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>> Tokusaki Arayama presents Run the World.
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>> I'm here with Derren Bauman from Oregon, Portland, right?
Now you're in Oregon.
>> I've actually just recently moved back to San Francisco, California.
>> Yeah, just moved back to San Francisco.
>> You're right. I was in Portland for three years,
but very happy to be back in California now.
>> So you're more vibrant business, a city.
>> Yes.
>> Work with other people.
>> Yeah. Probably the best trail running destination in the entire world,
Marin County, just north of San Francisco, beautiful city.
Obviously, I have a lot of friends and family in the area,
and my wife and I just had a baby.
So it's a good time to move back home.
>> So your life is changing.
>> Yes.
>> It's evolving ever and ever.
Today's one of my main topic to talk with you is that your business free trail and something.
>> Yeah.
>> But I would like to talk about my experience this weekend.
So it was very busy weekend.
So it was hectic weekend for me.
So my weekend started from Friday.
I was a Japanese commentator of the Doi Internon Thailand by UTMB.
So in English channel,
your business partner, Kareem Malcolm was there.
I was expecting you were joining us.
Yeah, but you didn't because you're coming in,
coming having trips in Japan.
So two days live streaming,
and yesterday, Sunday, I was behind the live streaming of the East Trail Journey.
It's a very small production team.
So I'm staying at my home in between here in Tokyo and East in the middle of the,
I'm living there in a small beach side town in between two places.
So I'm working with Internet connected laptops and some switchers.
Watching your start and your stop in the middle of Nishinatouge stations.
So happy to see you finally in person here in Tokyo.
So I think we share some experiences.
So the story from myself is just to start our conversation.
So it is good for me.
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So to sharing some time with UTMB,
live streaming, you're now voice of the Trail Running.
So you're commentator of the UTMB English channel.
And you're under Western States,
live streaming is great production and great stories and the episodes and interviews.
And I assume you are the man behind the great project.
So we are sharing some interest in your sports.
Of course. Yeah.
And we've known each other for a long time.
Yeah, I've obviously admired everything that you've built here in Japan with Dogs of Caravan.
I know in all my trips here,
I always see you at least once and then I see you all over the world and you're always working really hard.
So thanks for what you do also.
Thank you so much.
Yeah. So, by the way,
let's start with your experience in yesterday's race, the trail journey.
Well, I know it was not a very good day for you.
You look not very healthy.
But yeah, I wish you just enjoy some onsen or hot spring over there.
How was the day yesterday?
It made perfect sense how the race ended up for me yesterday.
I was not feeling well coming into it.
I had gotten sick just a few days before I was due to get on the flight.
In fact, I texted Jun and Yoshi from Goldwyn and said,
Hey, guys, I'm not feeling good.
I'm going to try and make the trip and do my best.
And that's what I did.
But really, I think it was a microcosm of everything else that's happening in my life right now, as I mentioned.
And as you just mentioned, everything has been changing recently for the positive in a good way.
But it's left me quite tired.
And so really right now I'm just hoping to find some stability so that I can then build the foundation for next season.
But the main purpose of the trip was to come out and connect with Goldwyn to work on some exciting new trail running product that we're going to be releasing.
And ITJ was always going to be kind of a bonus for the trip.
But because we just moved and because I've just had my first child with my business, Free Trail,
there's just a lot of things that are changing that have been honestly quite exhausting.
The last two months for me have been the most exhausting, stressful two months of my life.
And so it was not surprising that yesterday about I mean, from the first mile, the first kilometer of the race, I was like, oh, man, this is going to be a hard day.
And so I just I tried to change my mindset.
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But ultimately, you know, after 20, 25K, it was just like, this isn't productive.
You should just take a rest, come back to stability and get ready for next season.
And so I ultimately decided to pull out at 40K and it was the right decision.
I'm disappointed, obviously.
But yeah, I mean, it was a fantastic race.
What a beautiful course.
It was great to connect with the local community again.
And so it was a positive experience.
Yeah.
So you stayed one hour, did you have one day stay at Shitenji area?
Did you enjoy the atmosphere of the small onsen, hot spring, resort town area?
Yes. So we stayed at the onsen last night.
I got two baths in the few hours that we were there.
And I mean, I love visiting Japan, everything about it.
I just I get here and I feel calm.
I feel at peace.
I feel at home.
And with the great hosts that we have here, they've been making sure that we are well fed,
well looked after.
And it's been a really positive experience.
But now because the in coming to Japan, I've only been able to visit Tokyo and Kawaguchiko
for UTMF.
And so I haven't really been able to see other places.
This was my first time seeing Izu.
And of course, I would have liked to see the entirety of the course.
So I'll have to come back and do ITJ again.
But it seems like a really beautiful area.
