“We value simplicityso that complexity does not destroy motivation. We will always become what we doso our only fear is not taking action. We will keep striving, because competition is in our spirit!”
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#TeamATREYU
An American shoe startup brand from Austin, Texas, USA. This brand was founded in 2019 and released its first collection in 2020. One of the key founders of Atreyu is Michael Krajicek (the man in the middle holding shoes in the image below), a 26-year-old with his own ideas who made the Atreyu brand a trend in the American running shoe industry. However, what is interesting is that Michael had no background in shoes and was not previously in the big shoe brand industry. He was not outstanding in running or even design. In addition, he graduated in music from Berklee College.
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Before this, Michael ran a hot dog stand, and he thought this would be his career forever. But one day when he turned 26, he stopped living a party life, drinking heavily, and turned his attention to falling in love with running, with a view of running as “The Endurance Arts” or “The Art of Endurance”
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More than being a shoe brand, Atreyu is a story of people, where simplicity, running, music, art, and the fighting spirit brought them together. In addition to Michael himself, there is a small but quality-packed team, ranging from Michael's older brother Gabe, who is a co-founder, Jake Martin, an expert who coordinates with athletes, including Mary Ann Abney, Griffin Boyd, and Joey Bell, serving as Chief of Staff, Marketing Specialist, and Specialist of Accounting, respectively.
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Honor Simplicity.
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#Shoes should be shoes
From a young man who fell in love with running and decided to change his career, Michael closed his shop in Louisiana and moved to Austin, Texas, and worked in a running shoe store to study the business model. In addition, he was passionate about designing lightweight running shoes with a minimalist structure, which he saw as the kind of shoes he wanted, protecting from the ground just a little, giving the wearer a “natural running” experience.
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This became the inspiration for him to want to produce these kinds of shoes. Therefore, he designed shoes without luxury or unnecessary decoration, creating The Base Model. It is a dream shoe suitable for training and was first sold on a subscription basis.
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Of course, there are shoes designed for training, there must be shoes designed for racing. Atreyu has used a carbon fiber plate and supercritical EVA midsole foam as a lightweight racing shoe in the name of The Artist, which still maintains the concept of simplicity in every way. Regarding both models, we will delve deeper in the next posts.
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#First time selling outside the United States
As we know, initially Atreyu was only available for sale on a subscription basis, where you would pay a membership fee, have shoes sent to you, and return them to the company when damaged, and receive a new pair to use. But recently, the team announced that from September 1 onwards, single purchases would be available, and the good news for Thai runners is that Thailand will be the first country where Atreyu will be available in running stores outside the United States for the first time.
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