Megan Kimmance is co-founder and creative director at Red Run, a Liverpool founded activewear brand founded in 2021.
She forged a career working with prestigious fashion houses across London, Paris and New York working with the likes of Vivienne Westwood, KTZ and Pyer Moss.
Since setting up the brand alongside business partners Abby Adderley and Joana Barbosa, Red Run has boomed from five to 16 staff, opened a flagship store in Liverpool ONE last November, and all collections are designed in-house by Kimmance.
From experimentation to growth, we find out a bit more about the brand…
What does your brand do in a nutshell?
Red Run is an active streetwear brand, formed by my business partners; Abby Adderley, Joana Barbosa and I in 2021. We were lucky enough to have instant demand at launch and the brand has continued to grow and thrive since – not only in Liverpool but Nationwide via our DTC and retail partnership with Flannels (where we are stocked in 18 doors). The brand initially started off as a womenswear brand, but August 2024 saw Red Run’s official debut into menswear via our Founders Club collection. Both sectors will see multiple, new seasonal and continual collections from AW25 with some very exciting partnerships to be announced soon.
Can you bring us up to date with the company’s latest performance and headcount numbers?
We originally started the brand with a small core team of five people – the three co-founders with the support of my brother-in-law, Paul Adderley (head of logistics) and partner Megan Murphy (director of marketing). We have been on quite the journey since and although we are still a relatively small team considering the growth of the brand, we currently stand at a headcount of 16 staff. We opened our flagship store in Liverpool ONE last November which marked a major milestone for offline retail in Liverpool.
What key factors have contributed to your recent growth?
We have been experimenting over the past 18 months – particularly in the luxury sector as there was a gap presented for Red Run but ultimately its our core customer who drive this brand – we will always stay true to them to ensure that we are consistently bringing collections out that appease them. As I have design support now, Red Run is able to bring out constant new collections – in 2024, we dropped eight brand new collections and 2025 will see more. We entered 15 new Flannels doors this year and as mentioned, opened our flagship store at the end of 2023.
How do you differentiate your brand from competitors in the market?
Although I follow seasonal colour and fashion trends for Red Run, it has its own unique identity. I use colours that shouldn’t work together but they just do – I’ve always taken a fashion forward approach and although collections are designed to be comfortable, they all have a multi transitional element meaning you can intermix pieces to create different looks.
How do you cultivate a positive and productive company culture?
We are a relatively small team – some of us are family and best friends. We all spend a lot of time together and even the most junior members are integrated with the most senior. We are all learning, myself included.
What’s the most important part of the company’s marketing mix?
Digital marketing and social media is integral however connecting direct with consumers is also key.
To what extent does the company use the support of external agencies?
Some of our staff are freelancers but other than that, we mostly have internal dedicated staff. As we are still identifying who and what Red Run is, its important that our staff are fully focused on that and play a key part to success.
Where do you hope the brand will be in two years’ time?
I hope the brand has global dominance with a strong menswear pillar – if we continue at the rate we are going at, I feel confident that will become reality. I’m very happy with where the brand stands and the direction we are going in.
