How did Tribe come about?
The idea came when two old friends, Rob Martineau and Tom Stancliffe, and I ran the Marathon de Sables – seven marathons in seven days through the Sahara Desert – in 2013.
As we needed to carry our own food, it made us really examine sports nutrition. We discovered fruit, nuts and seeds to be by far the best nutrition, but we couldn’t find products that weren’t full of added sugars, preservatives and stabilisers. So we started making our own.
Humans have evolved over thousands of years to be fuelled by natural wholefoods. Tribe harnesses nature’s power by using high quality raw wholefoods, combining them in such a way as to deliver the right balance to allow our customers to perform at their peak. Our products are designed to fuel long distance adventures, whether it’s for a pre-workout energy boost or post-training recovery.
What are the brand values of Tribe?
As the name suggests, community is at the core of Tribe: we believe that collectively we can achieve more.
Tribe was formed in the wake of a charitable project, where we ran 1,000 miles in one month from Odessa in the Ukraine to Dubrovnik in Croatia. In doing so, we raised £250,000 for the fight against child trafficking. Since then, giving back is central to our brand philosophy. We’ve started a charitable fund called Tribe for Good, where 10 pence from every pack sold goes to a charity voted for by our community.
Alongside our products, we also organise events that bring our ‘tribe’ together, both virtually and physically. We want to inspire our community to take on new challenges and we accompany them on that journey.
Now you have your own company, do you still have time to run?
Yes – running is at the heart of what we do and we want to inspire a running community. We have a free running club which meets at our Shoreditch office in east London every Tuesday evening. We go to a local park and do strength and speed work together.
Every six weeks, we organise an ultra-marathon – between 27 and 35 miles – along a scenic route. It’s not about the speed; it’s about enjoying running together. Last year we also organised a running festival for 500 people, which ended in an Oxfordshire forest with food, drink and live music. These events aren’t set up to make money. They’re there to inspire our community to run.
What are your plans going forward?
We want to transform the way our customers purchase sports nutrition, showing them how they can get all the energy and nutrition they need to train from natural wholefoods. You won’t see our products on supermarket shelves, but we are currently stocked at several London gyms and we’re open to do business with other operators.
