Elevation Profile #5: Coros Signs Jimmy Chin, Race Recaps in Chiang Rai and Brooklyn

Elevation Profile is a weekly column from Doi Trail Research covering the world of trail running, running fashion, and outdoor culture, with a particular eye on Thailand and Southeast Asia.

From the trails of Chiang Rai to the streets of Brooklyn to the peak of Everest. A week with real range. Let's get into it.

Mae Mon Coffee Trail: Chiang Rai's Trail Season Begins

Northern Thailand's trail calendar opened in Chiang Rai this weekend with the Mae Mon Coffee Trail, a race that takes its name from the surrounding area's growing reputation for specialty coffee and delivered results worth talking about.

The headline result from our doi community: Bas Narathip, founder of Basecamp Coffee Club and a familiar face in our Hardcore Sessions and doi & friends interview series, took 1st overall in the 35km trail with a time of 3:40:26. When I asked him about it afterwards, he told me it was just a training run hahaha.

Aunjerd (Kritsanun Sankaeo) representing Brooo came in 3rd overall in 3:45:25, just five minutes back. Hardcore Session friends Narapun Chamang finished 6th overall in 4:02:04, and Big Piisuth Chitcharoonsri took 1st in his age group with a time of 5:05:00.

In the 35km women's category, Nahm Supawan from Hoka Thailand finished 2nd in her age group with a time of 5:35:45. And in the long trail 50km, Kris Kitanon, sponsored by Amino Vital TH, took 1st overall in 6:04:05. A strong weekend for the community.

Black Toes Shanghai x Asics Superblast 3: A Story in Metamorphosis

Black Toes is a Shanghai-based independent creative studio and running community, and their name is a philosophical nod to one of the most honest badges in distance running: the black toenails you earn from long miles in tight shoes.

The collective functions as a central anchor for creative athletes in the city, known for merging running culture with street style, quiet luxury, and good design. They host pop-up experiences and run clubs across Shanghai, and they approach each project the way a creative studio would, with a full visual language.

Their collaboration with Asics on the Superblast 3 is a strong example of that. The shoe is built around a butterfly metamorphosis concept: a rich dark brown upper sharply offset by black paneling on the toe box and heel counters, with subtle sculptural lines and abstract butterfly graphics across the base.

The Asics logo is heat-reactive, which completes the transformation idea rather than just decorating it. What made it even cooler was how Black Toes carried the butterfly motif throughout the campaign photography. Beautifully executed.

I have a couple of friends in Shanghai who managed to score a pair. Honestly, I wish I asked them to pick me up a pair because this colorway is probably the best of the all.

Also, I cannot help but think about the Jordan 1 Black Toes when I hear the name, one of the most iconic colourways in sneaker history. Probably not an influence since Black Toes the studio takes its name from the runner's condition, not the sneaker. But the association is hard to shake.

Coros x Jimmy Chin: The Right Kind of Ambassador

Coros has announced Jimmy Chin as a global brand ambassador, and it is a signing worth paying attention to for reasons that go beyond the obvious.

Jimmy Chin is a photographer, filmmaker, and climber. He is probably best known internationally for co-directing Free Solo, the Oscar-winning documentary that followed his close friend Alex Honnold's historic ropeless ascent of El Capitan. He is one of the most respected voices in outdoor culture, and he is not, primarily, a performance athlete. That is exactly what makes this so cool.

Coros was founded by Lewis Wu, who is of Chinese descent and is himself an active climber. There is a throughline here that is worth naming: a brand founded by an Asian climber, built around precision and outdoor intelligence, now represented by one of the most respected Asian figures in outdoor creative work.

In a space that has historically been slow to reflect the communities that actually use the mountains, that kind of representation in America matters.

We got to put the Coros watches through their paces at our doi Pui Peak Experience back in EP#4, pre-loading the route so participants could experience the navigation function firsthand. Knowing now that Jimmy Chin is behind the brand in some capacity makes working with Coros that much cooler.

SATISFY Desert Rats: SpaceLace Lands in Chiang Mai and Bangkok

At this point it is worth acknowledging something directly: SATISFY has appeared in four out of five issues of Elevation Profile. That is not an editorial choice we made, it is simply where the brand sits right now. When you are moving this fast across product, events, and culture, you are going to show up in the conversation every week whether we plan for it or not. SATISFY is the gorilla in the room.

This week it is the Desert Rats Summer Drop 1, and specifically the piece everyone is talking about: the SpaceLace top. The fabric is a stretchy polyamide-elastane blend with a porous, mesh-like construction that reads visually like something lifted straight from a 1980s rock concert.

Don’t be too fooled by its appearance, the stretch and the open weave also serve a real function in running, allowing for ventilation and breathability that matters when you are moving in heat. It is one of those pieces that looks like it should only work as a fashion item and then turns out to be genuinely practical as kit. That balance is hard to pull off, and SATISFY pulls it off more consistently than almost anyone else in the space right now.

The drop landed at TANN Nimman in Chiang Mai and MAW10 in Bangkok, which means it is right here if you want it. Or wanted it. Knowing SATISFY's pace, it may already be moving fast.

The Bandit Grand Prix: Formula One Comes to Brooklyn

Think of the Bandit Grand Prix as America's version of the KMS5000 in Bangkok, but turned up several notches: more extravagant, more hyped, and with a production budget that matches the ambition. What makes it even more surprising is that this is only their second year. The event carries the kind of energy you associate with something that has been running for a decade, and the fact that it has not is a real testament to how well Bandit and their team have built it.

