Active Cultures, the New Store Cultivating Salt Lake City's Running Scene

Active Cultures is a retail space, but the guiding force behind it is community, that increasingly limp signifier that CMOs and legacy brands love but so often fail to inspire. The shop has a pleasant shady patio, and there will be a walk-up coffee window next door. They have lockers on the way so you can drop your bag and run in nearby Liberty Park, and there are talks of a (literal) trash run. They’re “active” in a running sense but also in their community engagement.

Lohse, Tallackson, and Ruud say Active Cultures is an evolving concept. For now, it lives as a pop-up, though the long-term goal is to make it a permanent fixture. Fresh off a packed opening event that ran out of pizza and sold out some of the items they had in stock, their vision appears to be a sharp one.

Recently, we chatted by phone and in person with the trio to learn how they're building a place that strives to keep the commercial side of running honest, provide a foothold for smaller brands in one of the West's major outdoor cities, and what makes the SLC running scene unique.

How did you get into running?

Sam Lohse:

I wasn't really a big runner until probably 2018, 2019. A couple of my friends were getting into trail running…so we slowly shifted from road bikes to trail shoes and discovered that we enjoyed that form of movement a little more. Just the ease of it, the adventure side, and the social aspect.

Conrad Tallackson:

I'm a classic case of ‘team sports running as punishment as a kid.’ I repaired that relationship in college…then I got plugged into trail running on the Shoreline Trail behind the University of Utah. I've since gotten into the stupid ultra world, 50Ks, 100 milers, but right now it's a little more fun and casual. It’s nice to get out a few times a week, see your friends, and be outside.

Landon Ruud:

Team sports growing up, too. My mom ran a lot and I just watched that peripherally. Then as time became less—and I have little kids—running was easy. Living right here, it's a nice communal thing to do and a very calming way to start the morning.

Where did the name come from?

Tallackson:

Sam and I were getting lunch at a local restaurant down the street called Parea. They have Greek yogurt that they sell, and we were just looking at the refrigerator case. It said it contains whole milk and active cultures. We were like, that's actually just the perfect thing.

So what is Active Cultures exactly?

Lohse:

I think it's kind of ever-evolving. Right now we want to be a community-first space that revolves around retail and introducing the running community to brands we believe in. We want to always exist a little bigger than just the retail space and act as a brand that people can identify with.

Hopefully [it can] help drive the commercial side of running to places that we believe in and want to see grow. More than anything, we want to be a brand that people can resonate with, feel welcome to, and rally around as a focal point for the running community here.

Tallackson:

It summarizes the lifestyle here and what Salt Lake is about. Hiking and running and cycling and being outside and not being too over the top with it. We're serious, but not serious. It’s fun and communal and it's really multi-dimensional. We love that movement and culture and activity can inform art, or inform clothing, or inform gatherings. It’s fun and welcoming and trying to make spaces that feel not forced—more nuance and organic fun.

You mentioned wanting to shape the culture. What direction do you want to see running go?

Lohse:

There's obviously a lot of money in running right now. A lot of the big brands are throwing money into community activations. Community is the cultural currency, and everyone's fighting for it. What I think happens is a lot of sensationalism, everybody competing to have the most grandiose appearance on social media, and investment goes into unsustainable places and fad-chasing.

With smaller, boutique, community-first retail spaces, you start to build culture and bring people around you. In Salt Lake, we want people to think: if we want to shop for running gear, or we have a question about a race, or we want to do a community event, we're going to go to Active Cultures. Boutique retail in running will be important in the same way it was for skate and snowboard and ski, keeping the commercial side honest, and letting smaller brands and local communities foster and grow.

Why set up shop in the 9th and 9th neighborhood of Salt Lake City?

Lohse:

9th and 9th is probably one of the most progressive shopping areas in the city. You have two long-standing boutiques there in Curriculum and The Stockist. You've got a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, vintage stores. And we're working with a friend, Caleb Flowers, who had a retail store in the exact space we're popping up in. When the opportunity came to activate in this space, it felt full circle.

Landon is also opening a walk-up coffee window next door [Em’s]. The long-term goal is to make it a place where people can come pre- or post-run, hang out, grab a coffee. We're going to get some lockers in the space so you can leave your stuff, go run around the park, come back, hang out, chat with us.

What are your inspirations for the store?

Lohse:

Knees Up in London has been a big one. It's a retail space with a little cafe in East London near Victoria Park, which is a huge running place. Locally, IME [International Mountain Equipment] is inspiring in terms of their commitment to the core. They're not too polished, and that's a lot of our inspiration…We want to be more casual, just make it feel like an IME vibe when you walk in. Put together, but not too clean. Like a place where you're going to come, wear your gear, and get it dirty.

How did you choose the brands you're carrying?

Lohse:

They're all brands I have relationships with from the past couple years, and I believe in them in terms of quality, performance, and function. Each brand has a different ethos and a different position in the market, so we feel like we have something for everyone. Each brand has its own emotional and functional appeal, and when you walk in, it doesn't feel like a run specialty store.

How would you describe the Salt Lake running scene right now?

Lohse:

It's very young, very big, very active, and multifaceted. Running is becoming a prominent social outing. People are also expressing themselves through what they wear. You go to a big run club and you'll see interesting Nike patterns, Bandit everywhere, Satisfy, people running roads in Norda. People are more intentional now about how they show up than when I started in 2017, 2018, when I was wearing a Camelbak with a cotton shirt and everyone was in Hokas or Altras and that was pretty much it.

Why hasn't something like Active Cultures existed in Salt Lake before now?

Lohse:

I just don't think retail has reached that level yet. But as soon as I started seeing Norda and Satisfy out in the wild, not just on core trail runners but at run clubs, with more casual runners, I was like, okay, people are looking for this. I don't think the mass market is aware of these boutique brands or has the relationships we do to make something like a pop-up happen. It's kind of a Field of Dreams situation: if we build it, people will come. The pop-up is the test. We think Salt Lake is ready, but we're going to see.

What makes Salt Lake such a great place to be a runner?

Lohse:

Number one is the community. There is a demographic of people who have moved here or lived here who love the outdoors, they believe in it, they love community, and they're not shy. Number two is the terrain. We have great parks and easy roads to run on. Our trail access is world-class. I think it’s best in the US. And third is just the approachability of the city in general. We have athletes of all levels here, and that makes it less intimidating for anyone to start getting out.

What's your go-to Salt Lake running route?

Lohse:

For most of our weekday runs, we're on the Bonneville Shoreline starting at either the zoo trailhead or the Natural History Museum trailhead. Dry Creek is probably our most popular, a seven-mile out-and-back.

Tallackson:

My favorite that I don't run enough is behind City Creek Canyon up to the three towers lookout.

Ruud:

This time of year, I love getting up Mill Creek, getting behind the gate and being in Alexander Basin, along the Pipeline Trail.

And if someone's visiting Salt Lake and wants the best bang for their buck?

Lohse:

For vertical: Mount Wire, West Grandeur, or Olympus. Grandeur is iconic in and of itself, from either the Mill Creek side or the west face. The whole Pipeline trail system up Mill Creek offers so much. You can get a lot of vert or keep it completely flat, and you feel like you're in the mountains but it's 15 minutes from the city.

Tallackson:

The Shoreline, you can just go out there and plug around for as much time as you have. If you're in the Avenues trailhead zone, that's the best place to get up and look down the valley and really see the Wasatch.