Ryan Ford on Farcaster

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Why we're raising $100k for Apex Speed Run through @juicebox 📈 Since 2004, we’ve lived and breathed parkour—training, competing, and coaching dozens of champions in parkour-based sports. This gave us a front-row seat to a recurring cycle: raw disciplines getting packaged, polished, and pulled away from their roots.

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In 2010, Ninja Warrior emerged as a perfect application of our parkour skills. Our Apex athletes crushed it for a few years, but then the cracks began to show: a shift from pure talent to TV-friendly spectacle, obstacles more fantastical than functional, fairness exchanged for flash. As a community, we gradually stepped away as it strayed from what originally drew us in.

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Meanwhile, parkour competitions were picking up steam in the late 2010s, and Apex athletes excelled once again. Competitions by parkour gyms and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) were growing and competing on a similar timeline. Both leaned into purpose-built courses, invites, qualifications, and fees.

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Gym competitions, hosted by parkour brands, tried to keep things closer to parkour values, but FIG? A shameless, full-fledged gymnastics takeover—outdoor, sure, but purpose-built and a cultural mismatch all the same. Not only were we there from the start, but Apex was the first to publicly denounce and withdraw from FIG events.

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Then, around 2020, World Chase Tag (WCT) exploded onto the scene. We jumped in early and saw great success—6 championships, including the 2022 world title. But the deeper we got, the more familiar it felt: commercialization, centralization, corporate takeovers, and the gradual death of its grassroots origins.

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From the proliferation of ninja and parkour competitions in the 2010s, to WCT in the 2020s—we’ve been in the thick of international sporting trends, watching the vicious cycle on loop. Niche sports keep trading simplicity for complexity, accessibility for exclusivity, and autonomy for money.

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Enter the open-source, decentralized nature of Apex Speed Run—permanent, outdoor speed courses set in public spaces that cut through the noise: just you, the environment, and the clock. No paywalls, no fluff, just free training and competitive opportunities, open-sourced to anyone, anytime, anywhere. We keep building for the love, and because it sharpens our skills. Better yet, new people keep joining the project, running courses, and loving it too.

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We have momentum, but to more quickly grow and scale the project in 2025, we need your support. It’s not about fighting or tearing down what already exists; it’s about building a better alternative that embodies the original values of parkour.

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