BY BRETT FARRELL

Last year, I got off the phone with the owner of an apparel factory here in Oregon and I felt nervous about the idea of producing our next round of tees in his facility.  It would be a big change from producing in Asia to coming stateside. There were higher costs, different methods of production and a lot of unknowns. 

But, I thought to myself, “fuck it, this would be worth the risk, we are doing this.” 

Ever since starting Territory Run Co., I have been inspired to make limited run trail goods that are made as close to home as possible. When you invest in local business you invest in its workers- the people in your community and a cycle of spending within one area grows. 

Bill Amos, the owner of the factory has been passionate about bringing apparel manufacturing back to the US and I had been following his journey since he first opened. We talked in the past about working together but it never lined up. Last year, as Territory Run became more positioned to take a chance, I felt it was time to go for it. 

And I am so grateful we did, because just several weeks ago as our t-shirts were finished up, Bill’s factory had to shut down.  

I can’t speak to all the challenges of trying to bring apparel manufacturing back to the U.S. and all the work that Bill went through to try to do that but I can say that it was a hell of an effort. 

When I walked into the facility and saw dozens of people at sewing machines and our t-shirts being made by a small team, I felt the magnitude of the work that was being done there.

Now, the word ‘community’ gets tossed around frequently and in effect, loses some of its meaning. But, I felt a true sense of community when I got to chat to the people who were actually cutting and sewing the fabric that would become the products I sell. This kind of contact makes the journey from rolls of fabric to completed t-shirt so much more meaningful for me as the owner. 

The creation of a t-shirt or any good is something we take for granted. What do we see when we look at a shirt? Do we think about the person who spends their days laying out the fabric and making the precise cuts or the woman who slides the pieces through the sewing machine and carefully stitches its seams? Do we think about the lives of those individuals?  Probably not.  

When we have a closer connection to the process of manufacturing we can feel the products come alive with the stories of all the people involved and the end result becomes much more than an ordinary piece of clothing, but an effort of a community.

These t-shirts, called the All Day Tees, are now available. If you have not tried our All Day fabric before, it is an incredible soft cotton-like feel polyester with superior moisture control and odor repellency. Its recycled polyester infused with recycled coffee grounds increases the surface area of the thread to give you all these performance benefits. 

I am sad that there won’t be more of these tees in the near future but I am proud to say we have created, along with a community, performance running tees made in Oregon. And with it, elevate the story of running and business in Oregon even if just for a short time.

By Brett Farrell

Designs by Johnny Bertram

Nine years ago, I was working at my dining room table struggling to try to figure out how to come up with the first t-shirt design for Territory Run Co when I wasn’t an artist. I had never designed any piece of art in my adult life so it was a matter of learning how to convey a vibe and style to the person who was actually putting pencil to paper. 

I knew I was seeking to portray the inspiring lifestyle of the many trail runners I came across. I wanted to create that perfect vibe and it was hard to pack all that into a design. The creation of designs has ended up being a fun process that has been an ongoing journey. Nine years later, I'm still working with designers to come up with new designs that represent our community and I am excited to share with you what's to come this fall. 

We are releasing four new designs by Johnny Bertram that portray the vibe of trail running in the Northwest and beyond.  Johnny brings my loose concepts into beautiful artwork that I am proud to print on our tees, hoodies and hats. These designs are what carry out the soul of this brand.

The Beginning. Oregon

I was watching the Prefontaine Classic track meet on TV in 2001 and saw Alan Webb break the high school record in the mile. I saw images of Oregon, its coastline and mountains and after seeing the Prefontaine movies that came out in the prior years, I became obsessed with the idea of seeing Oregon for myself.  When I ended up moving to Portland eight years later I got a job at a running shop and it propelled me further into the culture of this amazing sport in Oregon.

I had envisioned making running apparel in Oregon since the beginning of Territory Run Co.  As many consider Oregon the birthplace of U.S. running, the idea of Oregon-made running apparel, from design to the actual cut and sew production, was incredibly exciting to me. 

This fall we are doing it. 

We are in the process of producing our All Day Tees and new All Day Hoodies right here in the state of Oregon.  

To celebrate this, we will be releasing an Oregon trail running design. 

I am grateful for this state, its natural beauty and the history of running here. I am proud to say that we are carrying on the legacy by producing running tees made in Oregon. 

Look out for more to come on these MADE IN OREGON tees.

The Exploration. The Pacific Northwest 

I may be biased, but I believe the Pacific Northwest is the absolute best place to live in the U.S.

The moody weather, the forests, the mountains, the ocean, the lakes. The Pacific Northwest is a special place to call home. 

It's why I moved here. 

This part of the country gives a lot to many of us trail runners. We are offered so many incredible spots to get out and explore the natural world. The volcanoes, gorges, rainforests, rugged mountains and coastal trails give us an endless amount of terrain to run through. 

