MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING

Guillermo Peñalver: his imagination seeks to pamper the runner.

A sports entrepreneur with very clear ideas. The gradual success ´of his signature and the satisfaction obtained, have generated in Guillermo a debt with athletics. “A new generation of professionals is needed with the motto "Take care of the athlete" so that everyone ends up happy with each test; those who organize it, those who run it and those who sponsor it. "

You have to go beyond the businessYou have to take care of the athlete, understand the organizer and, above all, work with passion. It is not just about making money, with that idea you are not going anywhere. With these premises and a lot of imagination in the face of the crisis, Guillermo Peñalver has created a prestigious brand in the world of popular athletics. 42k running It is today synonymous with quality technical t-shirts. Guillermo is from Valencia and his success is the triumph of the businessman who knows how to adapt to circumstances. Passionate about popular athletics and his work, the crisis took him out of comfort and forced him to reinvent himself, that fashionable concept that can be perfectly applied to this moron from running, as he defines himself. Holy madness. 

A failed padel match started him in the running in 2003 and has never stopped running. His party mates could not attend the appointment and, since he had proposed to play sports that afternoon, he put on some sneakers and went out for a run alone. The result a priori was not encouraging: 3 kilometers in total, stopping three times. However, he liked the experience of coming home sweaty. And since then he cannot remember how many times he has enjoyed that feeling.

Guillermo already worked in the family merchandising company that his grandfather created in 1949. With just over 20 years he joined the business that was later to change his life. It happened in 2010, when Guillermo realized that the t-shirts they gave away at popular races were of very poor quality, cotton garments that generate a towel effect and irritate the skin.

There was no point giving runners t-shirts that they couldn't reuse in their training sessions. And here begins your imagination and adaptation to the crisis. He believes that he has not invented anything, he has only made technical material accessible to popular brokers. That has been his great contribution; manufacture t-shirts that the organizers can afford to include in the runner's bag and take care of the athlete with garments that comply with 3 indisputable laws: breathable, that do not cause chafing on the skin and that do not lose color with the innumerable washes that sportswear require .

Your company has 16 employees, responsible for the entire process, choosing the thread, the dyeing and the design of the collections. Raw materials and manufacturing are Asian, but from spinning to pattern making, the entire process is carried out and controlled in the capital of Turia.

42k running has managed 1.500 events in 2015, in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and even in the United Arab Emirates. Races such as the Madrid Half Marathon, the BBVA, the Massamagrell 15k, the Valencia 10K, the Santa Pola Half Marathon or the Martín Fiz de Vitoria Marathon trust him. For example, for this year's Liberty race you will have to make 13.000 T-shirts. Since she works for club and event organizers, she now intends to offer her products to runners in an exclusive online store that she will gradually build.
To all this, Guillermo continues running in the mornings. At 6:30 in the morning he goes out for a run for an hour, about 10 km. Also nothing. About 50 kilometers per week at a paw and three more based on strokes. Not bad at all for an amateur like him.
He is concerned about the turn popular athletics are taking, where distances and times are no longer respected, where there is a true madness to have our own photo on social reds crossing the finish line of a marathon, whether or not we are prepared for such a challenge. You have to help new runners to avoid animal attacks and the consequent misfortunes. It can't take more than 5 hours to do a marathon because that's insane.
The messages that arrive at 42k running through social reds they show Guillermo and his companions that the path is the right one, although he thinks this business has a roof. That is why you have to help and even pamper the runners. The goal is the professionalization of organizers, timekeepers and suppliers. All very reasonable, maybe going for a run so early really wakes you up, relaxes you and makes you think. We will have to prove it, right?

Text: Javier Lázaro
Photographs: Bárbara Sánchez