How Oiselle CEO Arielle Knutson Builds Brands, Teams, and a Sisterhood for Runners To Go The Distance
I talked to Arielle about leading a women’s running brand, investing in community, and building brands (and teams) that go the distance
👋 Hi, I'm Amanda. I'm a brand strategist and fractional CMO. I help founder-led businesses turn belief into brand—and brand into a strategic asset that works as hard as you do. I share weekly deep dives with actionable advice on brand building—plus interviews with the people in the trenches. I also work 1:1 with founders and teams. Book a chat here.
Who will love this
Women who run (or want to)
People who know everyone is watching women’s sports
Player-coaches who lead from within
Operators tasked with turning strategy into action
Today
Morning!
I’ve been a runner longer than I’ve been a marketer. I ran D1 in college, still have a stack of muddy shoes by the door, and our old cross-country group chat is somehow still alive and well.
I’ve always believed running is transformative — but women haven’t always been given equal space in the sport. Oiselle first caught my eye when they signed ex-Nike athletes Lauren Fleshman, who was pregnant at the time (and facing a Nike contract that would pause her pay until she returned to competition), and Kara Goucher, whose pay was suspended during her postpartum recovery and who later became a whistleblower. Since then, Oiselle has made bold, values-led moves, built a loyal community, and carved out a lane in women’s running. And as of yesterday, Oiselle is woman-owned, with Margo Cramer taking a majority investment in the business.
I’ve been wanting to interview Arielle Knutson for a while. She’s not only got the inside track on building a women’s running brand — she’s also thoughtful about leading healthy teams and creating a brand that moves with purpose.
If you’re interested in women’s sports or leading healthy teams, you’ll enjoy this conversation.
Amanda
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Amanda Gordon: Hey Arielle! I’m curious about that background and what drew you to Oiselle.
Arielle Knutson: Yeah, definitely. I’ll start with the Oiselle piece. I’ve been familiar with Oiselle since around 2011 or 2012. I first discovered them when I started running—I’m what you’d call an adult-onset runner. I didn’t run growing up, but I started in 2009 and was looking for friends and a community to run with. Being new to the sport, I just didn’t know much about it and wanted that social component.
When I did start running, I got really involved really quickly. I went from casually running a couple of times a week to deciding I should run my first marathon—all in the span of a few months. I think a lot of adult runners go all in like that! So, I was looking for a running community and, at the same time, trying to transition professionally from the agency side to the brand side.
I found out about Oiselle through Twitter back when that was actually a good place to connect with people. I thought that if I joined their racing team—what we now call Volée, but back then it was just the Oiselle Racing Team—it would be a great way to meet women to run with. I also hoped it might help me network and land a job in the industry.
I joined the team, and within a few months, I landed a marketing job at Nuun Hydration. The funny part is that I initially joined Oiselle just to make friends to run with. Now, over a decade later, those aren’t just my running friends—they’re my everything friends. It really shows how transformational a strong community in sport can be.
Amanda Gordon: Building brands and building teams is your forte. I’d love to hear how you approach team building.
Arielle Knutson: I’m super passionate about team building because, at the end of the day, without the people, the brand doesn’t exist, the business doesn’t exist, the company doesn’t exist. It can be easy—especially during stressful times in business—not to focus on the people, but ultimately, they’re the ones doing the work that moves the brand forward.
One of the best compliments I’ve ever received was from someone I worked with at Nuun. We only overlapped for about six or eight months, but when I left, she told me she had never been on a team where people cared so much—about each other and about the work. She said that level of care was contagious. That really stuck with me.
When I lead a team, I try to show up in a way that inspires people to care. And that means giving them the right information and context so they can care—about the business and about each other.
I believe in setting high expectations while also being clear, fair, kind, and supportive. I try to be the kind of leader where no task is too big or too small for anyone. We’re all in it together.
A team is a living, breathing thing. When you work with a small team—which I mostly have in my career—if one person is having a tough day, it can impact everyone. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t show up as their full selves; we all have rough days. But it does mean we need to be aware that our energy affects those around us. If you can lead with that perspective and help a team feel accountable to each other, it’s game-changing. It shifts how people show up and how they support one another.
