Blair is the founder of FSP Outdoors and co creator of Amateurs Magazine, and in this episode we talk about building slow, intentional creative projects in a fast, hyper digital outdoor culture.

We start with the question I ask everyone who are you and what do you spend your time doing which takes us from surfing Rockaway and running in Forest Park to ice climbing, sewing custom packs, freelancing in the photo industry, and hosting events during Paris Fashion Week. Blair shares how living in New York City shapes his relationship to the outdoors, and how public transit access to trails has quietly influenced his perspective on nature and community.

We dive deep into Amateurs, how it evolved from handmade mailers tucked into FSP orders into a fully realized print publication exploring the art, philosophy, and deeper why behind outdoor pursuits. We talk about trail running as a tool rather than an end goal, the tension between performance culture and soul driven movement, and why the magazine intentionally weaves together mysticism, history, art, and endurance sport.

Blair also walks through the origin of FSP Outdoors, a decade long sewing practice that grew organically from making one bag for a trip into a small batch, intentionally anti scale brand. We talk about working with athletes like Tyler Andrews on a custom Everest FKT pack, the reality of choosing craft over mass production, and what it means to step back from building a brand in favor of building something sustainable and personal.

We touch on Paris Fashion Week, the crossover between fashion and outdoor culture, hosting events with brands like Keen, and the importance of creating in person spaces that extend print into real life. Throughout the conversation, we return to the idea that magazines and creative projects in general should offer something the internet cannot, permanence, depth, and a reason to sit with a story.

Stay tuned for more conversations about print in the outdoor space. This episode is part of a multi week series exploring independent magazines, the resurgence of slow media, and the people shaping a new creative wave in outdoor culture.

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Wander is an independent platform centered on movement, creativity, and connection in the outdoor space. We share conversations with athletes, creatives, and culture-shapers building thoughtful lives around sport and the landscapes that shape them.

This episode is part of our ongoing print-focused series exploring slow media in the outdoor world.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend or leave a quick Spotify review — it helps independent projects like this grow <3!!

A conversation with Joshua Strong and Sydney Lewis, recorded in person! This is also available to watch on our youtube!

We talk about how they both found their way into creative work, what it looks like to build something together through Labyrinth Studios, and the reality of freelancing in the endurance world.

The conversation moves through creative burnout, stepping away from performance, parenting, and learning how to not tie your entire identity to your work. Joshua shares about being hit by a car last year and how that shifted their perspective on everything, and Sydney talks about finding her way back into sport through photography.

We also get into their upcoming project with No Binary No Problem at The Speed Project and the kind of community centered work they care about most.

Follow SYDNEY & JOSHUA & LABYRINTH

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Subscribe to the⁠⁠ Wander Substack⁠⁠ for long-form essays and interviews.

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Wander is an independent platform centered on movement, creativity, and connection in the outdoor space. We share conversations with athletes, creatives, and culture-shapers building thoughtful lives around sport and the landscapes that shape them.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend or leave a quick Spotify review — it helps independent projects like this grow <3!!

Izzy Wedderburn is the founder of New Mountain Magazine, an independent outdoor publication highlighting creativity, storytelling, and the many ways people move through the outdoors.

This episode is the third conversation I’ve recorded with Izzy and part of an ongoing Wander series exploring print media in the outdoor world. In our earlier episodes, we talked about the origins of New Mountain, how the first issues came together, and what it looks like to build an independent magazine from the ground up as a one-woman operation.

Now, with issue three about to launch, we return to the project at a new stage. In this conversation we dig into the workflow behind the latest edition, from gathering stories and working with contributors to the realities of scaling distribution, printing more copies than ever before, and navigating the balance between staying independent while partnering with brands.

Izzy also shares some of the stories inside the new issue, including a look at the secret night climbing culture in Oxford, a long distance bikepacking journey from New Zealand through the Himalaya and back toward Europe, and a surf story from Liberia that explores how community forms around the ocean.

More broadly, we talk about what it means to build community around print, why physical media still resonates in a fast moving digital world, and how projects like New Mountain continue to evolve while staying rooted in thoughtful storytelling.

If you’re interested in independent magazines, creative production, or the resurgence of print in outdoor culture, this conversation offers a window into the process behind one of the most exciting new publications in the space.

Find New Mountain Magazine at newmountainmag.com and follow along at @newmountainmag.

Listen to our First & Second conversations with Izzy!

Mel Webb⁠ is a storyteller working at the intersection of bikepacking, endurance sport, and podcasting. By day, Mel produces podcasts for a B2B agency. Beyond the nine to five, she works as the media manager for the ⁠Mountain Races⁠, a series of self supported bikepacking events across Morocco, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, and now Turkey. The races include the Atlas Mountain Race, Hellenic Mountain Race, Silk Road Mountain Race, and the newly added Taurus Mountain Race, each sending riders deep into remote mountain terrain with no outside support.

