I remember following Anton eating up the 2021 Leadville 100 trail.
I wasn’t expecting it or even hoping for it. Anton moved on from being a “trail runner” years ago. He gave us some incredible years and, most important to my journey, he gave us Unbreakable.
Episode 323 | Anton Kurpicka Doesn’t Care About Trends
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He represented doing this ridiculously hard sport with your own style. That doesn’t mean training less or wearing the clothes and pretending. He represented going hard while staying true to yourself and what you love.
He could have been a much bigger commercial success if he wanted it. There are a few levers he could have pulled and we’d all be wearing the latest season of KUPRICKA or something.
But that wasn’t his heart.
And one thing Anton’s fans love is that he follows his heart into wild spaces, with or without trails, and shares his notes.
[Borderlands’ANALOG | SLC on Nov. 1 at the State Room with Aaron Gillespie of UNDEROATH + The Almost.]
He’s been with La Sportiva for years after an opening stint at New Balance (remember when he used to shave his NBs?) He loved La Sportiva’s ethos and the nimbleness of a family-owned company that could alter plans and make decisions without prioritizing shareholder value above everything else.
I got to sit down with Anton Krupicka because I’m working on a new Almanac piece about La Sportiva. So yes, we get into the weeds about shoes like the Prodigio. But Anton has a way of making product conversations human.
Anton talks about why trails eventually started to feel limiting, why trends have never interested him much, what brought him back to Leadville in 2021, and what it means at this point in his life to keep pursuing the peak version of himself.
Anton Krupicka doesn’t care about trends.
He still cares deeply about the work.
New Borderlands podcast is out now →