Amanda Gordon: One leadership analogy that’s really stuck with me is the idea of a player-coach—especially in marketing, where specialists still need to move the ball forward together. As an athlete, I wonder if sports affects how you think about leadership?
Arielle Knutson: Yeah! One of the things we talked about recently as a team was when a teammate was leaving the company. We’re a small team, so it was emotional and sad for everyone. Of course, we all want the best for each other, but there’s also that moment of, “Oh no, what are we going to do without this person?”
I walked them through a sports analogy: if we were a soccer team and one of our players got injured, our first reaction would be, “Is she okay?” But once we know she’s okay, the next question is, “Alright, how do we adjust so we can still win?” That’s a natural and appropriate response. It’s great that a team’s instinct is to check on their teammate first, but then the next step is figuring out how to move forward.
Amanda Gordon: I love that. What is the hardest part of leading teams, and what do you love about it despite the challenges?
Arielle Knutson: The hardest part of leading teams is the people. People are unpredictable. They show up as their whole selves every day, as they should, and every interaction changes us. Leadership is constantly evolving because people are constantly evolving. There’s no linear path, no finish line—it just keeps moving.
The challenge is balancing a people-first approach while also understanding that a business is a business. If you don’t prioritize the business side, the company won’t exist, but if you don’t prioritize the people, the work won’t get done well. That balance is always shifting.
But I love it. I live for it. It’s incredibly rewarding to see teammates start speaking up when they hadn’t before, or to hear them asking questions that show they truly understand the strategy we’ve put in place. One way I measure success in team culture is by looking at share of voice—who is speaking up in meetings, in team lunches, in conversations? In some organizations, the same people dominate discussions. But I love seeing different people contributing, asking diverse questions, and feeling comfortable in the space.
Oiselle is a by-women, for-women brand, and right now, our team is all women. It’s the most equal share of voice I’ve ever seen in a workplace. Everyone participates in meetings, strategy discussions, and casual conversations. We’re a small team—on any given day, there are between 12 and 15 of us in the office—but it’s fascinating to see such an even distribution of voices across both social and business settings.
Amanda Gordon: Women are a powerhouse audience in running, yet we’ve seen relatively few brands truly center women and crack that market. What do you think has held brands back from fully embracing women at the core of their business?
Arielle Knutson: Some of the obstacles are just inherent to the industry and the way leadership structures have traditionally been built. Brands that weren’t founded by women or don’t have women in leadership often continue to operate in the same way because the status quo self-perpetuates. It takes intentionality to break that cycle.
That’s not to say men can’t create great products for women—they absolutely can. But when leadership, decision-making, and strategy-setting happen in an echo chamber, it’s much harder for a brand to truly center and understand the female experience.
Consumers—women included—can tell when a brand is authentic versus when it’s performative or transactional. That authenticity comes from the core of a brand. If a company wasn’t built with women in mind, trying to pivot later often feels forced, and consumers pick up on that.
Amanda Gordon: With 2024 being such a massive year for women’s sports, do you think investors are finally taking women’s sports seriously?
Arielle Knutson: There has been so much momentum in the last 12–18 months. Women’s sports are getting more viewership than ever before—not as much as they deserve yet, but we’re getting closer. There’s undeniable progress, and consumers are showing up—watching, buying, engaging.
I think investors are starting to take it seriously, not just as a “good cause” but as an actual business opportunity. They’re seeing real returns.
That said, the fundamental challenges still exist. The rising tide is lifting all boats, but female founders, leaders, and athletes still face systemic hurdles. We haven’t solved the problem yet, but the momentum is real, and I strongly believe it will continue.
Amanda Gordon: The running boom—I've been calling it the Running Boom 2.0—is real. There’s all this chatter about run clubs being the new dating apps, Nike Running’s resurgence, and really cool independent brands like Bandit and CLA making waves. Where do you see Oiselle fitting into this movement?
Arielle Knutson: Yeah, first off, I’d just say running is alive and well, which is really exciting—not just for Oiselle but for all brands in our space. Earlier this week, New York Road Runners announced a 20% increase in applications for the 2025 New York City Marathon over 2024. That’s crazy—200,000 people applied! If anyone entered, chances are slim, but for a running brand, that’s an incredible indicator of the sport’s health and growth.
