Kathi Hoffmann -

Business Owner - THE GOOD RUN

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A curator of sustainable and socially responsible sport brands big on ethical values of fairness, accountability, inclusion and diversity. Kathi means business! She is in motion - it’s hard to hold her back.

When I caught up with Kathi a few weeks back about International Women's Day (IWD), she looked me straight in the eye and passionately sparked about ACTION! While an advocate for equality for all, she is an feminist activist within her running.

We met 5 years ago at her co-founded run group RunPack, a community drawn together for their love of running and exploring the urban spaces of Berlin.

While a torrid experience in fashion made her refocus her interests back into her sport. RunPack led to being hired by Nike, then adidas to develop their running communities, before finding her way back to fashion with her own take on the industry, setting up THE GOOD RUN. Kathi's leadership, with her huge smile and infectious positive nature, is easy to follow and her colourful hair and tattoos reflect her playfulness as a mother too. She is a cool, hard working Kat!

In or chat together we spoke about the cross-overs between sport and leadership, and letting go of the fear to break through one’s own limits and the need for more role models for future generations of women. She also shares with us the coming protest run she is organising to mark IWD (8th March) and solidarity with ALL in Ukraine!

Roll tape…..

Kathi, how do you describe yourself?

I am a founder, a feminist and female running aDvocate! All the ‘f’s. And a running activist too!

Why running, what makes you so passionate?

Running is an easy way to show people that they are capable of more than they thought.

Everybody has their ‘personal limit’, what they think is too far to run, for some that might be 5km or 20km but with the right people around you, you can train, keep stepping it up and break through those limits.

Even if you are sure it is impossible. I like to show people, especially women, who oftentimes underestimate themselves what running can do for them, whether in life or in business.

Do you have some examples of this?

Of course. For adidas I ran a project where we took a group of women with no previous experience of running, to the start line of their first marathon in 6 months. You could really see the change, from them saying “I could never do this” and to literally at the finish line, saying “I can do anything!”... and they did! Some quit their jobs, some traveled the world, it was amazing!

And for me, a few years back at the point I had run my first marathon - 42km - A friend coming over from England, was gathering a group of women together for an ultra marathon. Now, I couldn’t believe what I had just achieved with the marathon but she said to me, “I bet you can run 100km”.

That year she took the number of women participants in the ultramarathon from single digit to the first time ever of 50% of all entrants being women!

What is it you see in women that changes in this continual stepping up.

In general, I would say they stop underestimating themselves and become more confident in their strength. Running is like a short cut.

You can apply it to anything in life, your career, founding a company, picking a partner or even breaking up a partnership. Being bold and brave is something that is good for a lot of women. It stops them being afraid or feeling incapable.

So you really see the physical element in running supporting other areas of life?

Definitely. I can say that for myself and many people I know.

It changes their life…. How they see themselves. What jobs would they apply for? What risks they are willing to take and how it makes them stronger and braver.

”If you learn you were wrong about your limits, then there is no limit! “

Why is this important?

I’m talking about losing the fear. If you want to do something but you don't do it because you are scared, it keeps you from doing what you want to do, start a family, have a relationship, build a business. Don’t let fear stop you from doing what you want!

Tell me about setting up your own thing with theGoodRun?

I really thought THE GOOD RUN was something that should exist and it didn't. In a way I am my own target group,

My professional background is in textile technology being a textile engineer within fashion production, but I pretty soon found out how much of a shitty industry it is and really hated it.

At the same time, 10 years ago we co-founded Run Pack and all of a sudden the hype around running groups came up and all these brands wanted to work with us.

I wanted to do my own brand but then I found loads of other great brands out there. Why are these brands not doing this all together? I thought. They had their own audience but just not the budgets or the reach. So we started a crowdfunding and got it the GOOD RUN up and running two years ago.

What is the best and toughest part of ‘running’ your own business?

They go together. The best part is I am a co-founder and also the lead initiator of my company. I truly love that feeling and can feel proud about what I do. It's great to do a job that you are so passionate about and you believe in, other people are jealous of that.

But at the same time I get so jealous of the people that do 40 hours a week. They don't have to carry all this on their shoulders and get to switch off their brain for the weekend.

In the end it's all mine, it's all on my shoulders even when it gets tough.

What have you learned from your failures?

Hah, I have failed a lot of marathons. It’s taught me a lot about my limits but it's about doing it anyway. You’re going to make mistakes. Just always know what your mistakes were and learn from them.

If I could do it again, I would do many things differently but then again, if I had known how difficult it would be I may never have done it! So sometimes it's good to not know and try out new things.

How important is community to you?

Well I actually stopped running at age 16. At the time I was really good, running for a club but all my friends were going out to parties at the weekend when I was at training sessions preparing for competitions. I just didn't want that, I wanted to hang out with my friends.

So when we started Run Pack, it was the first time in my life that my friends were where my sport was. And now 10 years later so many of my friends are within my work and I have seen so many great places through running communities.

CLICK image for more on THE GOOD RUN webpage

Tell me about the event on Monday night

I have done events on International Women's Day since 2014, it's always about being together.

The first year there were only a few of us, and over time it grew. We did the Berlin Ringbahn Run (42km distance) which is a long way, but when you split it up and everyone takes a little. It's doable. Last year, during lock down, we created a designated route along the river and asked everyone to wear red masks and scarves so they could identify each other and feel connected.

I have always wanted to do a protest run and this run year we have an official protest permit. The run was going to be about giving visibility to women having a very different reality of running at night, they can't just ignore the facts around safety. Unlike men who can just put their headphones in and go running, women can do that.

However, due to times that have changed and the current events happening in Ukraine, we are making it a Ukraine solidarity event! We want to share solidarity with any women around the world in crisis. Running has always been about connecting people and we have friends in Ukraine.

I know that people feel helpless about this situation apart from going to protest. We want to bring this to our running communities. Solidarity can be about running, women, people and global.

How do we as a society support empowering women?

I think we are getting to a better place. We have not had role models for women and we need more. We learn what we see from our parents or the generations before. It is our job to smash all the rulebooks.

So running can be a symbol for so many other things. Whether that's owning companies, being engineers or whatever!

But there is also no-one-size-fits-all, you can not put one thing over all women. If you want to be a mother and have babies, Do that! And if you want to found a unicorn company,

Thank you Kathi, just before I go I just want to note your jumper that say Make It Matter - what's that about?

That's for me!! That's what I want from my life, what I want from my work.

This piece is from a fashion brand Ambiletics, founded by a very cool woman, Giulia .

You can find it on THE GOOD RUN website, look it up, go buy it! ;)