Circle Sportswear, a young French brand unveils its first 100% eco-designed shoe, the SuperNatural Runner.
We had the chance to interview Romain Trebuilfounder of Circle Sportswear, a brand of eco-responsible sports products. You may have already seen them on the M6 program, “Who wants to be my partner”.
Circle Sportswear has just unveiled its first 100% eco-designed shoe, the SuperNatural Runner. The latter has not yet been released and will be marketed in January 2024. At the time of writing, 650 pairs have been pre-ordered.
1. Can you introduce yourself and explain how you came up with the idea of creating Circle Sportswear?
My name is Romain Trebuil (37 years old), I have always been a sportsman, I touch all sports. My first sport is skiing. I had the chance to participate in a world cup and I also do a lot of running. I did a lot of cross country when I was young and a lot of tennis. I clearly love all sports.
I wanted to create a society and put environmental and human impact at the heart of what I wanted to do. And in fact, I combined my two passions, ecological impact and sport. SO Circle it happened because my sporting values no longer coincided with my ecological values.
I looked at what was on the market and found that there were really very few options. So I thought it was up to me to create a new option. I started talking about it on social networks, sending questionnaires, collecting feedback from many communities.
At the time, I had several thousand feedbacks in a very short time and clearly I realized that I was not the only committed athlete who wanted to change these things.
More recently, we conducted a survey before launching SuperNatural Runner. The question was: “Do you think the world of running needs to become greener or more eco-responsible? “. 95% of the answers were favorable!
2. What makes Circle Sportswear different from other brands that claim to be eco-responsible?s ?
The ambition of Circle it is to be a cut above what is already being done to have a real impact. We are a circular brand, which means that the materials we use and which reach the end of their life are biodegradable and do not impact the planet. Our products are 100% made in Europe, so that obviously sets us apart from all the other brands on the running market.
The upper part of the shoe is made from 100% natural materials, wood and wool so it is 100% biodegradable and the sole is created from plants so it is 100% recyclable.
This shoe is not for race winners, but for the next 99% of runners.
3. The SuperNatural Runner is not the only product offered by Circle?
No, we also offer textiles: t-shirts, shorts, leggings, joggers, socks, etc. Like the SuperNatural Runner, all our products are 100% European. The materials, we develop them ourselves.
4. Can the major running brands move towards a model like Circle’s?
You should know that if Circle managed to achieve such a result that the SuperNatural Runner, all the big brands can do it for a long time. So if they really had the will to become as ecological as possible, that would already be the case. But that’s an asset for us, we stand out from all the brands already on the market.
We would like other brands to follow suit, but that wouldn’t go their way.
5. The SuperNatural Runner keeps its promise on the environmental level, but will it keep it on the performance level?
In collective thinking, eco-design does not go hand in hand with performance. But with the SuperNatural Runner, you can run a marathon or a half-marathon at a good level. At first, the goal was for this shoe to weigh less than 300g.
Finally, we will be under 250g. So we are on a very good level of lightness with foam similar to what is on the market. This shoe is not for race winners, but for the next 99% of runners.
This shoe was developed in parallel with top athletes like Yosi Goasdoué or Clement Leduc. But we don’t have the ambition that this pair be the one used during their marathon record, but rather that it be in their shoe routine.
In 5 years, the goal would be to cover the European market. And later it would be to go to the United States since we know that there is a gigantic market there
6. What is Circle’s strategy for entering an already very competitive running market?
We are going to join the running market but we don’t have the same values as the other brands at all. There SuperNatural Runner we have already said it but it is a totally innovative shoe compared to other models. It is this difference that will allow us to stand out.
When people go to buy the SuperNatural Runner they will say to themselves “I am buying a shoe that saves the planet”. At no other time do you tell yourself that when you buy a classic pair.
It is this difference that makes us strong. In addition, we are a young brand, we have a few ambassadors but others will continue to join the teams and will allow the brand to be discovered by more and more people.
7. What vision of Circle Sportswear in 5 years?
In 5 years, the goal would be to cover the European market. And later it would be to go to the United States since we know that there is a gigantic market there. We really have a global ambition since our mission is to succeed in having an impact on the environment and the planet through sport.
If we think big, the impact will be too. This year alone, we have customers from 32 different countries pre-ordering the shoe. A runner, whether in Japan, Australia, Brazil, Germany, il may have desires for different designs but they have values that are totally common, needs that are the same.