I think Oiselle was ahead of its time in how we approached all of this. It’s both exciting and a little frustrating. The ambassador program I joined back in 2012 was designed for everyday runners to connect, whether in real life or online, through the brand. It had digital and in-person components—it was basically a run crew before run crews were a thing.
From the beginning, Oiselle has been focused on the real-life running experience. Our Volée program was actually created to fill that gap many women feel when they leave high school or college sports. You go from having a built-in team to suddenly running solo, and that sense of community is missing. Oiselle set out to rebuild that through our brand, and it’s exactly what run clubs and crews are about today—running is not just about the miles, it’s about the shared experience.
I think Oiselle will continue to prioritize community forever. It’s core to who we are. And I love seeing other brands recognize how important it is. At the end of the day, the world would be a better place if more people ran.
Amanda Gordon: I couldn’t agree more. I feel evangelical about this.
Arielle Knutson: Yeah, totally. Running connects you to people, to the world—it just makes life better.
Amanda Gordon: Oiselle has always been a community-first brand, and I’ve found your approach to sponsorship—like Liberty Track Club and the Underbirds Olympic Trials program—really interesting. What role does community play in your business, and how do you make the case for investing in it? Because I think that’s where a lot of brands struggle.
Arielle Knutson: Oiselle operates with three core brand pillars:
Make great product—Without great product, we don’t exist. Our gear needs to improve both the run itself and the time in between.
Improve the sport—We actively invest in ways to make running better and more inclusive.
Build the sisterhood—Our community is integral to everything we do.
When we decide where to invest time, money, and energy, it always has to ladder up to these three.
For example, Liberty Track Club and the Underbirds sponsorships are rooted in our commitment to the sport and our community. The Underbirds program specifically supported women training for the Olympic Marathon Trials—many of whom also juggle full-time jobs and families. They’re elite athletes by every measure, but for them, making the Trials is their Olympics.
Yes, winning is aspirational, but for many runners, just balancing it all is what’s most relatable. So we intentionally support a range of athletes—different backgrounds, different paces, different stories—because representation matters. The more people see runners like them at every level, the more they believe they belong here, too.
Amanda Gordon: Yes! If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.
Arielle Knutson: Exactly. And running isn’t all about an Olympic medal. That’s the dream for a small handful of athletes, but without the rest of the running community, the sport doesn’t exist.
Amanda Gordon: How does strategy show up in the day-to-day operations of your business and team? Writing strategy is one thing, but actually operationalizing it is a completely different beast.
Arielle Knutson: I have a few thoughts on this. I’ve seen it done really well, I’ve seen it done so-so, and I’ve seen it done poorly. Ultimately, I don’t believe there’s a single perfect way to operationalize strategy—it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, the size of your team, and its level of maturity.
That said, I’ve seen a lot of strategies presented as grand proclamations to a team, but they aren’t actionable. If a strategy isn’t actionable, it can’t be operationalized. A team of specialists, each with their own focus areas, needs clear direction to contribute effectively.
One of the things I do to make strategic plans easier to implement is distilling them into a one-page summary. Of course, there’s always supporting detail, but if we can’t capture the core plan on a single page, it’s probably too complicated to be actionable. It forces leaders to prioritize, which in turn helps the team prioritize. Without that clarity, people end up with too much on their plates.
I also hold monthly business reviews with the entire organization. That doesn’t mean we go through every single detail of the business, but I believe a team can only make good decisions when they have the right information. I’ve always found that when teams are given more context—not less—they rise to the occasion.
We also have a healthy feedback culture, where we talk openly about wins and misses. Each team reports monthly on key metrics, but instead of just looking at numbers, we use a red, yellow, green system to blend qualitative and quantitative insights. For example, we might hit our sales goal—green!—but if email open rates dropped, that might be flagged as yellow because we know we could have done better. It helps make results more actionable for the team by clarifying, What do we need to adjust?
Amanda Gordon: I love that. That’s such practical advice. A lot of people talk about strategy—good strategy, bad strategy—but operationalizing it is its own beast. Otherwise, a strategy is just a document that sits on a shelf.
