Committed to the notion that youth running and sports should be about having fun, Joanie Kaijala developed Running Peas, a running apparel line for kids.

(Feature photo by @sharynpeaveyphoto)

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Fun.

That’s what physical activity should be. Especially for kids.

But somehow, many of us forgot that. Kids are pressured to join sports teams at a young age in hopes of getting into good universities. Scholarships are on the line. Parents argue with referees. They shout at their kids to score more points, to win.

What happened to the fun?

That’s exactly what running was during Joanie Kaijala’s childhood.

“Running has always been just this very joyful activity for me, whether it was participating in other sports like field hockey or soccer,” Joanie says, “speed was my thing. Growing up, it was how fast can I get from point A to point B?”

An early love of running and two older siblings who ran on the track team inspired Joanie to follow in their footsteps. She ran in high school as a sprinter, and experimented with middle and long-distance events on her college track team.

The 800 meters became her favorite race distance, and she continued training after college, qualifying to compete in both USATF’s indoor and outdoor national championships. Running with New Balance Boston in 2009, Joanie met a fellow former collegiate 800-meter runner, named Tim, whom she later married.

Over the years, while advancing in her public health and policy career, Joanie says she began to feel burnt out. She still enjoyed training, but competing on the track stopped being fun. So, she stepped back from the 800 and ventured into new running endeavors, including mountain racing and running a Boston-qualifying marathon time.

The Birth of Running Peas

When her son was just a toddler, something he said inside a running store one day sparked the idea for a running apparel line for kids. Joanie held onto the idea and even the name. Years later, a major life event drove her to pursue the business.

By then, her two kids were enjoying participating in fun runs at local races, and Joanie had started coaching for their youth run club in Maine. Motivated by creating a fun environment for kids to experience running, she worked on designs for the running apparel line and launched Running Peas in July 2024.

“Part of our mission is to encourage kids to run or do any sport in a fun way, because I think that’s really at the core of sports,” Joanie shares. “That’s what our clothes are trying to capture. That’s why the colors are fun. That’s why they’re not short. There’s more coverage on the tank tops. It’s respecting kids for where they are in their lives.”

Joanie takes both personal experience and feedback from fellow parents and kids into account when designing each new piece. She’s currently working on a long-sleeve shirt and two styles of pants. Those items will join the existing collection, which includes a short-sleeve shirt, tank top, and shorts.

One of the pants in development has a zipper at the bottom of each leg, which allows kids to wear them over their shorts on cooler days. They can easily take the pants off after a warm-up and put them back on at the end of their run without removing their shoes. No need to spend time retying shoelaces — a challenge Joanie’s experienced with her own kids.

Values-Led Growth

Currently, Running Peas apparel is sold online, in a couple of retail stores in the northeast, and at a few annual race expos such as the Portland Kids Duathlon and the Maine Marathon.

Joanie works with a manufacturer in Massachusetts and makes logistical decisions, such as shipping, based on environmental impact. She’s committed to keeping costs down for customers, even if it means her brand is slower to scale.

“I really want to keep mission and values forward and not make compromises,” Joanie shares. “That might mean my growth has a different trajectory than other brands.”

Below, Joanie shares the story behind Running Peas, how the passing of her mom was an influential driver in starting the business, and her perspectives on why having fun needs to be at the center of all youth sports.

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How did you come up with the idea for a kids’ running apparel line?

Joanie Kaijala: When Tracksmith first opened their store on Newbury Street, we were living in the Boston area, and a former coach of mine was working with Tracksmith at the time. I wanted to go check out this store. I was really excited about it. Theo must have been a year and a half or close to two years old.

We took a day trip into Boston to see the store. He was in his stroller. We were probably the only family that was in there. He reaches out at a low-hanging pair of running shorts …. He picks them up and looks at me, and he goes, ‘Mama, I want.’

I looked at him, and I was like, ‘Yes!’ I hadn’t been running as much, but obviously really wanted to share my own passion with running, and Tim’s as well, with our kids somehow.

I had been looking at cute, mini-me, sort of running outfits …. They have basketball ones, and I was looking for something running-related, but never really found anything. Or a lot of the outfits said Nike across the front or Adidas. I just didn’t want my kid to be a billboard for brands that I don’t relate with or our values are not aligned.

So, when he said that, I was like, ‘Yes, running clothes for kids!’ It was an instantaneous thing. I looked at my husband, and I said, ‘What a great idea.’ I could envision the shorts and the tank top. The name just came to me before we even left the store.