It feels like a place to be on holiday 365 days a year so we made a postcard style design that celebrates the allure of this beautiful pocket of the world.

The Lifestyle. The Trail Running Brand

I ran my first trail race at the Bighorn 50k in Wyoming. It was a powerful experience running the beautiful trails of northern Wyoming alongside runners from around the country. I found it to be a completely different race experience from what I was used to. I was having conversations with other runners on the trails, they were stopping to take photos of the views and I didn’t feel the competitive drive as I did in road races. The expansive natural world around me and these awesome people transformed my experience. 

I left that weekend feeling a sense of belonging as a trail runner.  I was proud that I had accomplished a new distance and felt I had found my people.  

As I got more into trail running, I felt that this group of badass yet chilled out people didn’t have a brand that represented their true nature. They didn’t fit with the uber techy brands or the vibes of the super competitive brands. All of the branding I saw out there at the time was about the sweat and pain of running, being your best self and all that bullshit.  

Yes, I know, it's part of it but it's not the whole story. I was meeting trail runners who didn’t give a damn about showing off how much pain they can put themselves through and gave everything to experience the feeling of being out there, traveling through the mountains and tapping into a freedom that you don’t find in our modern lives. 

This is what I saw that a trail running brand deserved and what I worked so hard to put into Territory Run. It's a story of trail running that goes further than just sport. It is the mentality of wishing to spend more of our time outside in the wild where we feel more at home. And our goal as the trail running brand is to inspire our community to get out and feel wild as much as possible in their lives.

With Ian Ramsey

Ian Ramsey is an ultrarunner, writer and educator who splits his time between Maine and the Pacific Northwest. He directs the Kauffmann Program for Environmental Writing and Wilderness Exploration. To learn more, go to www.ianramsey.net

By Brett Farrell

One of my favorite summers in my life took place during high school when I spent many evenings running with a few buds from a friend's house then jumping in the lake just down the street from him. We would stay in the water until dark taking turns jumping off the floating dock, making up competitive games and tossing a ball around. Water has always been a signal to my brain that it's play time and it hasn’t gone away with the many years that have passed since that summer.  I jump in a lake and I’m instantly feeling youthful and carefree. 

And adding water to the end of a run is even better. It feels like the perfect way to bring your body temperature toward baseline while taking in nature’s bath. We added the Run and Dip Challenge to our Summer Run Rally to get more people in on the fun. 

We sought out our summer run and dip to be in the Mt Margaret Backcountry. Thomas, Mack ( Territory Run staff) and I were course marking for Daybreak Racing’s Backcountry Rise 20 miler and it was going to be a warm day. We began at 6am at Coldwater Lake which would later become our perfect finishing swim spot.  It was forecasted to reach 97 that day so we were trying to beat as much of the heat as possible. Although we were struggling to stay warm as we were getting ready to go, after the first quarter mile we could feel the day’s heat beginning. 

This area is known for being in the blast zone of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption. Once you reach the top of the treeline you start to get views of rocky mountains, alpine lakes and a  landscape blanketed with fallen weathered trees frozen in time from 1980.  

The views kept us distracted from the increasing temperature until we lowered into the dry dusty trails towards Johnston’s Ridge. It felt like a desert and the sun was in full force. We were low on water and I was dreaming of a food cart at Johnston Ridge that Thomas told me is sometimes parked there selling cold drinks and pretzels.

It was a hell of a moment when we saw the truck bustling with people ordering grillables. We got some pleasant shade and refueled until we were content. 

The ridge is named after David Johnston, a volcanologist who lost his life in the 1980 blast from a pyroclastic flow.  He was posted at the spot now known for the Johnston Ridge Observatory. When you stand in the area looking at Mt. St. Helens with its open mouth facing north its hard not to imagine what it would be like to see a cloud of rock, gas and steam rushing toward you as it was for the young 31 year old, Johnston. 

It is truly a marvel to see the volcano and its surrounding area especially when you learn of the history of the blast and all that the eruption engulfed. The area lost its plants, trees, animals, fish and even human life. And now it is full of new life growing up around the laying trees. We saw a large herd of elk basking in the morning sun, we picked huckleberries right along the trail and took our time looking for wild strawberries.  

The rest of the run gradually lowers you back down to Coldwater Lake where we began and the thoughts of its cold water was keeping me energized. 

When we found our spot to enter the lake we leaped in fully dressed with shoes still on. We floated around taking in the perfectly refreshing lake water and the surrounding views as my body temperature slowly lowered. I felt the playful spirit come back to me. The cares of the world float away in a lake like this.

I could have stayed in the water for hours. 

By Mack Robertson

It’s easy to become desensitized to the unique beauty of the places in which we live. Scenic vistas, urban trails and unique landmarks become part of the tapestry of our town’s identity that we inevitably take for granted. In June we launched the Summer Run Rally as a way to offer fun and inspiring challenges that encourage a more purposeful approach to running.  The hope was to reignite the excitement and passion of running for anyone who needed a reminder of why they run. Last month’s “Point to Point” challenge encouraged participants to get creative by designing their own adventure route and to remember that the journey is just as important as the destination.  