Arielle Knutson: Exactly. When I was at Nuun Hydration, I saw our team evolve from a scrappy startup to a well-structured, strategic company by the time we exited to Nestlé. Early on, we weren’t doing much formal planning or KPI tracking—we were sharing information, but not in a way that made it actionable. Once we started applying clearer strategic frameworks, it transformed both the business and team development. Seeing that shift was really powerful.
Amanda Gordon: How do you see brand driving growth for Oiselle, and how do you measure or justify that investment?
Arielle Knutson: I firmly believe that everything a company does is brand. There’s often a false divide—"Is this brand or performance? Is this brand or growth?" But the reality is, every single touchpoint is an expression of the brand.
Sometimes, the goal is immediate sales. Sometimes, it’s education. Other times, it’s inspiration. Whether it’s a hangtag, an ad, or even the design of a product itself—it all shapes the customer’s perception. And people don’t form opinions about brands overnight; it takes multiple interactions.
On the flip side, if you don’t view everything as brand, you risk treating products as commodities. Products can be great, but without an emotional connection to the brand, customers will jump to the next best thing.
I also think marketers today overcomplicate the separation between brand and performance marketing. Even for resource-constrained brands, investing in brand-building alongside lower-funnel strategies is what creates loyalty, repeat purchases, and long-term customer value. I’d bet that brands like Oiselle, Wild Rye, or Hilma—brands that are values-driven—see repeat rates that far exceed industry averages.
Amanda Gordon: I’d put money on that too. There’s a former founder of Chubbies who talks about measuring brand by things that are quantifiable but also not as ‘fluffy’ as awareness - things like repeat purchases.
Arielle Knutson: Yes! Historically, Oiselle has spent very little on digital or performance marketing, yet we have off-the-charts customer loyalty and repeat purchase rates. That tells me it’s not just about pouring money into growth—it’s about balance.
And brand-building isn’t just about splashy campaigns. For resource-constrained brands, organic social is brand. A well-designed website is brand. If someone clicks on your ad, are they landing on a page that feels immersive and meaningful, or is it just a transactional buy button?
People often think brand marketing is Times Square billboards, but it’s also the hundreds of micro-moments that shape how a customer experiences your company. The brands that get this right aren’t just relying on ads—they’re creating ecosystems of engagement.
Amanda Gordon: My last question—what’s your favorite Oiselle piece?
Arielle Knutson: Easy answer: the Flyout Bra. It’s the best! It has a long-line fit with great coverage and a hidden pocket between the shoulder blades that holds your phone securely. It’s super functional and doesn’t bounce. In summer, I often run in just that because the coverage is so good.
Hot jobs 👀
Some interesting in-house and agency gigs I’ve come across in my internet travels this week.
[In-house] Bark are hiring a Head of Brand in New York.
[Agency] Digitas is hiring a Senior VP of Brand Strategy in New York.
[Agency] COROS watches are hiring a Senior Brand Designer based in Boulder, CO.
Brand news 🗞️
BOND’s launch into the U.S. with Robert Irwin is pitch perfect. Absolutely iconic.
Fun work from Oat Cult.
This AI (speculattive) Tesla ad which is … horrifyingly bad, definitely making the case for humans.
Open call
I’m working on something and I want to hear from you. If you’re a brand manager, creative lead, creative, strategy director, founder —can we talk about what’s actually happening inside our teams when it comes to AI? Not the “AI is coming for all of us” takes. Not the doomscroll. I'm interested in real talk:
– Who’s advocating for hiring real humans (and how are they making the case)?
– Who's integrating AI into their workflows in smart, intentional ways?
– Who's encouraging their teams to experiment with it?
– Who’s quietly resisting or not sure where to start?
And maybe most importantly: what does all of this mean for junior talent? If you have thoughts, just reply to this email. ✨
Call me, beep me 📞
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Such a cool one! I loved getting to read Arielle's perspective on designing for, leading, and building a women's running brand, especially given some of the recent moves in this space (the NikeSkims launch comes to mind)
Loved this one! I’ve been a longtime fan of the Oiselle brand. It was interesting to peak inside and learn how they think about their brand, community and engagement.