While many big brands in athletic apparel emphasize the intensity required for runners to shave seconds off a personal best, Outdoor Voices encourages the activity of running—or any outdoor activity, really—to be at your preferred speed or distance. And a casual walk with the company’s founder, Tyler Haney, around Lady Bird Lake Trail in Austin, Texas, is the perfect example of why she created Outdoor Voices in the first place.
There are dozens of people walking, running, and cycling around, and all are eager to begin their day with some type of movement.
“The mindset is what I’m most proud of [for Outdoor Voices] because it’s energetic, it’s optimistic, and it makes you feel good,” Haney, 29, said. “My goal is to encourage people to be active on a daily basis. Make it fun, make it about jogging with a smile on your face. You do that and your whole body chemistry changes.”
Since launching in 2013, Haney has focused Austin-based Outdoor Voices around the motto of “Doing Things.” That means getting active for your own purpose, whether it’s being out on a walk with friends or heading to your next studio class. And the apparel for women and men matches that concept by allowing the gear to work for whatever activity you’re into.
With the help of a growing social media following—Outdoor Voices has more than 223,000 followers on Instagram alone—and celebrity influencers that include Frank Ocean and Gwyneth Paltrow, the brand has grown rapidly over the past few years in a crowded athletic apparel space. In March, the company raised $34 million in a series C round that brought its total funding to nearly $57 million, according to CNBC.
Outdoor Voices Running Collection
And with its newest line focused solely on running—one of Haney’s first passions—she wants to keep the momentum going.
Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, Haney said she always kept herself on the move. She played basketball, rode horses, and ran track and cross country. To this day, she said one of her proudest athletic accomplishments is winning a cross-country race during her sophomore year in which she blacked out during the last mile and still won.
“A lot of that fearlessness and enthusiasm is what we’re trying to bring back to people,” she said. “We want to harness that youthful, kid-like energy that allows you to feel free to face the wall at the end of a race.”
In a sense, Outdoor Voices’ Running Collection is an homage to that love of running. In styles ranging from tank tops to skorts, the collection features two new materials: LightSpeed and EcoMesh, both lightweight and fast-drying fabrics. Outdoor Voices has also teamed up with Hoka to create a tonal hue version of the Hoka Clifton 4 running shoe. To Haney, the collaboration with a running-specific shoe brand brings “the whole outfit to life.”
While the company’s style is casual, the path for getting it to this point as an apparel start-up took years of hard work.
She wanted to bring more balance to two different mindsets. The goal was to create a style for the athlete who pushes to be stronger, faster, and better, while still appealing to the person who never connected with sports and views all athletes as “not me.”
While on the run, Haney pointed out a group of women leisurely running together with their dogs. When the group passed, Haney said they are an example of the simple joy that comes from exercising together. It’s a lifestyle that anyone can embrace.
“That’s what I think is cool about what we’re building,” she said. The company’s motto, “Doing Things,” is a resource for recreation, but it’s also about introducing people to new things in life.
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back store locations in New York, California, Texas, and Colorado, customers are invited to participate in a range of community events such as kayaking, archery, running, yoga, and dog walks. These events are organized with the hope of making fitness relatable and achievable for everyone. Another goal for the brand is to bring that sense of movement to more girls in middle schools and high schools across the country.
The Best Running Watches for Mapping and Pacing OV Trail Shop app on April 24. Users can access the collection in the app when they actually go outside to 50 selected running locations across 22 cities around the country. If you can get to one of these locations—like the Lady Bird Lake Trail in Austin or Hudson River Park in New York City—you can view the collection. On April 25, the collection will be available in-store and online.
“Seeing what our customer does every day, how free and strong and inspired they feel just by changing the conversation from athlete to exerciser,” Haney said at the end of the run as others from the trail pack up their gear in the parking lot, “it’s really awesome to see how happy it makes people.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
