The gear

  • The road to plastic free.

    Every product starts from the same question: how much plastic can we get out of this one? Our Naturals line has one entry rule — no polyester, no nylon, no elastane in the fabric — and no "recycled" plastic pretending to be progress. When a piece genuinely needs a synthetic to do its job, it lives outside that line and its product page names the fiber to the percent. The sewing thread we can’t specify yet — the merino line is where that gets fixed, and we’ll say so when it does.

  • Built by an ultrarunner.

    Headwinds isn't a marketing team's idea of trail running. It's designed between long runs on aggressive mountain trails, by someone still doing the work.

  • For every mile.

    Training days. Recovery days. The drive to the trailhead and the diner after. And the miles themselves.

Your running shirt is plastic.

Here's the truth nobody in this industry says out loud: your race kit is petroleum. Almost everything "technical" is polyester and nylon — PET, the same polymer as a drink bottle, spun into thread. You race a few hours a year and train for hundreds, and that is where it sits against your skin. Phase two is the hard part: taking the plastic out of an ultra race kit. Merino, lyocell, fibers that don't exist on shelves yet. We'll fail in public. Follow the grind.

Follow the R&D

The merino line

A 50/50 merino and lyocell jersey with no elastane, no nylon, and no polyester — down to the sewing thread. It doesn't exist yet. The first sample is commissioned — a European mill is developing the fabric now, and we’re doing it in public. Reserve a spot and you'll get the progress, including the parts that go badly.

Reserve your spot
A runner's trail shoes resting on rock at the edge of a lake, wooded hills across the water

Built between long runs.

Headwinds started because I got tired of dressing myself in plastic to go be a human in the mountains. I run 50s and 100s on trails that don't forgive. Every product here exists because I wanted it to exist — and everything we make gets tested the only way that counts: on my own skin, on real climbs, for real hours. No focus groups. No coddling. Chase the wind.

— Nick, Founder