Hey, fam, welcome to a special bonus episode of the free trail podcast. What you're about to hear is a live panel conversation from the running event held a couple of weeks ago in San Antonio, Texas.

I was glad to be there in person and I was glad to moderate this conversation about where trail running stood in the broader running industry,

something that was very relevant and a topic of many water cooler conversations on

the trade show floor and something that hopefully feels valuable to you posting here in the

podcast feed. Joining me as guests are two my favorite people to chat with who regularly

shape or change the way that I'm looking at the sport in general and often

specifically free trails place within it. Stephen Holmberg, he's a 17-year Nike veteran who now

runs a consumer insights firm called Insight Accelerator. He does a lot of great work behind the

scenes with brands in the space. And also David Callahan, the co-CEO

of Ultra Signup, who always has interesting thoughts on the sport where we are and where we're

headed. Some topics that we tackle together, growth trends in the sport and how it compares

to our friends in road and track running.

We talk about trail culture as a growth driving phenomenon related that.

We discussed cultural impact versus commercial impact.

The reality is about the size of the trail market relative to other sports.

We talk about how media and social media are driving

discovery and participation in the sport, the impact of star athletes on the business and industry

of trail. We talk about marketplace dynamics, including tariffs, inflation, competition, etc.

And then we leave time for a couple of Q&A questions at the end.

This one was super fun. Could have gone on for multiple hours. So maybe this will end up becoming

sort of a regular feature in the pod feed. Just a quick catch up with Stephen and David.

Thanks so much to TRE for hosting

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