Today we’d like to introduce you to Gonzalo Avila.
Hi Gonzalo , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Strides Los Angeles started as an idea between my friend Ethan and I. We met at school through rushing the same fraternity and became close friends. In terms of running, Ethan ran cross country at a pretty high level during his high school days, and I personally only really ran as punishment for soccer. Before starting strides, Ethan and I had the same perception of running culture, which is that it if you weren’t looking to shave time of your mile pr or wearing a race bib you probably weren’t going to fit in. That all changed on a random friday morning after a night out where we decided to go on a run to kickstart our day. Little did we know this was the start of Strides Los Angeles. After that day, running after a night out, or just running to be social became routine for us. It was on these runs where we would have our best conversations and fun, and in doing this we realized that running culture was wrong for not including this aspect of this. Also, the running wear on the market was also symbolic of this, with 99% of brands pushing overly serious, monotone and boring clothing. So, right there on a run, the idea for strides was born. A running brand that not only broke the mold for typical running clothing by using fun, bold and provocative colors and designs, but also pushed the messaging that running is fun and more people need to realize this. So, though neither of us had any experience with clothing, we started figuring out how to sell and make this product. Within the next three months we set up our website, LLC, found manufacturers and by June 2023 we were selling. An important point to note is that in January of this year, we did what we believe has been most important to our story, we started a run club. However, it isn’t just any run club, at the strides hangover run club we push our fun take on running to full gear. Our run club has had live bands, djs, free cold baths, free alcoholic and non alcoholic and hydrating drinks. We truly believe our run club fulfills our mission as a brand which is to help more people get into running for the enjoyment of it and to de stigmatize it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has most definitely not been smooth, funny story actually. Since Ethan and I are still in college, we were able to go abroad to Italy last semester. While we were gone, our inventory sat in our garage back home which is what we use for our warehouse. The shirts sat in these polyethylene packing slips that had the size and type of shirt labeled on the outside in sharpie. In some way shape or form, the sharpie bled through two layers of packing and bled onto about more than half our inventory. When we got back and realized this, we tried everything possible to get the stains out, but nothing worked. What we eventually found out, is that if we dyed the shirts, the stains would come out. In doing this, we ended up coming up with our best seller, which is our Blue squared shirt, which is hand dyed.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Strides Los Angeles LLC?
What I am most proud of is that I believe we are truly a one of a kind running brand. This is because of our young and refreshing take on such a saturated and serious market. Our run club is a true testament to who we are. People from all over Los Angeles will come to the events and tell us how they came because they were tired of the same boring running culture, just like Ethan and I were when we started strides. Just since starting Strides, already so many of our friends and family have told us that they have taken up running, not to run a race or get faster, but just to enjoy it because of what we push. So to know that we are having a positive impact on peoples lives is always a great feeling.
How do you think about luck?
Luck has played a huge role in my journey, both in life and in building Strides. A lot of things had to line up — going to the right school, being in the right city, meeting the right people at the right time. Even finding my business partner felt like luck; we just happened to cross paths at a time when we were both ready to create something. Of course, hard work matters, but I really believe so much of it starts with being lucky enough to be in the right rooms, surrounded by the right energy. Strides wouldn’t exist without that.
Pricing:
- Shirts- 50 dollars
- Hoodies- 98 dollars
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stridesla.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strideslosangeles/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strides-los-angeles-llc/
Image Credits
@livbythelens Olivia Goncalves
