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Our mission is to be the Heart of Trail Running™.
We are chasing the good feelings and community built late race at the bottom of the valley that lead to strong ascents.
Plenty of media outlets are nailing the performance of trail running – we’re looking for heart.
est 2022
About our mission from Josh Rosenthal, Founder
Iran as many Matt Gunn events as possible in the twenty teens: Capital Reef, Zion, and Bryce multiple times as his company, Ultra Adventures, transitioned to Vacation Races.
I used those desert backdrops to tell the initial story of Borderlands and its ethos – Trail Grit.
I clearly recall running a stretch of prairie thinking “I’d love to own these races someday.” For an entrepreneur, ownership is an expression of admiration though often misconstrued as imperialism.
In reality, I wanted to own Zion specifically in the way I wanted to own Nolan Ryan’s rookie card or Emmett Smith’s jersey. It’s how I feel connected to stuff in the world. It’s less about ownership and more about taking ownership.
Though a PE firm owns Zion now, it’s more mine than theirs.
I love to start, build, and indefinitely grow companies. I’ve done it in several industries with food and beverage being the most well traveled (La Barba Coffee, Seabird, Yoko Ramen, Yoko Taco, Creek Tea).
The path to ownership always started with dreams I couldn’t release, couldn’t let go of no matter how hard I tried.
I always thought that trail running industry’s marketing missed the mark. It was never appealing to me while I was out there spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year.
The marketing didn’t speak to me – I was slow, gear did nothing to improve my speed or performance yet everything spoke to performance.
Sure, performance is fun.
But it doesn’t make me open my wallet anymore.
At first it did because I believed it.
Perhaps it did improve my performance but at such a slow clip marginal gains are almost unrecognizable.
I always thought trail running brands should be sponsoring people like me. People who pay full price for gear. We represent two standard deviations from the mean and the bottom 3rd deviation.
The original manifesto of Borderlands was quite critical of trail running marketing and industry decisions in general.
The trail running industry is running in only one direction – it markets like Nike does to tennis. Put the best shoes on the best player and watch sales increase.
But this isn’t how we consume or think in the middle and back of the pack. Performance has its place but it doesn’t inspire and frankly the number of trail runners who pay attention to the sport of trail running is laughably small.
Heart Inspires
I am probably burnt from a dopamine addiction.
Too much something-like-that has deadened my senses to the point where only a tremendous amount of something good inspires me.
I find it in certain places in running, sure. Unbreakable’s stunning look into the act of 100 miles or Dean K’s obsession or Ann Trason’s incredible string of victories at Western States.
But by and large I was most inspired by what I saw at races and even more consistently inspired to run by things that have nothing to do with running like furniture design and architecture.
I loved how I felt when I was running, who I talked to, what we talked about, and that most of it was in the bigger purpose of helping each other to keep going.
Maybe we stayed in touch after the race, maybe not.
But in that moment of a race we connected and inspired each other to keep going.
I wanted to build a brand that captured the moments and feelings we experience in a race.
Most of us run a race or two each year at most.
It’s impressive in its own right.
On your next casual run, leave the head phones at home.
Run with care of your heart rate.
And try to feel what it feels like to push through something you never thought possible. Imagine you want to quit at mile 75 of a 100 miler. And rather than quit, you keep going.
Those chills that come with encountering the enduring human spirit are what we’re going for at Borderlands.
Our aim to be the heart of trail running is ambition. Aspiration.
As an entrepreneur I’m meandering through a million tactics looking for it.
