“Run Like the World Depends On It”. This tagline can be found on the outsole of every shoe from new running brand Hylo. And with one-of-a-kind, fully sustainable running shoe designs, Hylo is truly practicing what it preaches.
Sustainability has always been a part of the conversation when it comes to running shoes. However, within this conversation on environmental impact in the running shoe world, many people questioned whether or not a fully eco-friendly shoe could possibly hold up performance-wise compared to some of the other top running shoes on the market.
But in 2024, former soccer player Michael Doughty set out to prove the skeptics wrong and effectively blend environmentalism and high-performance features in running shoes. Together, co-founders Doughty and Jacob Green achieved this goal with the creation of the Hylo Impact.
As runners, we’re fortunate to be able to explore the world on foot and run in some of the most beautiful places on earth. Hylo aims to protect the land we run on, using bio-based materials to reduce the brand’s footprint and set a new standard for sustainability and eco-consciousness in running footwear.
Hylo started with just one model – the Hylo Impact – and is now expanding its footwear line with the brand new hylo AXIS. At Marathon Sports, we’re so excited about the launch of the AXIS and couldn’t wait to hear more about this new addition to the Hylo lineup. And we were lucky enough to get the lowdown first-hand when our Director of Footwear sat down with Alex, Hylo’s Wholesale Director.
[PETER G.] Can you talk us through some of the early phases of Hylo, and what that was like?
[ALEX A.] We launched in 2024, and with you guys in 2025. I wasn’t part of the business yet when Michael came on, but Michael essentially slept one of your colleagues’ houses for two weeks and was spending time with the team in store, helping customers, learning about the entire team, the business model at Marathon Sports so we can better serve you guys to make sure that we’re good partners for the long run.
I don’t think that’s been a very common thing that founders have done in the past .
Hylo started with our three cofounders.
Jacob, who’s one of our cofounders, once went for a run around the park, realized his shoes were dead, needed to find a place to dispose of them, and realized a lot of shoes just end up in landfills. With an environmental studies background, he just wasn’t very thrilled with all the research he was doing. So that led him to really want to start a brand.
He then called up his best mate, which is Michael– a professional football player– soccer, sorry. And he actually was very dissatisfied with the sporting goods world, with how the product was being mass produced.
He was wearing certain big brands, but really aligned more with a brand like Patagonia that really cared about the world and building products responsibly, so he and Jacob both formed Hylo.
But then there was another cofounder that came into the equation – Jorma – because Jacob and Michael both didn’t really know how to develop product, and Jorma was the expert. So they brought him in and he wanted to build product the way that he always envisioned it, not work for someone else.
So the three of them built Hylo Athletics.
[PETER G.] Who wears the hylo AXIS?
[ALEX A.] So I think there’s two consumers.
One is just a runner looking for a workhorse mileage hog, something that could just take a pounding, really be supportive, energetic, and someone that needs a little bit of reassurance in terms of stability. It has a very supportive upper, it has a very supportive framework underfoot, but it has a good substantial amount of cushioning.
But the second consumer is someone that has different issues. For example, Plantar fasciitis; they might have Achilles tendonitis. It’s more of a solution shoe. So anyone that’s dealing with anything problematic, it seems to work really well for them and any customers that want a supportive feel but don’t wanna feel extremely high up. You’re going to have a 38mm, 30mm stack, so it is on the higher side, but it doesn’t feel obnoxiously high.
So I think it’s gonna work for a lot of different people.
[PETER G.] I think there’s often this idea that more sustainable means worse materials– or I guess, less performance (forward). How do you answer that?
[ALEX A.] Yeah, so the first principle – you have to create a shoe that performs just as good or better than everyone else.
So even removing sustainability from the equation first, basically we want all of our performance scores to score at the same level or higher. And from an energy return standpoint, from a grip standpoint, we actually score higher than the industry average.
We want to show that bio is an advantage, not a disadvantage. You put your shoe in the cold, typically the midsole gets firmer. We actually have the least amount of change in colder temperatures because of the biocontent in the midsole.
So it actually shows in certain cases, bio performs better than synthetics.
[PETER G.] How does Hylo think about run specialty and what’s your approach to business to grow it?
[ALEX A.] We have a lot of different levers of how we approach things, but at the end of the day – and you’ve been doing this for a long time as well – I think a lot of what we’re doing is common sense. How do we do the basics as best as possible and then service the best way possible.
With a small team of limited resources. We’re never gonna be able to do everything we want, but we focus on certain levers, and one of them is education. If we can educate everyone in the industry about our product technologies, better than anyone else, that’s going to help us succeed. Our relationships with every person involved in the business, it comes from our founder, sending happy birthday messages to an outfitter that might be in Kansas City, and to me having dinner with someone that’s a staff member in Fairfield, Connecticut.
[PETER G.] He sent a pair of shoes to my mom, actually, too.
[ALEX A.] Yes, and it goes to that level of detail, which really makes a difference, and it’s because we actually care. It’s not being disingenuous. We want everyone to succeed.
If everyone can succeed, then we succeed and if one ship rises, the other ship rises. And that’s how we approach things.
Come try the Hylo Impact and hylo AXIS at Marathon Sports to see how running shoes and sustainability can seamlessly blend together and provide the comfort and support you need to thrive on your next run!
