The Shape of Currently
Photos courtesy of Nash Howe and Currently Running
Not that long ago, I was still running in oversized basketball shorts from high school. I didn’t think much about what I wore. Running clothes were just workout clothes, and workout clothes were purely functional. I wasn’t trying to express anything. I was just getting out the door.
That changed, though not all at once. Running changed first. It stopped being something I did for fitness and became one of the real organizing forces in my life. It’s where I think, where I pray, and where a lot of the stress in my life settles down. Once that happened, I started noticing the world around running differently too. Not in a consumer way. More in the sense that if something is going to be included in this part of my life, I want it to feel like it came from somewhere honest.
That’s part of what drew me to Currently. I first met Nash Howe at TRE in San Antonio. Currently had a small booth out on the edge of the exhibit hall. It wasn’t trying to compete with the big brands, which probably made me notice it more. The whole thing felt clear. A small footprint, a clear eye, no extra noise. It felt like the kind of brand that still had a person close to it, and that was my impression of Nash too.
We caught up later on Zoom, me in Colorado, him in California, at home, where he’s building the brand. We talked through UC San Diego, javelin, Mammoth, film, music, surf magazines, product samples, fabrics, all of it. By the end of the conversation, Currently made more sense to me. Not as some clever business idea, and not as a “running brand” in the usual sense. It felt more like one person trying to make objects that matched his taste and the life he actually wanted to live.
That’s what I respect about it. It doesn’t feel overworked. It doesn’t feel like a response to what the market is asking for this season. It feels personal. The product feels personal. The imagery feels personal. The pace of it feels personal. Even the imperfections in something like that matter, because they remind you there is still a hand on it. A lot of things in running look finished before they mean anything. Currently feels like the opposite. It has meaning first. The product grows out of that.
I think that’s why the story behind it matters. Currently began as a surf magazine in Santa Cruz, which makes perfect sense once you talk to Nash for a while. The running side of it didn’t erase that earlier instinct. It still carries it. You can feel the photography in it. You can feel the design references. You can feel that it comes from someone who cares about how things look and feel, but also about what they say without having to explain themselves too much.
And the gear itself is good. That matters too. I’ve run in it enough now to say that plainly. But product alone usually isn’t what keeps me interested. Plenty of brands make solid gear. What keeps me coming back to Currently is that it still feels close to the source. It feels like one person making choices carefully, learning as he goes, fussing over details, trying to get the thing right without sanding off what made it interesting in the first place. That’s a hard thing to hold onto once people start paying attention.
Maybe that’s why I find myself rooting for it. I’m drawn to people who take the risk of making something that actually looks like them. Not a version of themselves polished into a concept, but something with their taste, their instincts, and their references still intact. That kind of thing is harder to fake, and easier to recognize when you see it.
When I set my gear out the night before a run, I know the difference between something I wear because it works and something I keep going back to because it carries a little more than that. Currently has become that for me. That’s what Nash is building. Not just clothes. A shape. A feel. A world you can recognize as his. And in a space that gets busier and more polished every year, that stands out. That’s the shape of Currently.