Stories
Ruddy Trobrillant only had 1,000 Instagram followers when Nike first slid into his DMs. The global sportswear giant loved his profile and wanted to create something together. A few weeks later, Ruddy received some trainers and became a model – a ‘Nike muse’.
Three years later, Ruddy was looking to start a running club of his own. Nike offered financial support but by this stage Ruddy was in much higher demand than when he’d first been scouted. In fact, he’d just completed a big campaign for Beats by Dre alongside international superstars such as LeBron James, Simone Biles and Serena Williams. Beats by Dre wanted to be his primary sponsor, saying Nike should play second fiddle. Which is exactly how it turned out.
Since the start, the 30 year-old Parisian has always done things his own way – including how he’s built his running crew, POWERUP, which is now approaching its fifth year. The group met for the first time on April Fool’s Day 2019, breaking into an athletics track to do laps and drag each other around on resistance ropes. It was just Ruddy and his four friends but they looked the part in Nike gear with the POWERUP logo emblazoned across the chest and Beats by Dre donning the armband.
What started as a couple of mates joking around a track soon morphed into an unofficial modeling agency, with POWERUP providing talent and facilitating photoshoots for brands like Salomon, Oakley and Arc’Teryx. When the pandemic hit, its work with Beats and Nike dried up. But thanks to Ruddy’s magnetism, the California-based shoe brand, Hoka, became the club’s main sponsor in March 2022.
For each new project that he pitches – a trail running trip in Portugal or the Paris marathon – clients such as Hoka will, ‘unlock a bit of budget,’ says Ruddy. In exchange, POWERUP captures imagery of the kitted out crew and shares to Instagram.
The community comes together almost every day of the week, sometimes twice a day, and has expanded into swimming, cycling and basketball. By tapping up the skills of his crew Ruddy keeps big brands coming back for more. Members include photographers, influencers, Comme Des Garçons’ creative director, and Adrien Leborgne, the artistic director at cult car dealership L’Art de L’Automobile. And it’s not just creative types: ‘We have some people who are just selling oranges in the market,’ says Ruddy.
POWERUP has proved lucrative, not only for Ruddy, but for his crew too. He keeps everything in-house, opting to hire people from within his crew instead of letting brands dictate terms. ‘I just say the price and it gets paid straight to the individual,’ he says.
Despite acting like a talent manager, Ruddy doesn’t take a commission. His closest friends tell him he should take more of a cut but Ruddy holds firm: ‘I don’t want to make money on my people,’ he says. ‘I’m living my best life. They should too.’
