Navigating Growth in Luxury Running Apparel | Oliwia Romanowska from Acid Running

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All right everybody, welcome to today’s episode of Pathmonk Presents. Today we are joined by Oliwia Romanowska, she’s the Head of Growth at Acid Running. Oliwia, welcome to the show.

Oliwia Romanowska: Thank you so much for having me.

Rick: Of course. We were just talking about a little bit of running, just offline, and about your half marathon time—which was impressive, by the way. But let’s focus on Acid Running. In your own words, Oliwia, tell us about your e-comm business and its approach to growth and sales. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about what makes your brand stand out in the market?

Oliwia Romanowska: Yeah, sure. At the beginning of the year I joined Acid, and I’m working directly with the founders, so I’m super lucky to work for a rather small team, but we are growing very fast and we’ve got really ambitious plans to take over the UK market.

Acid is a performance-led luxury running apparel brand, serving men who are a little bit more—I want to say cultured—than conventional. We’re serving all kinds of people who are quite artsy, who are maybe already into the music industry. We know that our customers are chefs, entrepreneurs, and we do it in a way that we want to provide them with running apparel that’s as much about the design as it is about the technicality and the performance.

We’re trying to strike the balance between offering premium functional products and design-led apparel that you can wear during your run—whether it’s your half marathon, marathon, or any other type of race—but also after it as well. It has this lifestyle element to it too. So for the post-run, if you want to grab a beer, you’re definitely going to look really cool still.

We’re not trend-based. We’re very much staying true to our own designs. We’ve seen incredible growth so far through organic channels and word of mouth—that’s been incredible for us—as well as any type of social runs and events that we’ve been doing.

Rick: That’s awesome. I know running has exploded in the last few years. Maybe it’s thanks to, I don’t know, some influencers, let’s say, or I’m not exactly sure what to attribute it to—but it’s cool to see new brands coming up like Acid, and seeing that you focus on a specific niche. Entrepreneurs and chefs, as you mentioned—that’s pretty cool.

Do you have a favorite piece right now that you guys are selling? Maybe a pair of shorts or something specifically designed that’s pretty cool—just out of interest?

Oliwia Romanowska: Yeah, sure. When it comes to favorite pieces, it’s definitely our Albion T-shirt. We launched a new, quite bold color for us—it was an ice pink version of the tee. It has really strong graphics, and it sold out. So I was unfortunately not lucky enough to get it, but we will be restocking it. We never really restock products, but because we saw such great success with that specific colorway, we decided to bring it back towards the end of the year.

When it comes to our bestsellers—unfortunately, we’re serving men at the moment—so I’m all about the T-shirts and the socks for now. But among our male audience, it’s definitely the two-in-one shorts. That’s a very technical piece we’re selling, and we recently redesigned them. So the inner lining fits really well. It has hidden pockets, and our customers love them. Typically, the black colorway is selling really well, but we’re launching some really exciting ones for summer, such as the ice green. Customers who are a little more adventurous definitely tend to go with the colored versions.

Yeah, we’ve got some amazing pieces. Our new collection just launched recently and we’ve seen it fly off the shelves.

But going back to the beginning of your question—when you mentioned you’re not sure what to attribute the growth of the running industry to—I would definitely say that running, compared to something like cycling, is just much easier to start with. You don’t need to buy an expensive bike, or with tennis, go and buy a racket or sign up for classes. Running is just so easy, and literally everyone can start running, which is amazing. That’s why we’ve seen such a big movement of run clubs recently as well—they’ve just become so popular.

And also, running can be done both individually and in a group. So there are definitely two types of runners. Some prefer to run on their own—that’s typically me. I just put my podcast on and go for a run. That just helps with my mental health—clearing any thoughts I might have in my head. But then there are people who love to go running as a team almost, right? They meet for their Saturday morning run club, go for a coffee after. Or when we organize social runs, we see such a great turnout, and then everyone goes for a beer together. So I feel like there’s the social aspect to running as well—that’s why it’s been growing so rapidly.

Rick: That’s a very good point. And in a way, you remind me of when CrossFit boomed. Obviously, the social part of it is the key point. I’m lacking better words than “cult,” but in the best way possible. Because you get together and go running, and it’s a social thing you do—but also something you can do by yourself. So yeah, I love that point.

Oliwia Romanowska: That element is actually really interesting. Some people will just go for a run and not share the fact that they’re running. Others will try to convince their friends. I actually managed to convert some of my friends to go for a run with me, and that has been really exciting and a really fun element. So there is this element of culture in terms of sharing.

Rick: You just said “convert.”

Oliwia Romanowska: Yeah.

Rick: That’s exactly what it is. But it’s a good one for sure—because as you said, mental health and physical health too. It’s a really good activity.

So pulling back for a second, you mentioned that the way you’re growing is through organic and word of mouth. How crucial is your website when it comes to your overall e-com strategy? And I’d love to learn if there are any strengths you see right now—or maybe areas for improvement when it comes to your website. Things you’d love to work on.

Oliwia Romanowska: Yeah, sure. Our website is the biggest channel for us, right? That’s where we serve all our customers. We do have a very small retail presence. D2C is incredibly important for us. It’s the main channel where we’re actually able to tell the brand’s story.

Our visuals are incredibly strong. We invest a lot into the photo shoots we’re doing—whether it’s e-commerce, lifestyle, or performance shoots—we want to reflect the brand story and what we stand for. The photo shoots tend to be a little more artsy than your typical running photo shoot.