So you enjoyed some different parts of Japan.
Yes.
Which is wonderful.
So the organiser, Tatsuo Chiba-san, he's originally from here.
He was born and raised in that area and he wanted to promote his hometown as a great
place for trail running here in Japan, as well as for promoting into the world with
the help of your privacy or something.
So he's great for all the people around that event.
Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, as somebody who's raced all over the world at all the
big important events, I feel like ITJ has the potential to be a top tier event that
should attract a lot of international talent, both on the professional level and among the
recreational participants in the sport.
Fantastic race.
Cool.
Yeah.
It's good to hear about what you feel about the event.
So the main objective of this trip is absolutely for your new partnership with Goldwin.
Yes.
It's a new...
We all, Japanese runners, especially trail runners, know the company and brand Goldwin.
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But I'm so surprised to hear the Goldwin brand published their press release with their partnership
with Global, you're American, but known for Global Trail Running community, our community,
a big name.
Dylan Bowman is now new ambassador and partner of the brand.
So this trip should be related to that big news and your new role in the brand.
So could you tell me some story behind that?
Yeah.
So this time last year, I was just looking to do something new and different.
Like we've been talking about the theme of my life and of our conversation is there's
been a lot of change and that's sort of something I was feeling internally after a long time
working with the North Face, my previous partner.
I was interested in doing something a little bit different and something where I could
be more involved and make a bigger impact with the partners that I'm engaging with.
I became involved and connected with a small footwear startup in Portland, Oregon, where
I used to live called Speedland at the end of last year.
And we've been working together on producing a new line of footwear that is going to be
coming out next spring.
It's available for pre-order now.
And that's been an amazing learning experience for me and growing in a new way in my career,
learning a lot more about the product side of things while still being able to carry
on my life and career as a professional athlete.
Because I had the footwear deal, I also had the opportunity to engage with apparel partners.
And I had, of course, as you know, been to Japan many times.
I've connected with the Goldman family through that process over the course of, I guess,
seven years since the first time I came to Japan and have always felt a feeling of trust
and an acknowledgement that they have good intentions both as human beings and with the
product and how they engage with sporting communities.
And so it really made a lot of sense both for me looking to do something new with my
career and also with Goldwin, hoping to have a bigger influence in the American market
where I can obviously be helpful and then also working on some trail running specific
product.
And so again, it's my attempt to learn a little bit more about the industry side of things
as I sort of grow and develop in my career.
So yeah, as far as I know, the Goldwin brand is a product brand, Goldwin, a company named
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Goldwin.
They share the same word.
But the corporate Goldwin is quite a big business here, especially here in Japan.
So big name and very highly profitable company.
But the brand Goldwin is now in development, now in the turn of the growing first, but
not as big as the North Face.
So and then they do not have much more technical trail running products yet.
So you are going to give some advice or some ideas or your insights from your knowledge
of the global trail running community or more like more technical high top notch products?
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, as you know, Koichi, trail running is exploding right now.
And it's a really exciting moment in the sport.
And for that reason, I think there's a lot of opportunity to grow and advance on the
product side of things.
And I, of course, have a lot of experience in the sport.
I have a lot of great relationships.
I have a lot of knowledge about the race landscape, the competitive landscape, and feel like I
can bring all that knowledge and experience together to help a brand create product that's
applicable for our sport.
I just received the first samples of the trail running product that we're developing together
just a couple of days before I left for my trip.
And it's fantastic.
I ran ITJ and a prototype pair of the shorts that we're working on.
I had my jacket and my backpack and my first impressions of the samples are I'm extremely
impressed with the quality and with the functionality.
And so I'm looking forward to continuing to work on those and ultimately bringing them
to market in 2023.
Wow.
Great story.
So, yeah.
So as far as I know, the strength of the Goldwini is that they have their own production line
here in Japan with more seasoned craftsmen and craftwomen in place.
And they work with together from scratch of the, from one thread they start scratching
by their hands, just not only asking for production in any other world, like in China or something.
So maybe you are getting more interest, not only like a tool of marketing or big company,
but more on, more to your interest, more to be more business partners or business development
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consulting or that sort of action or function.
And I think there's so much in common with being an athlete and then like thinking about
things on the business side, which is something that we could talk about as it relates to
free trail as well, but like I just mentioned, I just feel like trail running is such a special
sport and it's such a special community.
And there's so much more that I wanted to be doing aside from just racing and training
and performing and posting on social media.
I really wanted to form a relationship with a partner where I could be really involved
with the strategy, the execution within the sport, the product development.
And so far with Goldwin, it's been a great match.
And like I said, the product that we've been working on is extremely exciting and the initial
samples are phenomenal.
And I'm really looking forward to continuing to work on them.
It's fun.
It's intellectually stimulating.