From inside a control car on course, Mel helps shape the story of each race in real time. She coordinates photographers and filmmakers spread across hundreds of kilometers of terrain, builds the daily narrative arcs that keep followers connected to the race, manages sponsor needs, and hosts and produces the race podcast that ties the coverage together.

In this conversation, we talk about what it actually looks like to cover an ultra endurance event from the media side. Why Atlas Mountain Race can feel like its own endurance effort even when you are not the one pedaling. And the invisible work behind consistent coverage that still protects what is sacred for the riders out there.

Mel shares what it is like sleeping on cafe floors in the rain, living on Pringles and omelets, downloading thousands of photos in the middle of the night, and trying to stay steady through the highs, the pressure, and the inevitable crash once it is all over.

We also get into the bigger questions around storytelling in endurance sport. How much coverage is too much. Where the line is between inviting people into the experience and turning it into a spectacle. And why sometimes the best storytelling comes from restraint.

We also talk about her upcoming move from Vancouver to the UK, what she hopes the time zone shift might change about her daily rhythm, and why she is choosing to race the Highland Trail 550 this spring. Hard on purpose. Scary on purpose. The kind of thing you sign up for when you want the journey more than the stamp.

⁠DETOURS ⁠

Explore more at⁠ Wander Studios⁠

Subscribe to the⁠ Wander Substack⁠ for long-form essays and interviews.

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Wander is an independent platform centered on movement, creativity, and connection in the outdoor space. We share conversations with athletes, creatives, and culture-shapers building thoughtful lives around sport and the landscapes that shape them.

This episode is part of our ongoing print-focused series exploring slow media in the outdoor world.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend or leave a quick Spotify review — it helps independent projects like this grow <3!!

“HARD PACK is a new type of ski magazine that combines edgy reportage with cerebral writing to create a new lexicon for the sport that is weird, philosophical, and dangerously fun.”

Since its launch, Hard Pack has challenged the conventions of ski media—treating skiing not simply as a performance spectacle, but as culture. Drawing from fashion, architecture, literature, and contemporary art, the magazine expands skiing beyond the mountain and into a broader creative world, positioning the sport within conversations about design, philosophy, place, and aesthetics.

In this conversation, Zach Seely shares how he built Hard Pack—from a background in academia and the creative industries of New York, to co-founding Sandwich Magazine, and eventually self-funding the first issues of Hard Pack out of what he describes as a creative existential crisis. We talk about what it means to launch an independent print publication in a digital-first era, and why he has intentionally resisted turning it into a content machine.

Zach explains why he invites photographers and writers from outside the ski industry into the fold—fashion photographers, poets, critics, and novelists—believing that outsider perspectives can unlock new language for the sport and reveal skiing in ways that feel fresh, strange, and alive. Rather than focusing solely on tricks, lines, and technical feats, Hard Pack searches for tone, texture, and feeling.

We also get into the realities of building a print magazine today as well as cultivating a readership that lives not only in mountain towns but in cities like New York, Tokyo, London, Milan, and Berlin, and creating in-person extensions of the magazine—gallery exhibitions, collaborative art shows, and unconventional ski film events—that bring the community together beyond the page.

Explore more at Wander Studios

Subscribe to the Wander Substack for long-form essays and interviews.

Follow along on Instagram 

Wander is an independent platform centered on movement, creativity, and connection in the outdoor space. We share conversations with athletes, creatives, and culture-shapers building thoughtful lives around sport and the landscapes that shape them.

This episode is part of our ongoing print-focused series exploring slow media in the outdoor world.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend or leave a quick review :)!

PART ONE OF OUR PRINT SERIES

For decades, magazines like Backcountry and Mountain Flyer have shaped how we understand skiing and biking culture. In this conversation, I sit down with Greta Close, Managing Editor of Backcountry Magazine and Mountain Flyer, to talk about what it looks like to steward legacy print publications amidst today’s digital news cycle, and alongside the rise of smaller, independent magazines.

We dive into the history of Backcountry as the journal of record for backcountry skiing, and the evolution and redesign of Mountain Flyer. We also talk about how both magazines sit alongside sister publications Alpinist and Cross Country Skier under Height of Land Publications. We get into how risk shapes storytelling, particularly in backcountry skiing, and why avalanche education and mountain skills are embedded into the structure of each issue. We contrast that with the more fluid, culture- and craft-driven approach of Mountain Flyer.

Greta shares what it looks like to build an issue on a year-long timeline, why constraints and intention actually make print stronger, and how editing has shaped her voice as a writer. We also touch on the realities of legacy brands in today’s media landscape, competing for advertising dollars, navigating post-COVID industry shifts, and adapting without losing trust.

