Enroute
Tinloof gave Enroute, the running and cycling store and community in Vancouver, a brand identity, two online stores and its first mobile app, all built on one idea: Outpace Yourself. Elements stretch, compress and react under pressure, from the symbol to the checkout and the watch on the wrist.
Client
Enroute
Credits
Strategy, Branding, Visual Identity, Motion Identity, Design, Engineering: TINLOOF. Creative Direction: Viktor Horváth, Martin Taylor. Brand Strategy and Brand Design: Viktor Horváth. Design: Viktor Horváth, Susana Silvestre, Vitaly Belousov. Copywriting: Anikó Legner. Motion Design: Charles Carlos. 3D Design: Ali Raybould. Sound Design: Markus Sasse. Engineering: Hani Nekkoub, Stilyan Toskov. Project Coordination: Fanny Kaminski. Courtesy of: ASSOS, MAAP, norda, On, SATISFY, Pas Normal Studios. Client: Enroute.
Typography
Only by Swiss Typefaces, FK Grotesk by Florian Karsten Typefaces
The brief
Enroute had run for years without a clearly defined identity. Ahead of relaunching its online store, opening new retail stores and launching its first mobile app, it needed one brand to carry all three. As a reseller of brands such as MAAP, Pas Normal Studios and Assos, it also needed an identity that would never compete with the products it sells. The challenge was to turn a community built on pushing harder into a system that could live in a shop window, a product page and a training session at once.
The system
The visual language is built on pushing to the limit: elements stretch, compress and react under pressure. The palette stays muted so footwear and apparel remain the focus, and the art direction borrows the blurred perception of physical exertion, cropping athletes in motion where focus fades and effort takes over. The motion system draws on the body’s own metrics, lactate levels and VO₂ max, translated into a graphic system of dots and bars that marks both the start of an activity and its continuous progression.
The identity
The same system runs through every product. One design system serves both online stores, .run for running and .cc for cycling, and can extend to future categories, with events, bundles and a custom loyalty program rebuilt around how Enroute works. In the app, interfaces expand, compress and respond to input, as the community discovers, creates and joins events, designs routes and follows leaderboards. A watch app lets athletes join without a phone, in dark mode to save battery, with a red Night Mode for better visibility.
Outcome
Enroute now has one brand from the symbol to the wrist: an identity, two online stores and an app that move the way its community trains.