The event took place this weekend at the Brooklyn Storehouse in the Navy Yard, put on by Bandit Running, the New York apparel brand that has also been pushing at the edges of what a running brand can be.

The format is borrowed from Formula One: 5K heats on a technical 1K looped course throughout the day, with the top finishers advancing to 3K finals under the lights at night.

3,000 racers from 21 countries and 45 states. Spectators packed into the venue. Music and lighting woven into the race experience rather than added on top of it.

What makes Bandit Grand Prix different from most running events is that it was designed from the start to be watched, not just completed. The co-directors behind it are David Trimble and Trimble Chang Racing, the team responsible for the Red Hook Criterium, the beloved urban cycling event that proved people would show up to watch bike racing in the streets of Brooklyn if you made it worth watching. The same logic applies here. Sharp turns, indoor and outdoor stretches, a venue that creates natural viewing opportunities, and a crowd that actually came to spectate.

The event launched its inaugural edition in July 2025 and sold out. This year they doubled the athlete field. And the commercial Bandit produced with Red Bull ahead of the event got everybody hyped in the best way. Iconic crossover, brilliant work from the Bandit creative team. The sport of running does not produce many moments that feel this iconic, and this one delivered.

The results matched the energy. Reid Buchanan took the men's championship in the 3K final with a time of 8:17, coming one step further than his 2nd place finish last year. The entire men's podium finished under last year's winning time, which says something about how fast the field has grown in just one edition.

On the women's side, Abigail Hassman won in 9:37, breaking the event record by 18 seconds. And in a moment that felt right for the first weekend of Pride Month, Nate Crail became the first non-binary champion in Bandit Grand Prix history, crossing in 9:21. A night worth remembering.

Ledro Sky Trentino: Elhousine Makes It Two in a Row

The second stage of the 2026 Golden Trail World Series took place at Ledro Sky Trentino, and for those following the series, the result on the men's side should not come as a complete surprise.

Elhousine Elazzaoui, who we covered in EP#3 after his win at Zegama-Aizkorri, took the victory again in 1 hour, 55 minutes, and 48 seconds. He battled shoulder-to-shoulder with the Kenyan athletes through much of the 21.5-kilometer course before making his move in the final kilometers.

That is two consecutive wins in the 2026 GTWS for the reigning 2025 series champion. He is still in his NNormal Kjerag, which at this point feels less like a coincidence and more like a statement.

On the women's side, Caroline Kimutai took the win in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 48 seconds, racing for Salomon. A strong performance across a technical course that has a habit of sorting runners out in ways that flatter times do not capture.

The detail that made the day memorable was the finish. Despite the women's race starting first in a staggered format, both Elhousine and Caroline crossed the line together. Two races, two champions, one moment at the finish. If there was a better image from the GTWS this season, we have not seen it yet.

Tyler Andrews Climbs Everest in Under 10 Hours

There are athletic achievements that are hard to put into context and then there is this. Tyler Andrews, a 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, this week set the fastest known time for a supplemental oxygen-assisted ascent of Mount Everest, reaching the summit from Base Camp in 9 hours and 55 minutes. His round trip clocked in at 16 hours and 32 minutes.

In doing so, he broke a record that had stood for 23 years, shaving over an hour off the mark set by Lakpa Gelu Sherpa in 2003, who made the same climb in 10 hours and 56 minutes.

The number is difficult to fully absorb. Everest Base Camp sits at around 5,364 metres. The summit is at 8,848.86 metres. Andrews covered that gap in less time than it takes most people to watch a director's cut of a film.

The detail that made the internet pay attention was what was on his earphones during the climb. According to Andrews, he was listening to Father Figure, the 2025 Taylor Swift track, while scaling the world's tallest mountain. It is the kind of human detail that makes an already extraordinary story feel like something you actually want to tell people.

What is also worth noting is that this did not come out of nowhere. Five months ago, Andrews set the world record for climbing the equivalent height of Everest on a treadmill, completing 8,848 meters of elevation in 8 hours, 17 minutes, and 9 seconds as part of a Chaski Endurance Foundation fundraiser that raised over $25,000 for youth athletic programs in Nepal and Ecuador.

He wore the La Sportiva Prodigio Pros for that effort. The treadmill record was, in his words, the very type-2 version of the thing he actually went and did on the mountain itself.

Back in Kathmandu after the summit, Andrews said he felt "happy and relieved." Which, given the circumstances, is about as understated as it gets.

The Forest Sleeping Fest: Shanghai's Most Competitive Nap

The last thing we wanted to leave you with this week comes from Shanghai, because Shanghai apparently cannot help itself.

The Forest Sleeping Fest is a competition held each spring at Dongping National Forest Park, timed to coincide with World Sleep Day. Around 50 participants, aged 18 to 50, show up equipped with blankets and pillows and are assigned their own spot with a mattress.

The event runs for seven hours, from noon to 7pm. During that time the rules are simple: no phones, no talking, no eating, and no bathroom breaks. Biometric sensors monitor each participant's sleep quality throughout the competition.

The prizes are structured around sleep itself: 3,000 yuan for the best overall sleep quality, 2,000 yuan for the fastest to fall asleep, and a 10,000 yuan pool split among everyone who stays in their spot for the full seven hours.

The event was created to highlight the importance of sleep and how being in nature can positively influence mental relaxation. And while there is something genuinely absurd about a competitive nap, there is also something quietly smart about it.

In a culture that increasingly treats rest as a performance metric, building a community event around it feels less like a joke and more like a correction. Also, it is held in a forest. We will take that over a treadmill any day.