Since America’s running boom of the 1970’s, running has celebrated and centered a narrow and limited idea of what it means to be a runner. 

For PYNRS founder Sidney Baptista, it took seeing another Black man running to consider distance running as an option. 

Soon, he found himself immersed in Boston’s running scene and training for a marathon. His love and dedication for the sport led Sidney to create PIONEERS Run Crew in 2017 to bring running to his Dorchester neigborhood with the goal of normalizing running in the Black and Brown community.

Over the years of cultivating a diverse community of athletes, he repeatedly noticed and heard two things:

1. Running apparel didn’t fit a majority of the bodies in his running community, and
2. The design of the apparel didn't meet the stylistic taste of the runners he served

Inspired by this need, Sidney got to work and soon came to understand that the reason running gear wasn’t fitting is because running apparel has been designed and tested to serve a narrow definition of a 'runner': the Steve Prefontaine archetype. 

He found that running culture and running apparel design is still very much rooted in the Prefontaine era of the 1970’s, a time when women and people of color were not readily welcomed into the sport.

Research conducted by Running USA and the Running Industry Diversity Coalition show that diversity in running has grown tremendously with an estimated 16 million runners identifying as BIPOC and 46% of American marathoners identifing as female. The average marathon finishing time is between 4-5 hours. 

As a result, the majority of today’s distance runners are underserved from both a fit and design perspective when it comes to their apparel.

Sidney asked himself what would happen if he began not from the needs of the ideal few, but from the needs of this growing majority of runners who have been largely ignored by the running industry?

PYNRS (pi·o·neer·s) is the answer to this question; championing community, culture, and diversity through highly technical running apparel rooted in streetwear design concepts.

Starting with a fit model that better reflects the average marathon runner’s body type, we craft high-performance running apparel tailored to provide improved fit and support for more runners. Using superior, recycled fabrics, our styles are rigorously tested by the athletes in our community – runners of all levels, shapes and sizes.

We believe that by bringing streetwear silhouettes to premium running apparel, we show new audiences that running is changing. We’re standing up and standing out with our aesthetic, our perspectives, our language and our culture.

We are on a mission to reshape the running industry by centering the experiences of people of color in our product development, marketing, storytelling and by bringing Black ownership to an industry where it doesn’t exist.

We’re not just making clothes - we’re crafting culture. 

Running is changing, quickly. PYNRS is at the forefront of creating products and experiences where everyone is welcome and included. 

Where we light the way, others will follow.

Welcome to the new age of running.

We are the PYNRS.