We protect what we love

FRIDAY . 13 . 08 . 21 .

Greetings ‘For Wild Places’ fans, my name is Sam, and I am excited to share my story for this week’s newsletter.

I am writing this from my home in Fremantle. I have two kids, two cats (100% indoor), a dog, a wife and a very banged up body from too much running 😉

I grew up running middle distance events in Sydney. I had some success as a junior but struggled with numerous injuries as an adult and never really achieved my goals. Middle distance running is brutal, and my body kept breaking down - it is a common story. My focus these days is cruising around trails and Australia’s beautiful bush.

At work with the cutest joey ever

I studied veterinary science at uni and have worked for 14 years now as a small animal vet. During this time, I have also got quite heavily involved in wildlife and conservation medicine. From work with Wombats in country NSW, to Tasmanian Devil rehab and breeding programs, it has been a cool career so far.

The work has taken me to some amazing places and opened doors I never knew existed. One place it took me in 2009 was takayna in Tasmania’s Northwest, I was blown away with this ancient temperate rainforest. I fell in love with its old myrtle trees, and its rare and colourful fungi. I vowed to return as often as possible (I didn’t make it back again until March 2020 when I finished second at the takayna 22km trail race – it is a bucket list type race for those who have not experienced it yet).

In March 2020 I raced the takayna trail race then spent a week exploring takayna

One issue I have is I get bored easy, so in 2008 me and my best mate from high-school, Ross Johnson (who is a handy 2:37 marathoner), decided to start a running website on the side. We called it Runner’s Tribe and our only goal at the time was to have a bit of fun.

Fast forward 13 years, and Runner’s Tribe has grown. We still have the simple goal of enjoying ourselves, but of course the organic growth has complicated our lives’ somewhat, we now have quite a few more bills to pay and a couple staff members to look after. We entertain about 250,000 different readers every month; it is a satisfying feeling.

However, because Ross also gets bored easily, four years ago we decided we needed a new challenge. We had been flirting with the idea of starting an eco-friendly running shoe company for many years. And in 2017 we said, ‘heck with it’, and decided to dive in deep. A few trips around the world to learn the business, a lot of headaches and wasted money, and about 20 prototypes later, we have finally created what we argue is the world’s most eco-friendly running shoe.

The most eco-friendly running shoes on the planet. These are our final prototypes before we launch our Kickstarter campaign in September.

They are made using a combination of mainly recycled and biodegradable materials and have been tested extensively over thousands of miles, over many years. Vitally, we have also figured out how to recycle the shoes post-use. Our idea is that customers will be invited to return the shoes to us, get a discount off their next purchase, and the shoes will avoid landfill.

We toyed with numerous name options for the new brand, some of them were really stupid, looking back at it 😉 However, one name kept popping up, a place close to our hearts, a place like no other – takayna/Tarkine. We decided it was the only valid option that truly exemplifies what we are trying to achieve. The lofty goal is not to only clean up and 'greenify' the shoe industry, but to help save this ancient wild place that is takayna. We are eager to commit a significant portion of every sale towards saving this wild place, and I vow to make this a transparent and audited process.

takayna, an amazing place in general (not just to run 😉 )

If you think the idea is cool, sign-up for updates HERE. We are planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in September to help us get across the line. It will be one hell of a journey and I hope to meet as many ‘For Wild Place’ fans as possible along the way.

Happy running everyone

-Sam Burke

You can reach out to Sam via email HERE. Our send some love his way via the Tarkine Instagram and/or Runner’s Tribe Instagram social media accounts.

A FINAL NOTE

As a final note from the FWP team, we want to say a huge thanks to Sam for hosting this weeks newsletter. As a bunch of trail runners and environmental activists, the idea of an eco shoe is absolutely phenomenal.

As a trail runner myself (Elanor, your newsletter gal writing this paragraph 🙋🏼‍♀️ ), I feel a little guilty knowing that I'm contributing to the micro-plastic problem - with every step that I take, tiny particles off the soles of my shoes are being left behind. Alas, I'm pretty keen to try these eco-friendly shoes (maybe there will be a product review newsletter edition when they're released - who knows 😉 ). I'm also really excited to see how future innovation in this space evolves.

👀

That's all this week folks.

Sending all the good vibes to wherever you're reading this. Stay strong, safe and connected.

And as always, we want to say a huge thank you for taking the time for wild places. We are grateful for your continued support.

Sam Burke & the For Wild Places crew.

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We acknowledge the the First Nations people who have been custodians of land, waters and culture for tens of thousands of years. We pay respects to First Nations Elders past, present and emerging.

This newsletter was written on the lands of the Whadjuk people of the Walyalup nation. To these lovely people, we pay our respects.

We also acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the lands where this newsletter was compiled.

Always was, always will be.

By For Wild Places

We're a group of adventurers who love to

protect wild places we run on