I don’t love repeating myself, but so many of these stories are intertwined and overlap. So if you’re just tuning in: I rode my bike from Copenhagen to Oslo in August. I did it during some of the heaviest rainfalls we’ve seen in Scandinavia in a very long time. When I arrived in Oslo the river was bursting at the seams. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like it.

Right next to one of these “seams” I linked up with Felipe at an event at Blender Agency where he worked at that time. Just a week or so prior I had been invited to join a social run in Copenhagen put together with Blender, Norda, and Norse Store and it was then that Felipe had told me that he was leaving his role at Blender and moving over to a new position with the Norwegian jewelry brand Tom Wood.

I guess that’s probably not very interesting for all of you to read, and that’s fine. But Felipe changing his role sparked a little memory in me and reminded me of how long I’d known this man. I realized that I’d known Felipe for the better part of a decade. Our lives had intersected first when we were not only much younger but also when the landscape of fashion was a much different place.

When I first met Felipe, he was working for the now-defunct label Damir Doma. I was a major fan of the brand and somewhere in the ecosystem of Fashion Week, showrooms, backstages, or the street I met Felipe. I don’t remember exactly where or when or how, but Felipe’s face was always someone whom I remembered at Fashion Week and also one of the select few whom I was always pleased to see. When it comes to friendships in the sea of fashion, it’s a bit of a “Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink” conundrum.

The coolest part of the world of fashion at the time I would have met Felipe was the detail that there was a small guard of designers who represented the (inappropriately named) Avant-Garde school. And the people who were “into it” were few and generally a bit more interesting to interact with than the “mainstream” equivalent. As pretentious as it sounds, of course, I liked being a part of this little world of nerds in ten shades of black talking about the dye processes of next seasons identical but oh-so-different black.

However, I must say that as niche as that world was, I found that the small group of runners who were sprinkled through the fashion industry would be the people whom I felt I could relate to the best. Turning up to crack-of-dawn runs in the Florentine hills. Parisian runs with Satisfy or Distance. Or just small groups in New York or London’s respective SoHo/SOHO(s). Anyone who can prioritize a run during the chaos of Fashion Week is someone who “gets it” if you ask me. Felipe is one of them.

This is a non-story. Nothing happened. I’m sorry to disappoint. Felipe and I met up for coffee in Oslo on my last day there. Felipe and I met up as he set up the showroom of his new employer in Paris. I dropped by again to stalk him after everything was ready to show prospective clients. Felipe and I went for a run later that night as well.

That’s it. Just two guys running around the world for this weird little (massive) industry and trying to find time to get a run in.