Stay tuned for more conversations about print in the outdoor space. This episode is part of a multi-week series exploring independent magazines, what’s exciting about this current wave, and the legacy publications that have long been the backbone of outdoor storytelling.

Explore more at Wander Studios

Subscribe to the Wander Substack for long-form essays and interviews.

Follow along on Instagram 

Wander is an independent platform centered on movement, creativity, and connection in the outdoor space. We share conversations with athletes, creatives, and culture-shapers building thoughtful lives around sport and the landscapes that shape them.

This episode is part of our ongoing print-focused series exploring slow media in the outdoor world.

If you liked this episode, share it with a friend or leave a quick review :)!

In this conversation, halfpipe skier Svea Irving reflects on the path that brought her from growing up at the base of Winter Park to qualifying for her first Olympic Games. She talks about skiing as a family language, learning the sport alongside her brother, and what it’s been like to move through a system that has historically been male-dominated. From early days in all-mountain programs to earning a spot on the U.S. Ski Team as a teenager, Svea shares how access, environment, and family shaped both her skiing and her sense of self.

The conversation also digs into the reality of an Olympic qualifying season—relentless travel, injuries, and the unique mental pressure of competing against your teammates for limited spots. Svea opens up about navigating a lingering knee injury, spending months on the road without being home, and learning how to manage stress when every run feels like it carries long-term consequences. She breaks down the technical side of halfpipe, explaining how athletes build runs, adapt to conditions, and why the sport can be difficult for casual viewers to fully understand.

Beyond competition, Svea talks about creative work as a way to reconnect with why she skis at all. Her short film Stasis became a chance to step outside the competition lens and show a quieter, more personal side of her relationship with skiing and the outdoors. Looking ahead to the Olympics, she reflects on staying grounded, leaning on music and routine, and reminding herself to enjoy the process. The conversation ultimately centers on balance—between pressure and joy, performance and creativity, and ambition and perspective.

Show Notes!

Svea Irving

Stasis Film

Olympic coverage & schedules

U.S. Ski & Snowboard

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In this episode, photographer Sofieke van Bilsen joins the podcast to talk about finding her way into sports photography, learning to trust her instincts, and documenting elite sport through emotion rather than spectacle.

Sofieke shares how growing up in multiple countries shaped the way she connects with people, why she’s more interested in what happens after the finish line than at it, and what it’s really like working inside massive events like the Olympics. From saying "yolo" and showing up to the European Championships without a press card, to photographing Team Germany, Breaking Four, and long-term running projects with Nike and Global Sports Communications.

We talk about care and responsibility in photographing women’s sport, navigating burnout and adrenaline highs, and why the journey matters more than the end result.

“For me, the story isn’t at the finish line — it’s the emotion that comes after.”“Sport is the holy grail for emotion.”“The journey is a lot more beautiful than the end result.”

Hope you all enoy this conversation!

Sofieke Van Bilsen

Athleta MAG interview

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A conversation with photographer and artist Kenza, reflecting on five years documenting cyclocross and the creative path that led him there. From early experiments and annual team launches to assembling a printed zine that looks back on the work, we talk about what it means to build something slowly, stay curious, and let a project evolve over time!

The conversation moves beyond outcomes and into process—where ideas come from, how they shift, and what it takes to actually follow through. Kenza shares how painting, print, and working outside traditional cycling spaces have shaped his approach to photography, and why collaborating closely with athletes often leads to more honest, engaging work.

At its core, this episode is about learning how to look. About slowing down enough to notice what catches your eye, understanding why it matters, and translating that feeling into something real. A reflection on creativity inside and outside of sport, and making work that feels alive rather than finished.

READ THIS INTERVIEW

KENZA

SAFTY PIN STUDIO

CYCLECROSS IS DEAD

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Sydney Peterson grew up encrusted Butte Colorado which is the kind of mountain town that will shape a person into who they are before they can realize it. Sydney is a professional Trail runner for Brooks raised by ski bum parents and surrounded by Mountain culture. Sydney was initially pulled towards team sports spending her earlier years playing basketball and volleyball and then she found running later in high school and college and credits the late start to a team sports background which helped her develop as a more well-rounded athlete who was then able to come to running with more excitement than burnout.

In this episode we chat about Sydney's Journey from Colorado State's cross country and track team, her experience with Collegiate running and how her study progression was laying the foundation for what came next. that next chapter arrived unexpectedly intro running beginning with the image and pass run alongside her mom and then leading up to a breakout performance at broken arrow  showing up at  at the race with no expectations and leaving with a changed trajectory

We also get into What followed which includes joining Brooks making the World Championships team racing in Europe heading straight into the Golden Trail World Series. Sydney also talked about how important her community is and the grounding work of her world rural Health Care still plays in her life which helps the balance between being a professional athlete and career.

SHOW NOTES

Sydney Peterson
Brooks Running

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