Two of the Fittest People on Earth Have a New Sneaker Brand

The dream team of fitness has assembled, and the footwear industry has a new name that’s immediately going to get eyeballs. That’s not easy for an upstart sneaker maker to accomplish, but when you find out who’s behind it, you’ll understand the potential.

The brand, While on Earth, is the brainchild of Todd Meleney, who previously served as CMO at No Bull, nine-time CrossFit Games athlete Brooke Wells, and five-time CrossFit Games champion Mat Fraser.

While on Earth has been moving secretly over the past few months, but is set to launch this week with its first shoe, the Move Trainer.

“It's for movement, whatever that looks like for you, but also such that if you're going away for a long weekend and you can only pack one shoe, this is the shoe you pack because it's versatile,” says Meleney. “You can train in it, but you can also wear it to dinner and everywhere in between. We'll have all the colors that people could imagine.”

The shoe has a knit upper and is built on a unique midsole that requires four different manufacturing molds for the midsole, outsole, TPU guard, and heel clip. It’s a shoe that’s worn by some of the fittest humans on the planet for performance, but also made to be worn in their daily lives.

Fraser served as the face of Nike Training for nearly a decade, from 2014 to 2023, but said he’d very rarely wear those Nike sneakers outside of his workouts because the midsole was too hard. His signature edition Nike Metcons, dubbed the Matcons, would sell out on Nike’s website and resell over retail on sites like StockX.

And Wells, who was at No Bull for years with Meleney, is recovering from a torn plantar fascia and needs a shoe she can train in that’s also softer on her feet.

The two athletes came together with the marketing genius and industry knowhow of Meleney to create a brand that’s developed an anticipatory following even before its public launch. Wells wore the shoes to compete at this year’s CrossFit Games, and her Instagram was flooded with comments from people asking what the shoes were. Now we know.

I had the opportunity to talk to Meleney, Wells, and Fraser before the While on Earth launch this week. The sneakers retail for $150 and can be purchased here. The conversation, edited for clarity, appears below.

What was it like for all three of you to connect on this shoe project?
Todd Meleney: Brooke and I have worked together for quite a long time. She was really early on with No Bull, so we go back 10 years, but Mat and I do, too, working really more alongside each other. But I think he'll remember this, and Brooke, I don't even know if you know this, but we had a formal offer to Mat to be one of the first No Bull athletes back in 2014 or 2015. And thankfully, for Mat, he ended up becoming a Nike athlete. But 10 years later, for us all three to be coming together to build something new is pretty full circle.

And how did the shoe process go? How involved, Matt and Brooke, were you in creating this sneaker?
Mat Fraser: It was wild. Like Todd said, we had been in the same spheres for 10 years and a ton of mutual friends, so we would overlap all the time. And then the whiffs of Todd being, "Oh, I want to do my own thing." And for myself, it was just like, oh my gosh, I hope I get the opportunity to work with Todd. I've been envious of people like Brooke, who for years got to work with him and I was on the perimeter. We're friends, we get along, we're around each other all the time. I wanted to do something. As soon as the conversation started, I'm on the edge of my seat just waiting. 

And Brooke for you to work on the shoe?
Brooke Wells: Yeah, me and Todd have been wanting to work. Well, we've been working together for a long time, but I wanted to start something together and the conversation has been ongoing for a while, but we were both with No Bull at the time, so we wanted to do a company. We weren't sure what it was going to be because we obviously were with No Bull, which was a shoe and apparel company, so when the opportunity came to work on a shoe together, it was just, OK, this is exactly what we wanted to do. We weren't sure on the timing of it or what the product was going to be, but it's definitely what we're both the best at is knowing what kind of shoe I want to train in or outside of the gym. It all came together perfectly.

Brooke Wells with the Move Trainer, Image via While on Earth

I feel like all of you were pretty good at keeping it a secret. Because I know Mat, you were wearing R.A.D. shoes for a bit, Brooke, you were wearing Reebok clothing with No Bull shoes, but I think everyone knew that something was going on. How were you able to keep all of this behind the scenes before you launched it?
BW: Quite honestly, we didn't really have anything for a little bit. I wasn't even able to wear the shoe, but we control our content as well so just no posting any of the testing of the shoes and stuff.

MF: It has been one of those things that it's you want to scream it from the mountaintop, you want to tell everyone, "We're working on something incredible." And from the personal side, too, just like I'm so proud of it, I never thought I would get to be this involved with something like this. But you just contain the excitement even when it's, alright, I want to go parade around this conversation. It's just a conversation, just wait, just wait. It has been, I don't know how to describe it, actually getting to tell people. And people ask me like, "Oh, new sponsorship?" I'm like, "No, no, no, not a sponsorship. I'm involved in the branding also." It is just super exciting, but it's tough. You tell the loved ones around you and you're, alright, you can't tell anyone.

