Ben Gibbard has a busy summer season forward. The Dying Cab for Cutie frontman is heading to the beginning line of the Western States 100 after getting in off the waitlist, simply as his new path shoe collaboration with fashionable model Speedland hits the cabinets. For Gibbard, path operating and music have at all times gone hand in hand, however this season they’ve absolutely collided, along with his love of the Tiger Mountain Path, close to Issaquah, Wash., inspiring each his coaching and the GS:TMT shoe he helped design.
From indie phases to mountain trails
Whereas Gibbard is greatest recognized for shaping the sound of indie rock, path operating has quietly been a part of his life for years. He’s completed dozens of ultras over the previous decade and located an everyday coaching rhythm on the muddy, technical trails of Tiger Mountain. For him, path operating is the place the place issues really feel regular and clear.
A shoe that hits near residence
Speedland, recognized for its detailed, small-batch path footwear, labored intently with Gibbard to develop the GS:TMT. The shoe’s identify is a direct nod to the Tiger Mountain Path, the stretch of forest that’s been Gibbard’s coaching floor for years. Speedland says the venture grew out of shared concepts about how operating connects folks to the outside and themselves, not nearly constructing gear for the sake of it.
Speedland launches a high-stack path shoe
Western States, waitlists and what’s subsequent
Simply because the shoe collaboration got here collectively, Gibbard’s identify got here off the Western States 100 waitlist—an ideal twist in timing. Now he’s headed to one in every of ultrarunning’s largest phases, bringing his personal native trails and his new Speedlands with him. Whether or not the footwear can be making an look on stage throughout his subsequent tour stays to be seen, however his focus, for now, is on the path.
