Tracksmith

About Tracksmith: Tracksmith is one of the most admired brands in running—known for its strong storytelling, product craftsmanship, and commitment to community. With over a decade of brand equity behind them, the company had built a distinctive voice and loyal customer base.

ACV Support: Fractional CMO (6-month project)

The challenge

When their CMO departed in late 2024, CEO Matt Taylor wanted to use the leadership gap as an opportunity:

  • To bring in fresh perspective on what was and wasn’t working in their current marketing approach

  • To maintain momentum through a critical planning period

  • And to set the foundation for scalable, profitable growth in 2025

That’s where we came in.

Our approach

As fractional CMO, our goal wasn’t to reinvent Tracksmith’s marketing—it was to help refine and strengthen what already made them great, while unlocking new layers of clarity and performance.

We began with a comprehensive discovery phase, meeting with the marketing and e-commerce teams, executive leadership, and the board to gather input and context. At the same time, we ran a detailed audit of all digital marketing channels—paid, email, affiliate, social, creative, and events—benchmarking performance against category competitors.

From there, our work focused on four key areas:

  • We re-established weekly team meetings, leadership check-ins, and 1:1s with direct reports to build momentum and accountability. Early on, we identified the need for clearer planning across product, marketing, and sales—which led to the implementation of a new 12-month Go-To-Market process adopted across the organization.

  • We helped the marketing and e-commerce teams narrow their priorities and align around a focused set of KPIs. This helped eliminate distraction, improve cross-functional coordination, and allow teams to measure impact more effectively.

  • By analyzing spend by channel and program, we worked with the CFO to streamline lower-performing areas and reallocate budget toward high-ROI tactics. This rebalancing drove an increase in profitability over the course of the six-month engagement.

  • We partnered with the CEO and head of HR to define the role of the next full-time CMO, supported candidate evaluations, and created a transition handbook to set the new hire up for success—including strategic plans, team assessments, and key marketing benchmarks. We also facilitated a hand-off session with the new CMO ahead of their start.

Over a six-month period, our work delivered both immediate improvements and long-term strategic frameworks that Tracksmith continues to build on today. Key outcomes included:

  • Increased marketing team alignment around shared KPIs and GTM planning

  • Improved profitability through refined budget allocation and spend discipline

  • A successful launch of the new Elliot Racer shoe—supported by stronger collaboration and launch planning

  • A seamless leadership transition, with the new CMO stepping into a well-documented and forward-looking plan

Results

“Aaron was a tremendous asset during his time as interim CMO. He provided much needed leadership within the marketing function, but he also became a trusted member of the senior leadership team and a great thought partner for me. Many interim roles are meant to keep the status quo moving forward, but Aaron was able to make a lot of progress pushing our marketing strategy and execution forward.”

— Matt Smith, CEO

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