Heritage

Local athletics apparel firm set for relaunch

chris

Entrepreneur Chris Markl and Laal Nair of Kourage Athletics at a textile factory in Nakuru. Inset: A runner at Amazing Maasai Ultra Marathon in Laikipia wearing a Run Kenya design. Photos/Courtesy

The winner and the two runners-up of Kenya’s only ultra-marathon of seventy-five kilometres crossed the line wearing Run Kenya tank tops made by Kourage Athletics, Kenya’s first athletic apparel house.

“It is quite emotional to see the winning athletes cross the finish line wearing Kourage apparel,” says Chris Markl, the founder.

Mr Markl explains that Kourage had provided 300 prototypes of the tank tops to runners at the Amazing Maasai Ultra Marathon.

“We wanted to test the Kourage shirts at the hardest race in Kenya to receive feedback from runners. The shirts received very positive reviews. In addition the Kourage team shot video, for an upcoming Kickstarter campaign,” he says.

This is one of the ways the four year-old company is looking to re-enter the market even as it change its business approach in search for investment to be able to launch new products.

“The idea is to create a campaign for the crowd funding site, Kickstarter,” says Mr Markl.

He says the method of fundraising is preferable for a small company because after meeting their financial target, the company will receive the funds upfront, helping with cash flow.

“Kickstarter builds momentum behind your brand by creating awareness. So in addition to funding, unintended positive consequences make Kickstarter an attractive funding vehicle,” says Mr Markl.

It was around the Olympics 2012 when the small apparel company realised it needed outside investment to grow. It approached the social enterprise market and local investors but the team could not find a good investment fit.

“It is frustrating that there is no Kenyan firm or angel investment network focused on investing in a company that creates fantastic Kenyan physical products for export. One cannot build an entire economy on technology.

“Americans are nervous about investing in a Kenyan company. Kourage is Kenya’s running brand and is based in Kenya not America,” says Mr Markl.

The economist whose work focuses on large scale international trade and economic development has worked around textiles in emerging economies since mid 2000. On one trip to Latin America, he discovered it is rare for an international fashion brand to be headquartered in an emerging economy and be run by local people.

But Mr Markl knew emerging economies had incredible entrepreneurs, designers and business people who could operate a company to make products and export them globally.

“I was a bit of a runner and so when I realised there that the athletic apparel market is massive and there is no athletic company working in Kenya. I had to go to Kenya and find an incredible Kenyan-led team,” he says, thus founding Kourage Athletics in 2009.

“Kourage begins with the best brand in Africa. Every runner in the world wants to be as fast as a Kenyan. And so we are all about, in addition to creating economic development, highlighting this fantastic side of Kenya.”

Based in Nairobi, the Kourage team does everything from selecting the manufacturer, fabric, cut and graphics. It has built three-collections and sold to 20 countries. The company is now sponsoring young Kenyan runners.

Kourage’s vision is focusing on a small group of athletes and building a partnership with them.

“We want to honour the runners by telling their stories of growing up and their training programmes, to find out what they need in apparel and have them help us design it. And when they are done in their running career, we want to hire these same runners to work at our headquarters.

“This is what sets us apart from other athletic brands — that we really care about the athletes that we work with,” says Hussein Kurji, who heads the Kenyan operations.
To this end, Kourage works with past champions including Douglas Wakiihuri, winner of the 1987 World Championships marathon winner.

Mr Kurji adds that Kourage is aiming to expand by producing sports kits, including shorts, track pants, sweatshirts, hoodies and, long sleeved jerseys in the future. Kourage’s Kickstarter campaign goes live later this month.