“Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.” ― Vincent Van Gogh
Trail race participants may take the process of course marking for granted, until they get lost following poorly placed signage. Course marking is an essential step of every trail race and is not only time-consuming for race organizers, but is one of the basic requirements for competitors to have a positive race experience. Few realize just how essential course marking is to the race experience unless they’ve been on poorly marked courses that leave them stranded in the woods shouting at the top of their lungs hoping someone will point them in the right direction. Poorly marked courses can result in significant risks for participants who take the wrong trail as well as angry or disappointed runners who may be turned off from the sport because of their negative experience.
Randall and Roslyn Braun, a dad-daughter dynamic duo, have both dedicated their lives to keeping others on course. In 2007, their family business, RouteArrows, was born as Randall’s passion project to provide easier and clearer route marking for cycling races. Fast forward seventeen years, RouteArrows has expanded from their cycling roots and become one of the highest quality and high visibility course marking products in the road and trail running spaces. This is a story about their company history and the value of knowing the way.
Cycling Roots and Routes
Randall Braun, a self-described “hardcore recreational cyclist” who would ride solo for 100-plus miles back in his cycling heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, saw a need for better course marking at cycling events. He recalls spending hours cutting arrows out of conventional colored cardstock paper, spraying adhesive onto each arrow, and sticking them to the ground. These brightly colored temporary arrows functioned perfectly to capture the attention of racing cyclists, but the labor involved in the process was, “Off the charts stupid!” describes Randall.
In search of a manufacturer to ease the labor, Randall connected with a 100-year-old hang tag and dye-cut label company, Universal Tag, who assisted him with mass producing RouteArrows by rolls instead of by individual arrow. He made his first sale in 2007. Randall describes his goal with the company, “I never thought RouteArrows would turn into a business. My thought process was: I love cycling. I want to give to the world of cycling. I see a shortfall. I think I could fix it with this product. I’ll make it happen.”
Randall and Roslyn Braun have dedicated their lives to keeping others on course. Photo by: USTRC 2023
Family Contracts
Although RouteArrows was an immediate success in terms of filling a need in the cycling community, it remained a “passion project” for years, as Randall still worked full-time as a general contractor. His career stemmed from his father’s contracting career and the two worked on projects together in his father’s home in Palo Alto, CA. Randall passed down his father’s contracting knowledge to his daughter Roslyn who he describes proudly as extremely competent with a table saw and any construction tool.
He reflects on the incredible synchronicity of his father-son work relationship that has now evolved into his own father-daughter work relationship, “I wanted to spend time with my father, so that was an important move in my life to do contracting with him and in hindsight incredibly valuable and wonderful. Now, for some reason, my crazy kid is doing the exact same thing too! It’s delightful to have that family connection. I didn’t ask, beg, or bribe, yet here she is. Working with my daughter is amazing.”
Roslyn describes the process of working with her father and watching RouteArrows grow from being just a hobby, “I wasn’t super aware in the early years of how RouteArrows was becoming a business, but I was spending time with my dad when he tested products. I also spent a lot of time with him working on construction projects in his full-time contracting jobs, so we were very used to working together.”
Randall’s shift to making RouteArrows a full-time business came in 2013 when Roslyn was in college studying Environmental Studies. For the next three years, Roslyn assisted her father with small projects for RouteArrows, such as website editing and social media promotion, and acquired new skills and “many hats” throughout college. These skills often had little to do with her Environmental Studies but prepared her well for becoming a full-time business partner with her father.
After Roslyn graduated in 2016, she became brand partners with her father for RouteArrows. Roslyn shares her reasoning for joining her father, “We worked well together because I helped him with contracting work as a child. We know how to have this inventor process and have a flow of creativity together. We’d be brainstorming ideas for RouteArrows on holiday breaks or whenever we could spend time together.”
