E29: John Ellis (T8 Founding Story, Scaling A Gear Brand From Hong Kong)

One More K

We are joined by special guest John Ellis, founder of T8, ultra elite runner and commodities trader by day. He takes us through the 8 year journey of founding one of the leading Asian sport brands out of Hong Kong - T8.
From having an epiphany during a painful run in Hong Kong, he and his co-founder Mark then decided to bring chafe-free running shorts to the trail and ultra market. T8 is now a profitable business, is available in dozens of markets and continues to grow overseas through their community of athletes and distributors.
John shares great insights on how to scale a business from Hong Kong to the world, how to create stories and where this industry is going. Plus, he gives an outlook on what vision he has for T8 and if he is ever able to hand over his business.
Tune in to hear the full story.
John & T8 Links:
https://utmb.world/runner/58107.john.ellis
https://t8.run/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joellis/
https://www.youtube.com/@user-bp3bs7kp9g
https://www.instagram.com/t8.run/
Timestamps:
(00:00) Welcome
(00:30) Intro John Ellis
(06:00) The founding of T8
(12:30) Launching in Hong Kong
(15:10) Scaling to the West
(16:35) How to build the T8 brand
(19:25) How to pick & work with T8 athletes
(26:30) Insights into the Chinese market
(27:50) Challenges of building a business
(30:09) John’s vision for T8
(34:20) Impact of the changing business environment
(39:30) Is this growth in trail running sustainable?
(41:50) Learning from running applied to building a business
(45:10) Asian athletes on the world stage
(47:20) Can John hand over T8 to an investor?
(49:10) Ned’s Drop
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Brought to you by Lecka Nutrition (www.getlecka.com)
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Hit the review button, subscribe and be part of our community. Thanks, Ned & Markus
#endurance #trailrunning #ultramarathon #ultratrail #ultrarunning

Brought to you by Lecka Nutrition (www.getlecka.com)

Follow Us On Twitter: @OneMoreK_

Follow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onemorek_/

Subscribe To Our Newsletter: www.onemorek.com

Reach Out: [e-mail]

Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OneMoreK_

Available on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast and Spotify.

Hit the review button, subscribe and be part of our community. Thanks, Ned & Markus