How Nike-Turned-Lululemon Athlete Colleen Quigley Continues to Hurdle Over Adversity

(Lead image via Cortney White)

Running is multifaceted. Distances from 100-meter sprints to 26.2 miles. Obstacles from hurdles to water pits. Venues from small qualifiers to representing an entire country at the Olympics once every four years.

If there’s one thing running isn’t, it’s a cakewalk.

For Colleen Quigley, running is a teacher. The track is a classroom. The steeple hurdles are the exams. But it doesn’t stop there.

Quigley isn’t your typical athlete (not that any two athletes are the same to begin with). She’ll let you know when she had a bad run. She won’t shy away from celebrating victories, no matter their size. She also won’t take challenges and opportunities like you’d expect — she’ll run against the grain.

Following her time at Florida State University where she made a name for herself, the middle-distance runner signed her first-ever pro contract in 2015 with Nike. In 2021, when her contract was up, Quigley did what she does best — she ran toward an opportunity, rather than running from one.

Quigley joined Lululemon, becoming the latest athlete to join the apparel giant that has shifted its focus to performance in not only signing high-level athletes but introducing a footwear line geared towards training, weightlifting, and recovery.

In June 2022, Quigley returned to Portland and its iconic Hayward Field — this time as a Lululemon athlete.

Quigley raced for the first time in years, right in the backyard of her former sponsor. While the return was meant to be a victory for both the runner and the brand, Quigley scratched from the final following an injury after her preliminary race.

But if you think that’s going to stop her from running, you don’t know Quigley.

We spoke to Colleen Quigley about her career, joining the Lululemon team, and what to expect on and off the track from the Olympic athlete. 

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Nice Kicks: The 2022 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships didn’t go as planned after having to scratch from the final heat. I’m sure you’ve been going through a lot of emotions. From the homecoming at Hayward to then not running the final. What’s it been like? 

Colleen Quigley: It’s been a rollercoaster. Competing on Friday (June 24, 2022) for the first time at Hayward Field since they redid it and experiencing it as an athlete was really cool and something I had been looking forward to for a while. 

To be able to wear the Lululemon kit that I had helped create with the team in Vancouver for the first time on a big stage was special. I wasn’t the only one wearing it either. We had three athletes competing. Last year when I signed with Lululemon, I was the only athlete who was competing at Olympic Trails and now we have three. 

I finished the race and knew my foot wasn’t going to be good, and I hobbled over to the team. Everyone was all at the finish line. We had a team moment which was special. 

As soon as I went underneath the stadium after the race, I realized I couldn’t put any weight on my foot and had to get in a wheelchair to take me to the medical tent and meet the doctor, coach, and figure out what to do with my foot. 

One race is better than none. Here we are.

NK: You’ve mentioned in the past, after signing with Lulu, that you felt that all eyes were on you. Expectations were different, especially after not running in the Tokyo Olympics and not racing in a long time. And then donning the kit you helped create with Lulu. That’s a lot. How has the pressure been, internal or external? 

CQ: I realized after last summer when I dropped out of the Olympic Trials and had to call my Lululemon team that I wasn’t going to be able to compete because my foot was so bad. I was limping. I couldn’t do it. I was nervous about that call. They had just invested in me and backed me. When I signed, I told them I made the team every single year emdash I tried five times and made the Olympic team five times. 

It was a mixture of embarrassment and that I let them down because I didn’t hold up my side of the bargain. I felt so sad to make that call.

The support I got from them on the other end was amazing coming from the situation I was coming before with a more traditional sponsor who only cares about performance. Lululemon told me “we just want you to be healthy and happy doing what you love. That’s how you can be the best ambassador for us — being a leader and advocate and an elite athlete. You don’t have to win every time.“ When they say that, it’s almost hard to believe it because no one else is saying that. No other brand has those values.

It was special for them to say it to me but also show it to me that that was the case. When shit hit the fan, they showed that they cared about me and they weren’t tied to results like every other brand in track and field is. 

I realized at that moment I thought the pressure came from external sources sponsors fans family. When I got myself in a situation where my coach couldn’t be more supportive and couldn’t be more invested in me as a human being, and my sponsor is the same way, it’s me. There’s no one left to blame. I have control of that theoretically. I need to figure out how to let it go — the expectations I put on myself, the expectations to make it on the team. Giving myself the time and space to do that it’s become apparent that it’s the pressure that I put on myself.

It’s a blessing to realize that the pressure and expectations I put on myself that make it not fun, I have control over. 

NK: You left Nike and subsequently Bowerman Track Club to join Lululemon. I feel like a lot of people who grow up running and love the sport look up to (Steve) Prefontaine, (Bill) Bowerman, and Nike’s historic legacy. For you, what were that decision and process like as an individual but also as a woman in the sport? 

