ARK Sports – from nothing to something

I started my own company in 2002… Rock Solid Studios. Didn’t turn out to be that Rock Solid after all, once we got plagued by psychic vampires, parasites and other douchbags that almost put me and Camilla (my ex-wife and best friend) on the street. Long story… Not for this blog post…

I started Avalanche Studios with Linus in 2003, pretty much at the same time my now oldest daughter, Esther was born. Things have been pretty damn cool since then, business wise. The company has grown, shrunk, grown and most importantly released some awesome games; the Just Cause series (15m+ sold), Renegade Ops, the behemoth project Mad Max and obviously our own franchise theHunter, with seven (7) million (like in a lot of people) players. I am really proud of this achievement.

Obviously running a big company in one of the worlds’ most growing businesses is hard work and it comes with a certain kind of baggage that most aren’t prepared for (me neither) but it’s given. It will hit you in the face sooner or later. Long story… again. It hit me and I’ve been give a lot of thought of leaving the company (No!), setting something up on the side in the games business and so on.. but nothing has felt 100% right. Then I stumbled on this opportunity thanks to my training, passion for adventure, swimming and running – swimrun. Why not make a business out of it? Together with great friends…

So we did.

I’ve been into swimrun since 2014. Not the most experienced guy in the sport and neither an athlete that breaks world records. However, it’s a sport that is fascinating. Not only from the aspect that it’s a crazy sport that most see as extreme, but once you break it down to it’s very DNA it’s pretty damn obvious that we were ment for this. We are really amphibian creatures that moves seamlessly from different environments. I wish one day that swimrun becomes a recreational sport as it combines two of the most healthy ways to stay fit – swimming and running. Plus that you’ll see some crazy nice environments when you exercise.

During the spring we started talking about this project becoming real and we gathered this gang of likeminded people still experts in respective field. During the summer we tested out the first samples / prototypes with Daniel Hansson and Lelle Moberg, Ö till Ö Swimrun World Championship winners and course record holders. With theirs and other leading athletes feedback Daniel Sand could design a suit that we are confident can be the worlds’ fastest swimrun suit, with a streamlined design with minimal details as well as a lower weight than any other suit on the market.

This week we received the first sample of the womens’ suit, tried it out on a very short notice and we were very happy to see that it fit like a glove.

We are now a few days before the mighty Ö till Ö Swimrun World Championship where I will be on the starting line with Daniel Becker, in our HEAD Aero suits. With us in the starting field we have Swedish Armed Forces (Daniel Hansson and Jesper Svensson) as well as Team Addnature/Campz (Kristin Larsson and Annika Ericsson), racing in the ARK Swimrun ‘Ornö’ suit. These super-athletes are super humble and without their feedback this suit would never have become what it is today – something.

This is what I love about starting up a company from nothing to something, from something to good, from good to great. Our goal is set with ARK Sports and we’re not stopping here. This is just the beginning and I am so happy to be in the company of great friends who are super talented in their respective field. We now ENTER THE ARK!