Todd, did you have any motivation to make this bigger than No Bull? Was that motivating you at all to stick it to them?
TM: No, I wouldn't say we're motivated by making it bigger than No Bull, but I would say we are motivated by building something that's really impactful and that can have a real positive impact on the people that are involved with the business and with the brand. And for us, that's about creating products that we love because we live the lifestyle that our customers live, but then ultimately creating something that hopefully our customers can be really proud to wear and support. And if we do that really well, we think it can have a big impact and last for a really long time. And we talk about building a timeless brand, and that's what this is about, more so than the competitive nature, which we all definitely do have. And that comes out in moments behind the scenes, but it's really much more about a new brand at a new time with a new purpose, thinking about the future.

Mat Fraser with the Move Trainer, Image via While on Earth

What was the wear-test process like on the shoe? Matt, I know in the past that with Nike, you were really hands-on. When CrossFit had the sponsorship with Reebok, you were putting the Metcon insoles into the shoes and had a lot of input into the 7 series and beyond. What was that like making sure the shoe was right for you?
MF: Todd sends them to me, I put them through their paces. I've still got a couple pairs of shoes on rotation and it's like you just think about, alright, what can I do that's tough on these shoes? Where do I want them tested and let's go give it a whirl. Lots of squatting in them and lots of rope climbs and you're just torture testing them, seeing, alright, how do they break, where do they break, what do they need to be put through? And I think I'm pretty good at that.

Brooke, for you being with No Bull for so long and the shoes being real similar for years, what was it like training in something new?
BW: It was crazy because I hadn't really worn a different shoe in nine years, so I honestly put them on and I was, oh my gosh. It's crazy how much better I think these shoes are just because I've been so used to what I wore for so long. But I think that's been the really cool thing is that these are actually way more comfortable to me. And I feel like they're very versatile and not only do I train in them every day in the gym, but also my friends that aren't necessarily in CrossFit, they love to wear them to do whatever fitness they like if it's just going on walks or whatever. I think it's a very versatile shoe that's not only going to be in a CrossFit audience, which I think is going to be really cool.

While on Earth Move Trainer, Image via While on Earth

Is there one feature on the shoe that either of you were super excited about and you felt that stood out the most while you were training in them?
MF: I'm so used to having such a firm bottom shoe all the time so these just being more comfortable just for everything else in between the day and the wearability outside, I rarely ever wore Metcons out. It was like those were my training shoe and that's where they ended just because they serve a purpose—they were very hard-bottomed. And so these were just much, much more comfortable. And so when I leave the gym, I'm not kicking them off right away. They're my everyday shoe, they're my training shoe, everything.

BW: I would definitely agree with the bottom being more comfortable. I tore my plantar fascia, so the bottom of my foot is very sensitive now, and these shoes, they don't bother that at all, and it's the most comfort that I've ever had.

Are there going to be any special colorways that any of you have planned so far, as far as signature designs?
MF: I think I'm wearing one of the unreleased colorways right now. They're my favorite ones.

TM: We've got four colors for launch next week, and then we've got a whole range of colors that will be coming out starting this holiday season. And then definitely introducing some more limited edition things as we get into next year. This is just one colorway that hasn't been launched yet. Brooke actually did wear these at the CrossFit Games competing. And if you go look at her Instagram post in these, the first 10 comments are just, "What are those shoes?" The shoe takes color really well and even just in a different color in the same materials looks so visually different than some others. And here's just a black version that's a little bit. Everyone wears black shoes, but it adds a lot of versatility.

Matt O'Keefe, Mat Fraser, Brooke Wells, and Todd Meleney, Image via While on Earth

And it seems like you have a big push on the apparel, too.
TM: The apparel launches in early November. We have a collection for men and women, and Brooke worked really closely on the women's collection in particular. She did an amazing job with that, thankfully, because I know very little about it apparently. And we have multiple sets for women that she can talk about a little bit, but that we're really excited about.

BW: It's been so fun. It's been a learning process for sure because this is the first time I've really gotten to be so involved in it. But it's been so much fun to try to figure out lifestyle versus performance, which materials are the best. But I tested a bunch of different materials, and so finding the best one for sweating and what I like to compete in has been really fun. We'll have some lines that are for competing and for high intensity workouts, but then we'll also have a line for yoga or for going to the coffee shop or just hanging out. It has definitely been a fun process and I'm excited to keep working on it.

And Mat, does your engineer mind just go nuts when you're presented with different performance elements and what really works and what?
MF: Yeah, the engineering mind really gets going when you start watching the CNC machines going, making the molds for the demo shoes and stuff like that. Seeing all of that is very cool. As an engineering student, that's your dream is getting to play with that type of stuff. But the same as where I'm not as involved on the apparel side as Brooke, but same critiques, notes, all that stuff. Just, "Hey, here's a T-shirt, try it out. Here's shorts, try it out, give me your notes." And it's like, "Yep, just little tweaks here and there." But it's been a wild process.

I just want to ask you all what's next or what can people expect from the brand going forward?
TM: I would say we're going to create a whole range of products that are people that live a fitness and wellness lifestyle. And we've only just started that with the trainer and with the collection of apparel that we'll be coming out with. But we've got 18 to 24 months of new footwear and apparel that's in development. We'll start seeing some of that product next week. And we live the same lifestyle our customers do, and we're going to create products that we love. And if it stands up to Matt and Brooke, then I think it's going to be fine for the rest of us.

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