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Our Story
Our Story
"I grew up in the foothills of the Peak District and have always loved being out in the hills. My journey began rambling in Derbyshire with my mum when I was young. It progressed to long distance trail running in the White Peak and more recently fell running in the Dark Peak and beyond.
As someone relatively new to trail running it was difficult to know what was essential for my kind of runs. Also which design features I specifically needed for my trail runs. So I founded a different type of brand for trail runners. One that is built around quality, design and value and without pretense.
The concept for Harrier was born from my own desire to have great quality kit that would last a long time. It's about bringing simplicity and fun back to trail running. We provide everything you need and nothing you don't."
Kate Mackenzie, Director & Founder of Harrier Trail Running
Our mission
Why compromise on style, functionality or value when you can have all three? The Harrier Trail Running collection is designed to bring the joy back into trail running whilst providing friendly support and advice should you need it.
Our approach of designing and developing trail running kit directly from ideas, feedback and advice from our customers makes us different from the rest. We listen to what you want from your gear and bring it to life, we are made by trail runners.
We are different in that we only sell our products online, direct to customers. Never through distributors or third party retailers. This allows us to pass significant savings to our customers, without compromising on quality, function or design.
As a small, family run team, we look after everything personally which means we can also offer the best customer service and support.
About Kate
Back in 2019 Kate was well and truly loving the trail running scene, previously a road runner, and starting to get into tougher events such as self navigation trail ultras and long distance fell running like Bob Graham rounds. Previously, she had always bought second hand, not being able to afford the kit from the top brands but still wanting good quality and design.
She was also a qualified group leader, taking lots of beginners out on the trails and began to see how much confusion and hype there was about what gear was actually needed.
It became more obvious to her that even though the trail running scene looked like a crowded market place, there was a massive gap in the market. For a brand that was friendly, approachable and supportive, whilst also being fairly priced and great quality.
Previously in a 9-5 job working with the government in animal agriculture, she took the plunge and launched Harrier in December 2019. Things took off fast, there were a lot of learning curves and a pandemic to deal with. However she stuck to her ethos and the brand went from strength to strength, making us an exciting up and coming brand for trail runners in the UK and beyond.
The Evolution Of Our Range
Things started quite small, just a few first aid kits and emergency bivvis were ordered in to see what online selling was like. After those first bits went well, the first hydration range was launched where we had a few different types of soft bottles.
It took us about 6 months to design, sample and source our race vests and poles. After several attempts at getting the designs right the Helvellyn poles, Curbar and Kinder vests were launched. We only had 1 colour of each and limited sizes to get things off the ground.
As things grew we continued to listen to our customer feedback, working with our suppliers to refine and improve all the fine details to make them into 5 star products that people loved to use and trusted on their runs and races.
A couple of years on, we have now won awards and been featured in major publications and channels such as The Independent, Ultra Runner magazine, Women’s Running, Outdoor Magic, Wild Ginger Running, Run4Adventure, and The Running Channel to name but a few.
