Motion Magazine

Before running became a global style language, much of its clothing looked exactly like equipment. Bright colors, aggressive graphics and technical details were designed to communicate speed, but rarely said much about the person wearing them. When Lars C. Pedersen began running and competing in triathlons during the early 2010s, he felt as though he had to leave his personal style behind every time he trained. SAYSKY grew from his belief that performance clothing could work harder without making every runner look the same.

Pedersen came to running through professional windsurfing. He had spent years inside surf culture, first as an athlete and later working with some of the industry’s most influential brands. Surfing offered a complete identity. The attitude followed you from the water to the beach, into the bar and through the rest of your life. The clothing, music, people and places surrounding the sport all belonged to the same world. Running had the physical commitment, but Pedersen believed it was missing that cultural continuity.

He launched SAYSKY in Copenhagen during the summer of 2013. The idea was to combine legitimate performance with the ease and personality he knew from board sports. The clothes still needed to survive races, long training sessions and difficult weather, but they also needed to feel connected to life outside the workout. Copenhagen gave that vision its visual foundation through Scandinavian clarity, urban environments and a city where running could move naturally between sport and everyday life.

The first campaign was photographed by Bjarke Johansen. Instead of casting recognizable professional athletes, SAYSKY found its first models on the street. That decision made the images feel closer to the people the company hoped to reach. The original male model, Nicklas Fenger, began helping around the office while completing his master’s degree at Copenhagen Business School. In 2014, he became the first official SAYSKY employee and continued appearing in campaigns while handling marketing and digital work.

The early clothing established symbols that would remain part of the brand. RUN CPH connected SAYSKY directly to Copenhagen. The Classic Logo Tee introduced a clean, permanent staple, while the star became the company’s most recognizable mark. Russian Tights placed the star on the knee, creating something that could be identified while a runner was moving. There were also louder pieces, including lightning graphics, national colors and bold triathlon suits that challenged the idea that Scandinavian design had to disappear into minimalism.

SAYSKY found its first retail support close to home. Marathon Sport, a specialist running store located next to the company, became the first shop to carry the brand. That relationship gave a young label credibility in a category dominated by corporations with larger development budgets, sponsored athletes and established distribution. The first customers were not buying into a distant lifestyle campaign. They were seeing the clothing worn at Copenhagen Marathon, IRONMAN Copenhagen and other races taking place around them.

Triathlon played an important role in the brand’s early visibility. Although running would eventually become its primary business, triathletes were among the first athletes willing to trust SAYSKY in competition. A Danish triathlon set appeared at IRONMAN Frankfurt, giving the company its first international race presence. Pedersen was also testing the products himself, bringing the founder, athlete and product developer into the same body.

The team began forming around people who were already part of the world. Danish distance runner Michael Jeppesen became the first official SAYSKY athlete in 2014 and later joined the company. Early models moved into staff positions. Friends and family helped Pedersen while the business was still largely a one person operation. SAYSKY did not construct a community after establishing the company. The community became the company.

International growth started earlier than its size might have suggested. The first foreign retailer was located in Seoul, beginning a relationship with South Korea that would continue as Asian running culture grew. SAYSKY photographed a collection in Mallorca and began presenting itself at expos outside Denmark. The company imagined its Copenhagen attitude traveling naturally through Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin and New York without losing its original character.

Collaboration also became part of the strategy. SAYSKY’s first project was with Copenhagen streetwear label Le Fix, followed by work with Danish nutrition company Nutramino. These early partnerships placed running inside a broader creative and commercial network. SAYSKY later worked with Garmin around the Forerunner 920XT and released a collection with Danish fashion brand Mads Nørgaard, combining technical clothing with the designer’s recognizable stripes, dots and restrained color palette.

By its third year, the company was spending much of its time on the road. It appeared at running and triathlon expos in Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Berlin and Hamburg, with Berlin becoming its first marathon expo outside Denmark. SAYSKY also received the ISPO Brandnew Award in the athleisure category. The recognition placed the young label among previous winners that included On, GoPro, Nixon and Maloja, giving industry validation to an idea that had begun with Pedersen’s frustration over how running clothes looked.

The same period produced one of the clearest examples of the brand’s connection between athlete and product. Pedersen qualified for the 2015 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona while testing a prototype of the SAYSKY Aero Suit. The finished suit later appeared in a campaign photographed around Brooklyn. The story was not built around an athlete hired to authenticate a product after development. The person building the company was using his own training and racing to shape it.