Roslyn Braun at the 2023 Gulch Countdown. Photo by: Somer Kreisman
Winding Trail To Trail Running
RouteArrows customers may have started out exclusively in cycling, but now their customer base is divided almost equally between cycling and running. A large reason for this shift was the pandemic. Due to the loss of many organized cycling events in 2020 and 2021, Randall and Roslyn expanded beyond their usual customers who were no longer purchasing their products. They found customers at schools and farmer’s markets in need of arrows to direct social distancing efforts. Randall and Roslyn also attended the 2021 US Trail Running Conference virtually, which connected them with a trail running audience for the first time.
Randall describes the process of working with new audiences, such as the trail running community, “Our products are an improvement on what’s existing in the trail space both in terms of its functionality and useability. The challenge is showing or convincing somebody that this change from what they’re doing now, to this new thing, is worth it. Is there a big enough improvement, from their perspective, to justify the cost? Every event out there has a system in place, whether that’s spray paint, signs, ribbons, etc. and something new is always difficult to sell.”
Luckily for Rosyln and Randall, many in the trail running community were receptive to their products. Both seasoned and new race directors reached out following the US Trail Running Conference and inspired RouteArrows to expand their focus into the trail space. Roslyn describes how their products were received in the trail space, “Thankfully, we had plenty of feedback from US Trail Running Conference director Terry Chiplin and race organizers to know that our products are being found useful. We’ve tweaked prototypes based on feedback from the trail conference to come up with some fun new products. It feels like we’re in the beginner stages of the trail-specific products of the signs and ribbons but we’re excited to keep innovating and testing.”
Fewer Arrows, Less Impact, Better Sustainability
Endurance events have become increasingly aware of their environmental impact in recent years, especially in the trail running community. Many trail races are looking for ways to reduce waste and use more sustainable materials, which has been a focus of RouteArrows since the beginning. Randall describes this focus, “Job one is grabbing the attention of the participant. If you’re not grabbing their attention, then you ultimately end up using more ribbons and end up with frustrated people on poorly marked routes.”
Roslyn adds to this point, “The fossil fuels involved in search and rescue missions must also be considered. Keeping runners on course is always the main goal.”
RouteArrows uses recyclable and durable chloroplast, sourced from US-made materials when possible, and aims to create longer-lasting ribbons and trail markers to increase their reusability. Their attention-grabbing characteristics also make them easier to recollect after events, which leads to less waste of forgotten markers that litter trails after most races.
RouteArrows Values and Future Routes
“My goal in life has always been, if you’re going to do it, do it really well. Don’t do it half baked. That was my modus operandi as a contractor and in 20 years I never had a callback or issue with the work I had done. Doing it well the first time is how we do things at RouteArrows.” — Randall Braun.
RouteArrows was founded on the principles of filling a need for its communities in the outdoor endurance event space and doing so with products that last and don’t need to be replaced from season to season. Events are often the reason people get into their sports and providing products that make that experience better for both the event organizers and participants has been a goal of RouteArrows.
Randall explains how his product can add value to events and lead to better race experiences, “We want race organizers and participants to know they are going to be ok when race day comes. From a racers’ perspective, knowing that someone was there on the trail before you has emotional value. Whether it’s a rugged trail or an urban park, knowing the way can keep people emotionally calm. Participants know they’re being taken care of, which adds to the value of the event and to the accomplishment when it’s all said and done.”
Roslyn shares her reasons for continuing to invest her time and energy in the company, “As I get older, I feel more precious about my time and how I want to spend it. Spending one-on-one time with my dad is of much value to me. We’re not only a dad-daughter relationship where we’re friends, business partners, creative collaborators and have a good relationship that makes it easier to do all those other things we’re doing to help get people outside. That’s a value I have as an environmentalist and someone who cares about the future of the planet.”
RouteArrows is committed to keep innovating their product and investing in trail racing. Roslyn shares a few thoughts on future products and RouteArrows’ continued interest in the trail running event space, “We’re interested in expanding who might use our products. We’ve thought about inventing something that’s wearable, keeping people safe on the road while cycling or running. If that is a need that trail runners have, then that’s exciting to us too and we certainly want to keep innovating for trails. We want people to feel safe, especially those new to these sports.”
RouteArrows currently offers a five-pack of Trail Signs for $25 and a standard roll of 250 RouteArrows for $87. See a list of their full product lineup here.