CQ: People hold on to that legacy of the brand.

For me, I don’t love traditions. I think there are a lot of things traditionally that we do in our society that is outdated and doesn’t make sense, but we keep doing them because it’s tradition. 

So many people love Nike because of the tradition and what the brand stood for, the big players who started it & were at the forefront of it. Those people aren’t there anymore. You have so many people who have joined the brand since then and they might not have the same values that the company once stood for. But people have a hard time letting that go.

I pushed back on the notion that Nike is so great, perfect, and powerful. It was interesting to see who didn’t want me to leave the brand and who was excited to see me partner with a brand that aligned better with their values. 

Breaking traditions can be hard. Anything you do something different, people are uncomfortable at first. They’ll adjust. 

NK: You’re not the only high-profile athlete to leave Nike as of late. Allyson Felix, Simone Biles, and now yourself. It’s interesting that outspoken women are leaving the brand, betting on themselves, and allowing themselves to be them rather than an athlete of a brand. What’s it been like to see other powerful, resilient women start a new chapter? 

CQ: I’m not at the same level as them. I bow down to both of them. Allyson’s brother, Wes Felix, was my agent who helped me with the Lululemon deal. She was a big part of why I felt brave enough to leave Nike. If Allyson can do it, I’m not the same level as her, it’s easier for me to leave. People were so shocked to see her leave. I saw her do it, and it gave me courage.

She’s always been a leader in our sport. When she speaks, you listen. 

NK: You’ve talked about branding yourself on being more than just an athlete. You’re big on mental health. With the pandemic and managing that, switching sponsors, Olympic Trials, and everything else, how do you value mental health not only in your running but outside of the sport? 

CQ: For athletes, we seem strong and powerful. You see all the highlights. But athletes are people too who are struggling & going through a lot of things and then have to go do the job. That you’ve been working towards. That you’re paid to do. That everyone expecting to do. That you’re representing your country, your team, your sponsors. Athletes don’t want to show that they have any weakness or vulnerability. 

When I’m open and vulnerable to share about injury, there’s confidence from that. I don’t have to act like I’m perfect or invincible. I’m confident in what I’m doing and that I can be transparent. That’s important for fans to see that side of athletes because they can relate better.

They need to know it’s not going to be easy all the time. When they come across something like this, they don’t have to think that “I’m not good enough because the athletes I follow don’t go through this.” 

It needs to be normalized so we can stop having unrealistic expectations. 

NK: Going back to your partnership with Lululemn, what was the process with them like in creating a product, helping develop it, and feedback? 

CQ: It was great to finally go to Vancouver this year and meet the team I was doing Zooms with. They had me in the lab, they had me run on the treadmill, and they did my measurements. I took a selfie with Ha, the woman who helped design my kit. It was so special to be able to go through the process to make a kit that fit me perfectly.

We went through everything to make sure it was exactly what I wanted. I was having so much fun with it. Having a smaller team, they’re able to do that. 

There’s a whole new sense of pride when you run. 

NK: What more can expect from Lululemon in footwear? They’ve been rolling out a lot of footwear but you were still racing in Nikes at Hayward. 

CQ: Lululemon has an everyday running training shoe. That’s what a majority of people are looking for. Spikes are so niche. They knew they wouldn’t sell many and it’s a hard market to get into.

BlissFeel is my trainer. I’ll go on an 8-mile recovery run in those and they feel great. I’ve had conversations with the footwear team about performance footwear — a shoe that I can wear on the track that doesn’t have spikes on the bottom. I don’t wear spikes often, just races or when I practice in the water pit. I need a shoe I can train in that is more aggressive than the BlissFeel. Eventually, I would love to create a spike. 

The BlissFeel took four years to perfect. They scanned the feet of over a million women to create the last. They’re super intentional about it. I know they’re going to take the same approach with the performance shoe. They haven’t started yet, so I get to be a part of it from start to finish — that is such a unique opportunity to do that.

I’ve never been able to be of that process before. 

NK: What’s the legacy you want to leave behind on and off the field?

CQ: I’ve been working a lot with Voice in Sport over the last couple of years.

What attracts me to them is this whole idea of creating a space for girls and women in sport to feel supported, seen, be able to learn, ask questions, and have access to role models. Voice in Sport is the female version of Uninterrupted. It feels like it’s going to be huge.

I try not to think about life after running. With Voice In Sport, I can see myself doing something where I’m still involved in the sport. It’s a strong vehicle to learn life lessons. Most of all, allowing people to explore and feel that they can be themselves: accepted and welcomed.

I don’t know what my role is going to be in all of that yet, but that’s what moves me forward and keeps me going. I know I’m more than what I do on the track.

There’s something to be said for knowing that that’s not everything I can bring to the sport. 

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