It keeps me inspired and motivated to, I've been racing, I've been a professional athlete
for a long time.
And so as you grow and evolve in your career, you keep wanting to grow, you keep wanting
to do new things and expand.
And like I said, at the end of last year, I was just ready for a change.
I'd been doing the same thing for a long time and this was a great next step for me.
Now it's a good cue from you to talk about your own business, free trail, and maybe you
have something in your mind.
So you just announced a trail runner of the year.
Yeah, that's very challenging and you're trying to find a, just not only, it's more like professional
or more very ambitious and you have more ambitious target or some objectives in your mind.
So maybe, so since last time I met you, you are not so much more, you are much more like
more like an athlete.
So not work, I didn't remember you were talking about such a business side thing or your own
objective or your own initiative to start up something.
Now your story, your words from you sounds more like business startup, entrepreneurs,
something.
So what's the story?
So I'm just curious.
So what is changing in your mind?
So just a very fast athlete with speedy legs from, you of course keeping speed legs, but
moving into more entrepreneurial activities.
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Again, I think there's just so much opportunity in the sport right now and I think that, I
mean I obviously have a lot of knowledge and passion for the sport and it's something that
I wanted to share with a broader audience.
And I think our ultimate goal is to make trail running the biggest outdoor endurance sport
in the world.
I think it has all the potential to speak to more people than road cycling or triathlon
or even like skiing and snowboarding.
I think trail running is the most approachable endurance sport, I think, and also the most
approachable outdoor sport.
And that's a really powerful thing.
And for me, as I was sort of evolving within my own career and having this internal intuition
that I wanted to grow and do something else, I always sort of had an intuition that I wanted
to work on the media side of things because I think it comes naturally to me.
I like to communicate about, communicate my passion for the sport to the world.
And I think I have a unique ability to do so.
And I started my podcast now almost three years ago and that has sort of grown and it
sort of started to turn into a media company organically.
Like I mentioned, my podcast producer Ryan is here with me in Japan.
He's also my business partner and beyond producing our podcasts, he does all of our photography
and videography work.
And when we got connected and we started to discover the talents that Ryan had, it made
it so that we could expand from just being like an audio platform to also having video
to doing a lot of great photography to now publishing written articles on free trail.com.
Of course, we have sort of a fantasy league, we have our trail runner of the year, we have
an event business, we're about to launch a coaching business.
And so that's just a reflection of my feeling that there's just so much that you can do
in the sport right now to impact people and that the sport has a unique ability to impact
people and we want to help to do that using trail running as a vehicle.
So it's been a big project, big, big project and it's not without its challenges.
It's very, very hard.
There's definitely weeks and months where it feels like an ultra marathon, that's for
sure.
But it also brings me a lot of joy and it really feels like something that I was really
meant to work on.
It feels like it's really my true calling.
So what I found interesting about your podcast and all those things is you're making people
to move from when you find something that does not fit in your community and business
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side.
So you are moving, make a move to, for example, changing your business or the target of your
customers or so how do you make that sort of decision?
You might have some advisors or some, your wife, Harmony, will ask you to do so.
What's behind that sort of move?
Koichi, I now am in a deep learning period of my life too and it's been really fun and
I approach it with the same level of passion and dedication that I always have my trail
running career.
So I read a ton of books about business and about startups.
I listen to a lot of podcasts about the same.
I listen to a lot of specific podcasts and read newsletters about building media companies
in the 21st century which has just been so educational for me.
But also it's been really fun.
It's engaged my brain in a new way and it's allowed me to feel like I'm a beginner again
and really like starting from scratch and having just like an obsessive urge to improve.
And so there's a lot of things like you mentioned where we have noticed that we're doing something
wrong.
For example, like our original brand name was Pillars.
It didn't feel right.
And so we executed a rebrand and now we're free trail and it's perfect.
It feels so much better.
And that's I think representative of the process that we're going through of learning in real
time and we try to be very transparent about things when we make mistakes.
We talk about it publicly when we change things like we shut down our mobile app that we were
using for training and moved everything onto a web platform which was a big change for
us but also the right move.
We were intentional about communicating that to the public in a way that helped them understand
what our motivations were.
And I think people have resonated with that about our transparency and honesty about how
we're building this business and why we're building the business.
And like I said, every day is a new challenge and we are constantly learning.
So when you and I speak next year at UTMF, I'm sure there will be new things that we're
working on that are changes that we've recently made.
So yeah, we're just trying to do our best in learning.
So maybe a lot of athletes even in our community, it's quite unique for your story.
So maybe everyone is watching what you move next or how you're learning, how you're testing
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yourself or communicate with customers or some business partners.
So I myself hear you're a hot topic of our community at least for me.
My question is the next question is the last but not least, let's talk about the bright
future of our sports.