SAYSKY’s most important innovation may not have been a garment. In 2015, it introduced COP RUN, an urban interval relay created around teams rather than individual finishing times. The original format placed runners in groups of three, with each person completing five 1,000 meter intervals. More than 300 runners participated in the first event, and eight editions were held during the opening season. A later collaboration with Danish race organizer Trailman moved the relay onto a motocross course, making the experience more difficult without losing its social character.

As urban running crews began appearing across major cities, SAYSKY recognized people who shared its understanding of the sport. Tide Runners Hamburg became the first crew to establish a relationship with the brand. Campaigns were photographed with local runners, allowing each city to enter the story through people who actually moved through it. Over time, SAYSKY connected with crews in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Dublin, Vienna, Cologne, Brussels, Zurich and other cities.

The brand eventually gave this network a name, the Worldwide Running Tribe. The idea is intentionally broader than pace, distance or competitive status. SAYSKY speaks to serious athletes, but defines seriousness through commitment rather than results. Pedersen has described the meaning behind the original “Be a Star” philosophy as doing the most with whatever time and ability a person has. Someone training three hours each week can belong beside someone training twenty, as long as both are honest about the effort they give.

This philosophy also explains the high five that became part of SAYSKY’s culture. During a trip to Tokyo, members of the team passed an unknown runner wearing one of their shirts. Neither side needed an introduction. They exchanged a high five and continued in opposite directions. It was a small moment, but it completed one of the dreams Pedersen had described during the early years, seeing the star somewhere far from Copenhagen and immediately recognizing someone who understood the same world.

As SAYSKY expanded, its product system became more precise. Flow represents its most technical performance clothing. Pace is made for daily training, while Combat focuses on racing and high intensity sessions. Motion emphasizes comfort and versatility, Blaze protects against difficult conditions, and Off Run carries the identity beyond exercise. Statement Stories gives the company space for graphics, humor, seasonal concepts and references to its archive.

The structure answers the same problem that inspired SAYSKY in 2013. A runner should not need to enter and leave different identities throughout the day. The company can now dress someone for a race, ordinary mileage, recovery, travel and life away from training. Performance remains the requirement, but it no longer controls the entire personality of the clothing.

Recent collaborations have brought that philosophy to a much larger audience. SAYSKY’s partnership with PUMA introduced complete footwear and apparel collections built around the idea that runners organize their lives around their training. The three part Back to Business project turned office clothing, calendars and corporate language into running references. Pinstripes appeared across technical pieces, while shoes such as the Deviate Nitro Elite and MagMax Nitro entered SAYSKY’s visual world.

The final Back to Business installment arrived in 2026 alongside an Out of Office Relay held inside a Copenhagen office building. Runners moved through stairwells, elevators, parking areas and workspaces, turning an ordinary place of employment into a race environment. It was unmistakably SAYSKY, serious equipment placed inside a concept that refused to take itself too seriously.

A collaboration with American footwear company Speedland gave the brand another route into shoes. The RX:SKY connected SAYSKY’s design identity with Speedland’s specialized approach to premium trail equipment. Both partnerships allowed SAYSKY to enter technically demanding footwear categories without pretending that apparel expertise alone was enough. Each collaborator supplied a capability, while SAYSKY supplied a culture and point of view.

That culture has become increasingly valuable as running changes. New brands now build themselves through crews, city campaigns, limited releases and fashion references. Running is no longer separated from design, music, travel or nightlife in the way it once was. Many of the ideas that made SAYSKY unusual in 2013 have become part of the category’s standard language.

Its history is what keeps the brand from feeling like a response to the current moment. The crews, races, founder participation and streetwear influences were present before running culture became crowded. The first employees were already inside the earliest campaigns. The first athletes became part of the organization. International expansion began with specialist stores and relationships instead of anonymous global reach.

SAYSKY did not make running less demanding. The clothing is still designed for people who care about distance, speed and improvement. What it changed was the emotional temperature surrounding that effort. It gave ambition a sense of humor, competition a social life and technical clothing an identity that could continue after the watch stopped.

More than a decade after its first Copenhagen collection, SAYSKY’s complete story can still be found inside its original idea. Running does not have to feel like a temporary uniform worn for exercise. It can be a culture someone lives inside, carried through cities, friendships, clothing and the miles that connect them.

You can shop SAYSKY here: www.saysky.com