“It’s okay to be an outlier,” Literary Sport Creative and Design Director Jackie McKeown tells Man About Town.
Literary Sport makes running clothes that actually look good. Founded by avid readers and runners Mark Bechara and Deirdre Matthews in 2024, it bridges the similar feelings of accomplishment you might get when you finish a book or nail a Sunday long run.
The goal was to marry literature and running. Design and Creative Director Jackie McKeown was brought in ahead of the launch in 2022, alongside her partner Fran Miller to translate that into something you could wear. “That was the origin, just taking the concept and really trying to bring that to life in a crowded space, but also a space that has a lot of room for more specific personality,” says McKeown.
That personality is translated into packable jackets, pooling trackpants, and technical cardigans with sculptural scooped necklines. It’s more akin to Prada’s bookish rizz than the PB-pushing neons you might see with other high-end sports gear. “It’s not always about training and about some bigger plan for it,” says McKeown. “It can just be part of what supports the whole story.” It’s an antidote to the Strava bro. Yes, you can run a marathon in these clothes. But don’t be surprised to see the Literary Sport guy indulging in a fancy cocktail, glass of wine or cheeky cigarette in vibey spots in trendy neighbourhoods.
Literary Sport’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection builds out this DNA. There’re ‘Scarlet’ red running jackets in semi-sheer Japanese nylon, relaxed loopback terry sweatpants in ‘Bone’ white, running tights that use French-milled wool, and a knee-length navy car coat. The products are split across lifestyle and performance lines that bleed into one another. “They’re not meant to live two separate lives,” says McKeown.
These products aren’t often captured on the move, with models mid-stride on the open road. Literary Sport campaigns are slow, often with subjects standing still, walking, stretching, and very occasionally actually running. The brand spotlights its clothing among some design gems like Rennie Mackintosh’s towering Hill House chair, Willy Guhl Loop armchairs, and Marcel Breuer Wassily chairs.
Its debut Autumn/Winter 2024 collection was photographed in the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in New York; AW25 was shot in esteemed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Woodside house in Indiana; and its SS26 campaign was shot in Amalia Hernandez’s flowing brutalist home designed by her brother, Mexican architect Agustin Hernandez.
“A lot of architecture is about form and shape and expression of colour, or designers having a certain approach,” says McKeown. “And I think with running, when you look at it less as a performance end goal thing, and more about a process thing, the form of running and the act of running, and the moments that you can appreciate, when you’re in another city you’re seeing a totally different visual language.” With fitness and wellbeing now becoming a defining part of identity just like clothing, layered in signifiers and status symbols, Literary Sport offers a design-led wardrobe for a life in motion.
Where some brands bake-in uber complex technology and put performance first, Literary Sport’s biggest flex is that it doesn’t try too hard. It works because it makes athletic clothes that succeed in and out of movement. Because dressing with precision and intention when you’re not running, that doesn’t need to end when you lace-up your trainers. “This kind of approach might become normalised, ” says McKeown. “We’re seeing more of it, but for now, it’s okay to be an outlier. I guess.”