What's coming, what will become hot in our next two or five years in our community?
UTMB World Series is now so far so successful in our community.
Well, Western states celebrates 40s and 50s, next year, that of sky learning or mountain
running.
A lot of event is happening and getting more, showing the potential in our community.
Would you tell me some of your expectation or your hope?
I think this is a really important moment in the history of the sport.
And I think that live streaming of races is a really important recent development in the
sport that's going to allow trail running to speak to a much larger audience.
To this point, the only way to really follow races has been sort of like on Twitter and
then sort of like the occasional video feed that you might get from a static aid station
camera.
Now with things like UTMB, which you've worked on for a number of years now, you've been
able to see the advancement that UTMB has had in their live streaming operation.
And it's become something that's actually a really fantastic viewing experience for
the fan.
And I think when people who are into endurance sport are presented with this product, it's
going to be much easier for them to be inspired to participate in trail running when you compare
it to something like the Tokyo Marathon or you compare it to something like an Ironman
in Florida in the United States.
Trail running is a very special and unique sport because of the landscapes, because of
the culture and the community, and when you package that in a viewing experience for the
fan, it's a super, super powerful thing.
So that's something that I'm immensely optimistic about.
And I think that can have a far reaching impact on the world because I think trail running
as a community, as a culture, is a positive influence on the world.
Beyond that, I think it's also an exciting time on the brand side of things right now.
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As I was explaining to my partners at Goldwin, it's a unique period where you have the big
traditionally performance brands like Nike and Adidas and Brooks and Saucony all coming
into trail running.
And then of course we have the traditional outdoor brands, Salomon, the North Face, etc.
Also coming into the sport.
And it's really the only unique sport that straddles those two categories, both the performance
and outdoor.
Plus, of course, there's the immense lifestyle component, as you know.
And so when you package all that together, it's I think also a really unique opportunity
on the brand side, like for Speedland as well, for small startup brands to come in and to
present a product, to present a philosophy to the market in a way that differentiates
them from those big brands that we just mentioned and allows them to connect with the community
and to build a business within it.
So those are a couple of things that I think are really exciting about trail running right
now.
Yeah.
So even the small startup brands could make a...
I'm not very familiar with that industry, but some evolution in production process,
from design to production, there's some sort of innovation in the process.
So even small company could do startup, realize their own idea to product.
So maybe what I assume is the Speedland is one of that sort of appreciating the sort
of innovation of the industry.
Yeah.
And it's exciting, right?
Because Speedland was started by two guys who come from the big brands.
They most recently worked at Under Armour, but they worked at Nike for a while and at
Puma before that.
They have all the experience necessary to have big high paying corporate jobs at these
giant multinational brands.
And instead they decided to focus on trail running specifically.
And that was what resonated with me, right?
I wanted to work with a brand that was only working on trail running because that's what
I work on.
And I think that's a really unique and powerful thing that hasn't really existed to this point.
Because even like Salomon is making road shoes, a traditional outdoor brand.
And so I think when you have that sharp differentiation and when you approach the community with something
that's new and different, people resonate with it.
And again, it was good timing for me just in wanting to do something new and different
in my career as well.
I think the partnership with Goldwin is similar.
They have a great opportunity to speak to the community in a really authentic way and
I'm excited to help them with that.
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Now the time to see your experience with Speedland and other business partners.
Now you find a new challenge with a company of my country, Goldwin.
The company Goldwin is quite a successful big company here in Japan.
But your contribution to the brand is like your contribution to Speedland.
So your idea directly drives the business.
You have some chance or opportunity to do so.
That should be very interesting.
I hope so.
Yeah.
Cool.
Good.
Okay.
So, Mr. Yoshida, the time you will have dinner and eating good food in Japan around in this
city.
So we will see in person next time in next spring?
Yes.
Yes.
I will be at UTMF for the third time in my career to return to one of my favorite races
in the world.
And last time I was here was in 2018 for the race.
And I think that was maybe the last time that the race happened, at least for international
athletes to come and compete.
And it was one of the greatest races and experiences of my career.
And I'm looking forward to coming back and doing it again.
Yeah.
Honestly, so it was your finish, the passing power in last few miles is the kind of goose
pump thing.
Yeah.
It should be some sort of legend in our Japanese trail running history.
Yeah.
So now the time to train up in Mount Fuji or your new hometown in Marin County or something.
Yeah.
So happy.
We will be very excited next.
We have a lot of exciting story.
We will have exciting story from the Mount Fuji and you next spring.
Very much looking forward to it.
Yeah.
Thank you so much, Dylan, for having time with me.
So yeah, we will get connected again in person next spring.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Koichi.
Nice to talk to you.
Arigatou gozaimashita.
Arigatou.
Arigatou.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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