The vision behind Brooklyn run

Founders' Spotlight

Volley Brooklyn | July 15, 2024

At Volley, we prioritise the emotional and physical well-being of our residents. To support this commitment, we've partnered with Ollie Health to provide our community with tailored, relevant content for managing emotional well-being and mental health.

On the physical well-being front, we've teamed up with Brooklyn Run to host weekly runs from Volley Brooklyn. We had the pleasure of sitting down with the founders of Brooklyn Run to learn more about their inspiration for starting the club and the true mission behind it.

What made you think of starting something like this?

This question always makes me realise how special our story is. We initially started off as a team of 3, sharing the same vision and quickly grew to a core group of 5. Myself (Chané), Mack and Heinrich have all dreamt of creating a space where we could give back to the community which have served us for so long. Brooklyn run was unofficially born on the 22nd of January 2024 and took the running community by storm on the 5th of February 2024. As a result we ended up meeting members 4 and 5 of our team. Nicole introduced us to Andries which in turn lead to the Brooklyn run/Volley partnership. It was clear that our hearts were burning for the same purpose. Our main focus will always be the people.

Why do you do it?

“It always gives more than it takes” this is something we’ve started saying to one another during our runs and it summarises the answer to that question quite nicely. I think we sometimes underestimate how much being around other people impact our lives and how big of a difference it makes when those people share the same love for the things you value. We decided on an early Monday morning run, as per our catchy slogan “win the week”, specifically because of this. If you can start your week off right, with community and coffee, there really isn’t something you’re not cable of doing.

How do you do it? (Advice)

We have all heard the cliché “teamwork makes the dream work.” If there is anything I’ve learnt from these past few months is that you are as strong as the people around you. We have been blessed with amazing people who make this all possible, from our always joyful baristas at Plato and Brooklyn café, the car guards who help us when we run, and finally a team which truly strengthens one another. The advice that we would give is to surround yourself with people who are different from you, but who shares the same goal. There is something special about a team where everyone brings a different strength to the table and somehow manages to create something life giving.

Reasons for choosing social running clubs as opposed to traditional clubs that include fees?

I hate referring back to covid, but I do believe that it impacted how we view social interaction. I think it led to a massive shift in perspective around what we value, not only socially but health wise as well. Running has become a major “trend” especially amongst students and young adults. I think the biggest dream would be to move away from it being a trend and actually start seeing it as the new normal.

I think the major reason for this big shift from “traditional clubs” is that not everyone wants to necessarily make a career out of running, but rather incorporate it into their daily lives. These social clubs take the pressure off of performance and allows for a space where people can build relationship.

Where do you get your advice for training, running plans, running shoes?

Regarding training and racing, we have a marathon club which is registered with ASA we refer runners to if they want to take more serious steps towards their running journey.

When it comes to gear, we are fortunate enough to have different members part of our community which work for multiple shoe brands allowing exposure to different kinds of running shoes. This is where the beauty of demo runs come in.

Regarding training and racing, we have a marathon club which is registered with ASA we refer runners to if they want to take more serious steps towards their running journey.