When Max Vallot and Tom Daly first got into running, it was primarily as a hangover cure. They’d link up to do laps around Regent’s Park in London together to cleanse themselves of indie nights out when they were studying at business school. But a few years down the line in 2013, they found themselves deep in New York’s sleepless fashion scene, with Vallot working for Saint Laurent and Daly working for Acne Studios. Disillusioned with the pace and nightlife-heavy culture, Daly took his running to the next level and began training for marathons, while Vallot took up meditation as a way to deal with stress.
“That was the beginning of our ongoing exploration,” Vallot says, explaining how he began teaching a series of DIY meditation workshops to Daly’s running crew, who’d grown interested in how mindfulness could help their performance. “We had no idea what we were doing, but it sparked something — an idea for a new kind of sportswear brand that was both connected to our fashion backgrounds, but also mindfulness and a slower and more intentional, technical approach to product.”
This idea became District Vision: a brand they founded as a side project in 2015, which built “tools for mindful athletes” and connected mental wellbeing with sports performance — long before the mind-body connection became a mainstream wellness trend. The duo began with a line of precision-engineered technical eyewear, before expanding into technical apparel in 2018, soon becoming an ‘if you know, you know’ status symbol among the fashion-conscious running crowd, a market that’s grown in tandem with the brand.
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DJ and producer Peggy Gou, wearing District Vision sunglasses.Photo: Courtesy of District Vision.
District Vision’s growth has accelerated to 50% year-on-year since 2024, as running continues to take over mainstream culture. Just last week, a record 1.3 million people signed up to run the 2027 London Marathon through the public ballot, breaking last year’s record by around 200,000. The global running gear market is projected to reach almost $70 billion by 2032, up from $45 billion in 2024. Running’s popularity as a means for offline connection is surging among the broader population, too — the number of new running clubs nearly quadrupled in 2025 to one million, according to exercise tracking platform Strava.
