Atreyu Running Company Announces Decision To Cease Operations After 2025

AUSTIN, Texas—Atreyu Running Company, the Austin-based direct-to-consumer retailer selling specialty running shoes, announced on Thursday its plan to shut down operations by the end of the year. 

Founder Michael Krajicek, as he had done many times before, published a video on his company’s YouTube channel explaining the move. The company had hit its five-year mark in February of this year. 

The Louisiana native from Lake Charles, who wore his company’s plucky grit on his chest like armor, took his running shoes to market in 2020, earning rave reviews for his product’s design, simplicity and performance on the ground. 

“After much reflection, I’ve made the decision to wind down Atreyu by the end of this year,” Krajicek said. “It’s been an extremely difficult decision to make, and as you can imagine, it took a lot of time and thought to arrive here. Sometimes these things kind of make their self known in the gut before they do the mind and it took me quite a bit of time to reconcile those two things, and when I began to, I started to see very clearly what the best path forward could be.”

Why Is Atreyu Shutting Down

At the beginning of the year, as new tariffs by the Trump administration were implemented and levied globally, impacting small businesses like Atreyu, Krajicek announced the cancellation of a purchase order of his Race Model shoe, a bare-essentials carbon-plated shoe meant for performance. Krajicek admitted “operational strain” was a major factor in the decision. 

“It was not an easy decision, because this will definitely delay my fall deadline,” Krajicek said at the time. 

Atreyu entered the market in 2020 to glowing reviews, described as a visionary by Outside and an “edgy new running shoe” by Runner’s World. 

In earlier years, the company’s products were budget-minded, with trainers as low as $75, though over the last year, due to costs and inflation, prices had risen to reflect the changing market economics. The company’s newest update to its flagship model, the Daily Trainer 1.2, retails for $170, which remains competitive in the market with major retailers like Brooks, Nike and HOKA. 

What’s Ahead For Atreyu Running Company

But Atreyu boasted a staff of less than five, and was often punching well above its weight. 

“It’s been an incredible, incredible, almost six years of business,” Krajicek said, “and even more than that. But the devastating reality is this …we needed to sell more shoes at a higher velocity.”

Krajicek thanked his customers on Thursday. “Thank you for allowing me to take this 20 minutes or so to kind of set the stage for the next few months.”