We used to call Theo ‘Little Pea’ before he was even born. They have these silly pregnancy apps where they relate each stage to a vegetable. At some stage, he was a pea, and so we started calling him Little Pea.

I went home, and I sketched it out, wrote the name out, put it in a folder, and just forgot about it. Not really forgot about it, but was just like, ‘I don’t have the time for this right now.’ We ended up moving to Maine a year later, but it was always in the back of my head.

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What gave you the push to pursue Running Peas?

Joanie Kaijala: My mom passed away about five years ago. [It was] a life-changing moment in a lot of ways.

That was in 2021, and I sort of used that as the marker. That was really the event that propelled me to seize the day. She just lost so much time. There was still so much that she could have done with her life. She didn’t know she was going to get sick. We didn’t know she was going to get sick.

I think once you get over that initial trauma of losing this major person in your life that you love so much, you start to look at your own life, and you say, ‘What are the things that I’ve always been talking about that I wanted to do, that I haven’t done yet?’

Running Peas was the thing that kept coming up.

It was definitely a push. I think the first thing I did after, I had always wanted to take violin lessons. I started with that. And I was like, ‘I can do new things! It’s really hard, and I’m doing it. I’m playing with other women, and I can do this.’

Then, I took a free class sponsored by the Small Business Administration here in Maine. They connected me with Guided Makers in Freeport.

The kids were getting older, too. I thought it would be fun to test out these outfits and see what we can do here. The worst that happens is it flops, and at least I know I tried.

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What do you love about the Running Peas apparel you’ve designed?

Joanie Kaijala: Each piece was developed specifically for kids. We did focus groups. I did a ton of research into what was already on the market. I also considered my own feelings about what is appropriate, not appropriate, for kids at each stage, [and] what makes them feel more comfortable, especially when they’re engaging in different athletic activities, not just running.

I pulled out some of my old running kits and modified the designs…and developed a really fun product that allows kids to be themselves. And by that, I mean, they can run, they can jump, they can do anything in these clothes, and it is not going to restrict them in any way.

The material is very soft. It’s comfortable, but it also has that athletic performance component. It’s moisture-wicking. It will not stick to you like other performance fabrics will, especially ones that are made for younger kids, where it’s 100% stiff polyester …. Kids do notice things like that. Maybe we don’t think they do, but they really do.

The running shorts, in particular, I’m super happy about the fabric. It’s very soft. It’s a combination of polyester and spandex…and it’s about the most amount of a polyester mix that you can have in a running short until it gets to be a different product altogether. That’s really what makes it stand out. If you feel the shorts, they’re just the softest performance short I think I’ve ever felt. And honestly, I wish I had a pair.

There’s side venting on each product, which allows for enhanced movement …. It’s not too much where it’s showing too much skin.

The colors are a lot of fun. I’ve been really lucky to find a manufacturer that has these vibrant, fun colors that we can combine with other contrasting colors to make it appealing for kids and for the parents who buy them.

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How do you hope to influence youth running and youth sports?

Joanie Kaijala: Since starting this journey, what’s been eye-opening for me is this window into the current state of youth sports, especially because my own kids are wading into that right now. I started Running Peas on the premise of ‘running is fun.’ Our first motto or tagline is, and probably will always be, ‘The Run Is Fun.’ It’s so simple, but so true.

My husband and I find ourselves getting flustered sometimes when we’re at our kids’ games, because we hear parents — and coaches — screaming at their kids, and not only their kids, but then they’re screaming at the coaches and at the referees. This is not what it’s about.

I would not still be running if it hadn’t been fun when I was a kid. My concern now for kids is I worry about burnout.

We have to remember, with kids, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We want them to be adults who can engage in life in a healthy way, whether that’s running or doing some other athletic activity or exercise. It starts now, in my mind. And it’s the way that they’re engaging with sports in school or outside of school.

Our mission is to instill this sense of joy in running, but really in any activity that they want to engage in, because running is going to be a part of most activities in some way. Whether you’re participating in run club or you’re participating in soccer or field hockey or football, running is at the core of all of that. The more we can create low-pressure, supportive environments where our kids can focus on athletic development and thriving, without the win-at-all-costs attitude, the better.

[Running Peas] started as a way to share my passion of running with my kids …. It has evolved into so much more than that, to really have this message of running is fun. And if we can build community through clothes, which I think we can, then this is a joyful mission that I can keep going with for as long as people will have Running Peas.

Follow Running Peas on Instagram.

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