On a beautiful weeknight evening in August, we gathered up a few friends and set out to do our own version of the point to point that took us on a traverse along Portland’s Tualatin Mountains to the historic “Skyline Diner”, nestled in the West Hills of Portland.  Along the way we tagged three familiar Portland high points: Council Crest, Pittock Hill and Cornell Mountain. We ended with some of the best milkshakes in town. Along the way, we all mused about how fortunate we are to have such great trails close by.  We remarked at the feeling of remoteness being in the forest while still being in the heart of a busy city. It was truly what the Summer Run Rally was intended to be.

The North Tualatin Mountains are a spur of the Oregon Coast Range that separates the Tualatin Basin of Washington County from the Willamette River in Multnomah County.  Human settlement in this region dates back over 10,000 years and these hills are peppered with historic trade routes. When looking towards the cityscape from the east, these are the forested hillsides that beautifully frame Portland’s Downtown. Due to repeated landslides and the unstable nature of the terrain, much of this landscape was undevelopable. Roughly 4,000 acres of the Tualatin Mountains were formally dedicated in 1948 as “Forest Park” which now encompasses more than 5,000 acres of mostly second-growth forest.

We began our adventure at Council Crest, one of Portland’s highest points and one of the few vistas that grants visitors views eastward of the Willamette River, Downtown Portland, and five cascade volcanoes on a clear day (Mt. Hood, Mt. St Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Jefferson) and westward toward Washington County and the fertile valley of the Tualatin Basin. While Council Crest is technically not part of Forest Park, but rather part of Marquam Nature Park, the two public lands are connected by nearly-continuous trail. 

It was a gorgeous night and Council Crest Park was filled with families having picnics on the grass, dog owners playing fetch with their beloved pets and cyclists whizzing by on the asphalt of Council Crest Drive. From the high point we quickly receded into the shade of the forest and began our descent to the Highway 26 crossing and then back up the Marquam trail into Washington Park, home of the Hoyt Arboretum.

We navigated our way along the tight turns and winding trails of the arboretum and found ourselves in the dark and quiet Redwood area.  This section of the forest is absolutely stunning and we couldn’t help but to slow down to take it all in. As our shadows grew longer and the trail users became fewer and farther between, the feeling of remoteness grew as well.  Just as it began to feel like we were the only ones in the city, we turned a corner and crossed over Burnside Road, a busy thoroughfare used by Portland commuters. 

The bouncy pedestrian bridge felt like it was going to launch us right up into the air as we ran across it, trying to match the pulse of the bridge triggered by the first runner. We then began the climb up to Pittock Mansion, the historic estate once owned by Portland newspaper baron, Henry Pittock. Being one of the best views of Portland, Pittock was full of people on this beautiful night.  We took a moment to take in the views and realized we better start moving if we want to get these milkshakes before the diner closes.

 We bombed down the hard packed trail from Pittock to Cornell Road. Another road that intersects this natural space.  The sun was pouring out its last few rays of golden light and the forest looked magical.  Once on Cornell, we opted to take a hard left to the Collins Bird Sanctuary rather than continuing on Wildwood Trail.  The Founder’s Trail in the sanctuary is one of the more backcountry-feeling trails we have here in Portland.  It is perfectly nestled into the hillside and gets very little use. The trail is less buffed out than its Forest Park counterparts and the odds of seeing another person are slim.  

As we began the slog up the hillside, a barred owl flew right in front of us on the trail before ascending back up to an old snag where it watched us with intent interest. You could have told me we were 100 miles from civilization and I would have believed it.  Just as night was beginning to creep in on us, we were spit out of the trail into a forested neighborhood. The blurred lines of the wild and civilization were perfectly highlighted by a young buck standing statue-still in the yard of a nearby house.

We began to power hike up the steep road.  This neighborhood would be hell when it’s icy out. The road grows steeper before coming to the base of a long stairwell.  We looked back to see last-light over the city as we crested Skyline Boulevard.  From Skyline we took a right onto Greenleaf Boulevard to hit our third and final peak, Cornell Mountain. 

Although Cornell Mountain is the highest point in Portland, it is wholly unremarkable.  No views and the true summit is in someone’s yard so we stayed on the road about 20 feet below the true highpoint. From here, it was all downhill to the diner. We picked up speed on the gentle downgrade and floated our way to the Skyline Diner.  Its neon glowed bright in the twilight. We perused the takeout menus on the front steps of the restaurant and reminisced on the adventure we’d just had.  I must have run these trails and roads hundreds of times, but they felt fresh.  Sharing some of my favorite trails allowed me to see them with new eyes and reflect on what makes my home trails so special.  Finding fascination in the familiar is what the Summer Run Rally is all about.