumph is a 160-page multimedia art book called "The Last Olympic Trials," which documents his experience at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene. It blends film photography, painted-over Polaroids, mixed media, and hand-drawn illustrations to capture the shifting culture of the sport

In today's conversation, Zach takes me through his running pursuits, how he's shifted his identity in the sport and how he's gone about that, his thoughts on Grand Slam track, the story behind his new book "The Last Olympic Trials" and so much more.

This is just a good chat between two friends. Don't miss it. And pick up a copy of Zach's latest work to support a friend. Great work.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you just jump into the average path right away, then you're going to be average.
0:02.7	If you jump into the average bath later, you're still going to be average.
0:06.7	So you might as well, like, try.
0:10.6	That was Zach Lidoff back today on the Running Effect podcast.
0:14.3	It's an honor and a privilege to welcome Zach back onto the podcast.
0:17.4	If you're not familiar with him, I kind of have deemed him the Renaissance
0:20.8	athlete. He actually created our latest logo and kind of rebranded the running effect in
0:26.5	2023. So the logo of the running effects, Zach is the man behind that, our newsletter logo as
0:31.7	well, a bunch of different projects. Zach is the guy behind it all. And I'm a small fish in his
0:36.5	big pond.
0:41.5	He's worked with New Balance, Nike, Apple, a whole plethora of races and companies.
0:43.6	He's also quite the accomplished athlete.
0:46.0	He ran for Santa Clara back in the day.
0:50.1	He made the NCAA Outdoor National Championship meet and the steeplechase.
1:01.5	And in today's conversation, we recap a lot of the projects that Zach has been up to, including his recent kind of photo book, coffee table book, the last Olympic trials, which I have a copy of.
1:02.5	It's absolutely remarkable.
1:03.4	We dive into that.
1:12.2	We dive into his thoughts on Grand Slam track, his identity shifting within the sport as well as running this unique artistic business, all sorts of different it's a conversation with two friends i'm confident you guys are going to enjoy it and when you do
1:16.8	share it with a friend a family member a teammate someone who you think would find value and benefit
1:20.9	from it hit the follow or subscribe button so you never miss another episode and give us a five-star
1:25.7	review to help us out with all those notes aside.
1:28.6	I hope you all enjoy this conversation with the man in the mid the legend, Mr. Zach Lidoff.
	...

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