Swedish brand Craft Sportswear expands endurance sports footprint

The multi-year deals also named Craft as a sponsor of the Golden Gate Trail Classic. Spartan and Craft had first established a partnership in 2018.

As part of the partnership, Spartan and Craft recently released the carbon-infused ‘Spartan x Craft Nordic Speed Shoe’ for the trail running community and plan to follow up with a line of trail-running specific apparel. Craft will also have on-site branding at Spartan Trail events and the Golden Gate Trail Classic, the companies said in a joint press release.

“Craft has been an outstanding partner for the last four years and paramount to our growth as the world’s leading endurance sports brand,” said Spartan founder and CEO Joe De Sena. “We’re excited to double down on that growth with Craft, expanding our partnership to other portfolio brands of Spartan, including Spartan Trail and Tough Mudder – as we collaborate and bring innovative performance footwear and apparel to the market.”

Craft has grown its presence among the running and trail running communities in recent years, highlighted by the launch of its Elite Run Team, a global roster of elite trail and ultra-runners. The brand also continues to raise money through its Team Rivs collection, supporting accomplished ultra-runner/Elite Run Team member Tommy Rivs, who received a cancer diagnosis in early 2020.

As the first brand to create Olympic-calibre OCR-specific apparel and footwear – first with the popular ‘Spartan x Craft RD Pro’, the partnership with Tough Mudder will see Craft dive deeper into the sport, creating a new OCR shoe designed to meet for the brand’s signature muddy event courses – along with a line of performance apparel to be launched later this year. Craft will also receive on-site signage at events, the release said.

“Craft is dedicated to designing high quality performance sportswear for endurance athletes of all levels – which encompasses the Spartan ecosystem,” said Eric Schenker, CEO of Craft Sportswear North America. “We’ve had such an incredible response from Spartan’s OCR community over the course of our partnership that it’s only natural our collective growth would lead to more opportunity. We’re excited to add Spartan Trail and Tough Mudder to our curated list of partners – and look forward to expanding our innovative sportswear for the brands’ passionate endurance communities.”

All Spartan x Craft footwear and apparel are developed at the company’s sports science laboratory in Sweden – rigorously tested and designed to face elements that require full functional movement and varying temperatures.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)