Some Context:

Over the summer months of 2025, I'd had the opportunity to take part in the Summer Company Small Business Grant; working with local business owners- and a generous $3000 grant- to improve OffTrack Apparel.

My goals were simple enough:

Every two weeks, participate in a meeting with a spread of business owners with various backgrounds to discuss my next steps, often dealing with how to spend this money. As a newer business owner, this program was a huge leap in the right direction for me. I got a site up, bought supplies to help streamline my creative process, and I had a lot to spare.

The caveat? Money not spent by the end of the summer session would get deducted from my final grant amount. I was looking at a sizeable sum of money that would go unclaimed. My spending solution, through on-hand merchandise, came in the form of a new product.

 

Let's Offer An Alternative, Easily Accessible Spike Bag.

I saw an obvious flaw in the track community: One Big Brand dominated spike bags, which were only available when purchasing expensive shoe models. 

 "What if OffTrack made low-cost spike bags for every other shoe?" 

Smart!

I Made a Bad Investment:

Polyester instead of a nylon was a mistake. I took the risk to cut costs for more product, but without the elastic threading, the polyester bags puncture. Since the end of the program, I stuck to marketing these bags as a promotional item: Buy two shirts, get a bag at no extra cost. This was a step in the wrong direction.

Low-Cost Should not mean Low-Quality.

I've realized that I went against my mantra, that "doing it cheaper" doesn't mean to cheap out on the products. I do my shirts well, but these "spike bags" miss the mark. Any other big brand would charge ridiculous markups, but the OffTrack vision is to find winning products that are cost effective to the consumer.

I've Changed a Lot About how I View OffTrack Since Then.

My philosophy has changed, and with it, my opinion on these spike bags... 

I'll face it. These spike bags suck at being spike bags.

But, they've never hurt as packaging. No one needs a bow and a ribbon, but moving away from "spike bag" and towards "multi-use packaging" makes these bags purposeful. I'm able to get rid of the individual plastic packaging and replace it with something that has way more uses.

Here's the new deal.

These are no longer spike bags. All Purchases are Now Shipped in OffTrack Apparel Branded Track Bags.

Here are my top use-case suggestions:

Thanks for giving this a read. I'll be working hard these next few months to bring more affordable and quality running products to the brand.

James Porto :)