There’s lots of room for improvement on the site and we’re actually working on that. That’s my biggest project since joining Acid. I’ve managed to make some small tweaks already—to our journal, some small ones to our homepage, and the collection pages. We’ve seen a massive increase in conversion by introducing features such as quick add-to-basket, showcasing all the sizes and shades already on the collection pages, making sure the customer has a seamless journey.

But there’s still a lot we can optimize for. That’s on the product pages. A big one for me is the cart design. Perhaps by the time this podcast goes out, we’ll have a new cart design—which I’m so excited about.

We want to communicate to the customer that there’s free shipping above £100. We want to support them with pairing outfits—so if someone adds a T-shirt to cart, we help them match it with the right pair of shorts, or propose different colorways, etc. There’s so much more we can be doing. But with a small team, you need to prioritize efficiently.

There’s lots of room for personalization too, and that’s something I’m quite big on. Building personalized landing pages—that’s something I want to be doing more of towards the end of the year, especially with Q4 being our biggest period.

Rick: Nice. Yeah, it sounds like you’re wearing many hats, right? When it’s a small team, that’s just the nature of things. Maybe let’s keep it on that note—I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about you as Head of Growth. What are the typical things you focus on day to day? If you could give us a glimpse into a day in the life of Oliwia at Acid, what do you do?

Oliwia Romanowska: Not a single day is the same—and that’s always the case when working for a small startup company. We are growing very fast. But also, because it’s such a small team, it means that you need to lead strategically while also being very hands-on. And there’s no task that’s too small—never.

Like this week, for example, I’ve been covering for customer service a little bit or helping with social media because some of our team members are on holiday. But in general, like I said, my role is quite strategic: trying to lead our content calendar. That’s something we’re big on building right now—just making sure that all the channels are aligned, whether it’s paid media, email marketing, or social.

I’m also looking into building a brand ambassador program. We’re working with some incredible content creators, and we want to make sure we maintain those relationships. So I’ve been reaching out to a lot recently, doing gifting and all sorts of PR.

One big focus recently was managing new product launches. We just launched our spring/summer collection, and the next product to launch is our Acid & Principle sweatshirt—that’s launching actually next week. Obviously, everyone on the team is very focused around that. It’s not just building the product page, but also coming up with a marketing strategy for it and organizing the social run that’s going to be in Soho. So yeah, there are just so many things going on.

Rick: Now, with all that said, I do understand why you run so much—you’ve got to clear your head, right? There’s so much going on, you have to have an outlet of some kind. Just meditate as you check off the miles.

Oliwia Romanowska: On the other hand, I speak to so many runners throughout the day—whether it’s our run ambassadors, like I said, the founders—or I scroll through all the websites and browse all the running apparel, and I’m like, okay, I actually want to go for a run right now.

Rick: Yeah, you get the bug pretty easily. That’s cool. I love it. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Oliwia, we’re coming toward the end of our time here. Before we wrap things up, I’d love us to jump into the rapid-fire segment of the podcast. So the only unspoken rule we have here is that, for a concise question, we just want a concise answer. Would you be all right with that?

Oliwia Romanowska: Yeah, I’ll try to!

Rick: All right, let’s do it. Watching or reading?

Oliwia Romanowska: Reading.

Rick: Okay. What’s the latest book or article you picked up, and were there any gems or ideas that really stuck with you?

Oliwia Romanowska: Yeah, so the last book that I’ve read is Breath by James Nestor. It’s about the fundamentals of breathing—the lost art of it—and how important it is for our health, our focus, and our performance during runs, for example. Brilliant book. Really recommend it.

Rick: Love it. Okay, adding that to my reading list. So if you had a magic wand, Oliwia, and you could fix one frustrating thing in your marketing life with tech right now, what would it be?

Oliwia Romanowska: I actually want to tweak that question a bit, if that’s okay. Sorry—not very rapid-fire!

Rick: No worries.

Oliwia Romanowska: I would come up with an inventory management solution that helps to predict culture trends. Something every startup struggles with is inventory management—and being able to predict when an influencer posts about our product and it flies off the shelves. If someone could magically resolve that for us, so we never go out of stock on anything—that would be brilliant.

Rick: Okay, that’s a good one. So, last one—if you could go back in the past and give yourself a quick pep talk at the start of your journey, what kind of advice would you give yourself?

Oliwia Romanowska: Don’t follow all the trends. Just focus on the long-term vision of the company.

Rick: Perfect. Love it.

Oliwia, thank you so much for being on the show with us today. I want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything from today’s interview, what’s the one thing they should remember about the work you guys are doing at Acid Running?

Oliwia Romanowska: That’s a good one. I would definitely say—just go for that run. Just go for your first run. There’s never a run that’s too short. Just go and test it. No matter what you’re wearing, or who you’re running with—just try it yourself, and you’re definitely going to be hooked into it.

Rick: Awesome. And if someone gets the bug, where can they find you? Where can they find your product?

Oliwia Romanowska: acidrunning.com. We currently offer men’s running apparel—but stay tuned for some women’s wear pieces as well.

Rick: Amazing. All right—a little insider info there. Okay, thank you so much, Oliwia, again. We hope to see you again soon.

Oliwia Romanowska: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

Rick: All right.