Acid Running, the London-based premium running apparel brand, has launched its first women’s collection. The move expands the brand from men’s-only to a dual-gender offering, doubling its addressable audience.
Acid Running, the London-based premium running apparel brand, has launched its first collection designed specifically for women: the move takes the brand from a men’s-only offering to a dual-gender proposition.
The debut range was developed under the creative direction of Bronte McKenzie and includes purpose-built garments alongside resized versions of existing menswear staples: 2-in-1 running shorts, running bras engineered for mid-to-high impact, fitted tanks, performance jackets, T-shirts, and full-length leggings.
Throughout, the collection follows the brand’s established aesthetic vocabulary — muted, cold colorways (Black, Heather, Riverstone, Phantom, Falcon), relaxed silhouettes designed to accommodate varying body shapes, and natural fibres selected for their odour-resistance and soft hand feel. The result is a range positioned to carry across intensities from a slow 5km to ultra-marathon distances, with a lifestyle crossover capability for post-run wear.
The collection is available via the brand’s website and its physical pop-up at Borough Yards in Dirty Lane, London.
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Womenswear is Acid Running’s first real test: design it, don’t downsize it
The womenswear entry is the most consequential move in Acid Running’s short history and is linked to the reported £1.07 million (approximately $1.4m) investment round the brand raised ahead of the launch.
Acid Running entered the market in 2022 with a clear strategic critique of the running category: that it was occupied on one side by large multinational sportswear brands with limited appeal to fashion-conscious runners, and on the other by commodity-driven labels leaning on heavy cotton or synthetic basics.
The brand’s response was a premium positioning anchored in natural fibres, muted aesthetics, and a philosophy built around the mental and physical discipline of running, rather than the aspirational ease marketed by category incumbents.
Two consecutive years of 300% growth (so the brand says) suggest that critique is resonating, particularly within the emerging premium running culture segment in the United Kingdom.
The womenswear launch extends that logic into a segment where legacy brands have historically underserved technically demanding female endurance runners. As challenger brands in the premium running space gain ground in the UK and Europe, the category is becoming increasingly contested.
A brand that remains men’s-only risks ceding the female endurance consumer to rivals actively investing in gender-specific technical development.
But a brand that enters womenswear by adapting its men’s collection rather than rethinking it from the ground up risks something equally damaging: confirming the very complaint that has defined female runners’ relationship with the category for decades: that they are an afterthought, not a primary design brief.
Acid Running is a London-based premium athletic apparel brand founded in April 2022 by Oliver Powe. Built on a philosophy of discipline and “voluntary discomfort,” the direct-to-consumer label bridges the gap between technical sportswear and luxury streetwear using a design language of muted palettes, relaxed silhouettes, and sustainable natural fibers. Backed by £1.07 million in funding, the company is capturing market share from incumbents like Soar and District Vision, operating a flagship pop-up at London’s Borough Yards while projecting a massive 300% year-on-year growth trajectory over consecutive years.
