👀 HYROX x XENOM?

October 8th, 2026

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🤝 HYROX founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz FĂźrste are investing in XENOM and joining its board as the Decathlon of Fitness prepares to go international in 2027.

  •  đŸ“ˆ Jason Daniel turned his teenage nickname, “Loose Kid,” into a small motocross apparel business that struggled for years to break through. Today, LSKD has 750+ employees, 36 stores, and more than $200 million in annual revenue.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
❝

We see an incredible opportunity to meet the huge unmet demand from people training in boxes, garages, and gyms around the world…for a complete, standardized test of their fitness.”

Keith Barlow, XENOM founder
COMPETITIONS

Functional Fitness Powerhouse HYROX Invests in XENOM

Credit: FittestPR

XENOM, The Decathlon of Fitness™, and HYROX have announced a strategic partnership, signaling no slowdown in the popularity of mass-participation races and a commitment to functional fitness events. 

On Wednesday, the brands announced that HYROX founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz FĂźrste are investing in XENOM and joining its board of directors. The announcement comes as XENOM launches its first international season in 2027, following a successful 2026 season. 

The details: XENOM is a competition with 10 fixed, standardized fitness tests. The events test fitness areas such as strength, gymnastics, and aerobic capacity. The ‘events’ favor those used to CrossFit movements, but are approachable enough for a hybrid athlete to attempt with some specialized training beforehand. 

This format ties in well with HYROX, which has its own standardized set of stations and movements. However, the HYROX race is slightly more approachable to a mass audience as it involves mostly running with a few less technical fitness stations throughout, like the sandbag lunge or burpee broad jump. 

  • Together, HYROX and XENOM now span the full functional fitness competitive landscape, from the world's biggest mass-participation race to its most complete test,” said the press release. “Both recognize how fitness has become a cultural force, a sport people train for all year and a live experience they travel to compete in and to watch.”

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SPEED READS

🤝💰 CrossFit or HYROX? Some Gyms are Choosing Both: Owners who have embraced HYROX alongside CrossFit say it’s helping attract new members, retain existing ones, and create serious new revenue — one gym’s latest HYROX camp grossed $30,000.

📅🔥 The Countdown Is On: CrossFit has announced the dates for the 2027 Open, giving athletes their target as the road to next season gets underway.

🎀 đŸ’— Turning a Cancer Battle Into a Community Mission: After CrossFit Zion rallied around Ashley Baird during her stage 4 breast cancer treatment, her family turned that support into Battle of the Breasts, a nonprofit CrossFit competition that raised roughly $60,000 for local families last year.

ICYMI: Sharks Become First Back-to-Back Grid League Champions (Rx article)

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

From Homemade T-Shirts to a $200 Million Apparel Company: The LSKD Story

Credit: @lskd.usa / Instagram

In 1999, when he was just a teenager, Jason Daniel had a BMX bike crash that would change his life.

Not because he sustained any life-altering injuries, but because the crash earned him the nickname “Loose Kid,” which stuck.

Daniel embraced the nickname and decided to have it printed on a T-shirt. One thing led to another, and soon he was making and selling T-shirts at local motocross events. 

At the time, his T-shirt business was just a hobby, since his real passion was motocross.

  • “I was obsessed with anything and everything I could do to become a pro athlete. I never thought it would become my career. I never thought I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Daniel, the founder of Australian apparel brand LSKD, said.

Still, as a teenager, Daniel kept making and selling T-shirts he and his friends wanted to wear, unaware he was laying the foundation for big things.

The LSKD Journey

After high school, Daniel went to school to become a carpenter, a path he pursued from 2002 to 2007. 

But he quickly realized that “building houses wasn’t where I wanted to be,” he said. That’s when he started to think maybe Loose Kid could become something more than a passion.

In 2007, Daniel officially launched Loose Kid Industries (LKI) and went all in. 

In addition to T-shirts, Loose Kid Industries began selling hats, belt buckles, and other products.

  • “Anything we could make, we would find a way to create,” he said. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

  • 🎂Happy birthday (10/10) to Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet.

  • Happy birthday (10/10) to Kiefer Lammi.

  • Happy anniversary (10/12) to Justin and Ashley Cotler.

  • Check out 15-year-old Roxy mob through these two hang cleans at 95 kilos/209 pounds.

  • 🚴What can’t Sam Dancer do!? Last week he took on the Lead Ore Gravel ride, where he competed 110 miles on a gravel bike. Well done, Sam!