Courtney Okolo readies for the start of the women’s 400 meters at the U.S. Outdoor Championships in 2024.
Bandit Running
Courtney Okolo was in need of a change in 2023. Following four successful years with Nike, where the 400-meter U.S. sprinter won an olympic gold and five world championships across a three-year period, things had cooled off. By then, the native Texan hadn’t reached a championship final in three seasons and was without a traditional sponsor for two years.
But she wasn’t giving up the dream. And Okolo, who was 29 at the time, still felt like she had something left in the tank.
That was right around the time that Bandit Running, the three-year-old direct-to-consumer New York-City-based performance apparel brand which began in 2020, came calling with its ‘Unsponsored Project.’ In fact, Tim Rossi, Bandit’s head of experiential marketing, called Okolo to pitch her on a wild idea: short-term financial support to professional athletes during the U.S. Outdoor Championships, only with an asterisk – an opt-out clause. Her first response?
“What’s the catch?”
Ultimately, there wasn’t any, Rossi said. Athletes signed deals that allowed them to go with a traditional sponsor – such as Nike, Adidas or Puma – if a great performance led to an even greater payday. And many of them did, from Trevor Bassitt to Rachel Gearing to Rachel McArthur landing deals with Adidas and Asics over 2024 and 2025. But Bandit’s investments were key in that they enabled unsponsored athletes to at least get to Eugene.
“We refer to them as good for the sport initiatives,” Rossi said of the project, designed to give lesser known athletes a chance on the big stage. “We weren’t worried about hitting key KPIs (key performance indicators). We looked for revenue in other experiential moments. This was about the athletes and increasing athlete support.”
Two months after Bandit’s first foray into athlete sponsorship in 2023, the company, led by founder Tim West, closed on an early stage Series A round for $14.2 million, according to Pitchbook. One of the company’s early investors is A-Rod Corp, an investment firm led by chairman and chief executive officer Alex Rodriguez, the former New York Yankees legend.
When the World Track and Field Championships begin in September, Bandit Running will have its DNA on four U.S. athletes in Tokyo: 400-meter runner Chris Robinson, pole vaulter Matt Ludwig, heptathlete Allie Jones and javelin thrower Marc Minichello.
Okolo says she received $750 over the program’s first two-week contract. The next season, that investment was bumped up to $1,000, while she also signed on to become an ambassador – which was a year-long stipend to help promote the brand. In 2025, seeking a new career in interior architecture, she retired. But to this day, she says, she recommends athletes to the company’s program.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, of course. I want to be a part of it,’” said Okolo, who became one of the company’s ambassadors in 2024. “They made you feel seen.”
The Origins Of Bandit Running
Bandit’s own history is tied to the running community in New York City. In its earliest years, West would have members of the running club he belonged to in Brooklyn test his company’s first-ever socks. In ensuing years, the company eschewed traditional marketing for more grassroots approach, ultimately developing cultural cache in the New York City market, where it operates two storefronts in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
By 2023, Bandit got involved at the highest level of track and field. A sharp approach to the sponsorship model ultimately kickstarted its momentum in the space.
“We wanted to get involved in a space that people could gain more excitement around and get pumped up about,” Rossi said. “In 2023, that was the U.S. Outdoor Championships.”
Instead of fully investing on one athlete, its strategy spread the wealth. “We weren’t comfortable with what we could provide to them as a traditional deal,” Rossi said. In 2023, that meant partially funding 10 athletes’ journeys to the U.S. Outdoor Championships; by 2024, that number rose to 36 and in 2025, that number jumped to 50. The idea, however, was for the investment to have meaning. “When they wore Bandit on their chest, they were pursuing it to become a true professional,” he said.
In two years, Rossi said, the goal for Bandit is to be in a position to fully support a U.S. athlete across the season. “We think we’re financially on the runway to support an athlete in the next two years,” Rossi said.
However, the unsponsored project isn’t the only athlete-first initiative. There’s also a supported-athlete plan that provides gear, free membership and funding where appropriate, said Jabari Michael-Khensu, a former University of Pittsburgh sprinter who competes for Saint Vincent and the Grenandines. Michael-Khensu wore Bandit on a self-funded summer tour of Belgium, Italy and Poland that saw him compete in three meets. He later ran at the country’s national trials and competed at the NACAC Championships.
How Bandit Running Is Building Trust With Professional Track and Field Athletes
The U.S. direct-to-consumer retailer, whose main competitors are European outlets Satisfy and Saysky and New England-based TrackSmith, features a subscription model for customers who want early product launches and a 10-percent discount. It sells performance gear and accessories like hoodies, shirts, singlets, leggings, half tights, socks and hats. And it’s become a brand for aspiring athletes without sponsorships to sport while they chase after their own dreams. Lifetime value, according to The Digital Chapter, is $850, with members spending “3.2x more annually than one-time customers. “We lean toward the belief of making stuff that looks awesome and performs well,” Rossi said.
As a supplement to its marketing efforts, Bandit began developing longform video storytelling with the YouTube series ‘Dialed.’ The docuseries is shot and directed by West, who is also the Creative Director, and is based around the idea of elevating athletes the company is signing. Some of its first videos centered on U.S. Olympic Trials marathoners before the series eventually turned its eyes to track and field athletes like Okolo, Ajee Wilson, Trevor Bassit, Yaseen Abdalla, Ajee Wilson and Helen Schlachtenhaufen.
Courtney Okolo ahead of the women’s 400 meter at the U.S. Outdoor Championships in 2024.
Bandit Running
The Future For Bandit Running And The Unsponsored Project
If given the chance to do it again, Okolo said she wouldn’t flinch. She believes Bandit is slowly but surely becoming a brand athletes can actually trust. And in fact, when Ajee Wilson announced she was dropped by Adidas, she picked things up and signed with Bandit ahead of the U.S. Outdoor Championships in 2025.
That customer-loyalty isn’t going unnoticed.
“I think they’re kind of like the people’s champ,” she said. “
As momentum continues to build for Bandit, Rossi says there will continue to be a need to fund unsponsored athletes in the U.S.
“What we want to develop is a pipeline,” he said. “The unsponsored athlete, we want that idea to live on. We want to grow it really far into the future.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/corymull/2025/09/05/series-a-backed-bandit-running-is-making-serious-inroads-with-track-and-field-athletes/
