Why This Former Nobull Exec and CrossFit Legends Mat Fraser and Brooke Wells Created a New Training Brand

In early 2023, Todd Meleney left Nobull, the training shoe company he had worked for for a decade, eager to create something extraordinary in a competitive, crowded market.

“I was ready to create something new and was lucky to have the best team join me in what’s next,” Meleney, co-founder and CEO of While on Earth, told FN. “We have and continue to provide agency consulting services to brands in the fitness and wellness space, but we took the time to evaluate the market, our careers, and the opportunity to create something we were passionate about. This drew us to this wellness space and led us down a path of what wellness means to us now compared to 10 years ago.”

This path led Meleney and his team to create While on Earth. According to Meleney, While on Earth is not a traditional training shoe and apparel brand. Instead, they call it a performance wellness brand.

“We joke that this is a new category, but we call it performance wellness because wellness is hard to describe, but performance wellness has more intention,” Meleney said. “It takes taking active steps to improve your health. That could be training for your first 5K, signing up for your first CrossFit class, or taking your first cold plunge. We want to inspire people to have the courage and drive to do these things because we believe they’ll feel better if they do.”

The brand is focused on creating products for all types and levels of fitness and wellness enthusiasts.

“They’re active three days a week or more, and activity could mean being in the gym, doing high-intensity training or yoga or ballet. It could also mean breathing exercises and meditation or saunas and cold plunges,” Meleney explains. “The range is people who are just starting out — it can be daunting to do something new, but we want to inspire people to get started — all the way to competitive high-intensity training.”

At While on Earth, which is scheduled to launch on September 18, Meleney is surrounded by familiar faces. For example, three of his team came from Nobull — Alexis Callahan (vice president of business operations), Jed Magnusson (vice president of marketing), and Chris Yonuss (vice president of operations). Also on the While on Earth team is Sam Kelly, formerly of advertising agency Fair Folk, who is the brand’s creative director.

The While on Earth founding team includes two CrossFit legends: Brooke Wells and Mat Fraser. Wells is a nine-time CrossFit Games competitor and author, who published Resilience: The Secret Story of CrossFit’s Greatest Comeback in January. As for Fraser, he is a five-time CrossFit Games champion and held the title of “Fittest Man on Earth” from 2016 to 2020.

Prior to While on Earth, Wells was a longtime athlete at Nobull, while Fraser was backed by Nike. According to Melanie, both Wells and Fraser joined While on Earth as co-founders and investors.

“When we thought about building a brand that was relevant from the beginning and engaging people and inspiring movement and people, the possibility of having Matt and Brooke on board was very exciting to me,” Melanie said. "Matt has been one of the faces of Nike training for 10 years. After retiring a few years ago, he would run a worldwide sell-out shoe every year, and Brooke is one of the faces of women's fitness and CrossFit."

Meleney says Wells is deeply involved in the creative direction of women's products, as is Matt, with a focus on footwear development for the brand.

The first shoe to launch from While on Earth is the Move Trainer.

"It's the all-purpose fitness shoe you need for whatever you want to do," Meleney says. "If you're going away for a long weekend and can only bring one pair of shoes, you should bring the Move Trainer. It's versatile, comfortable, and most importantly, it's great to wear in and out of the gym."

While on Earth built the Move Trainer with its own knit technology, called ThriveKnit, which is "heavily reinforced" on the inside for stability and support in intense conditions. In addition, the shoe, which Meleney describes as "extremely comfortable and lightweight," has a TPU shield that wraps around the outside of the shoe for lateral support and abrasion resistance.

The While on Earth Move Trainer comes in four colorways — “Dune,” “White,” “Harbor Blue,” and “Beet” — and retails for $150 and is available through Whileonearth.co. Meleney said more colorways will be available later this year.

Looking ahead, Meleney revealed the brand’s broader plans for footwear.

“We are working on a multi-year roadmap for footwear development, and we will be launching a variety of new styles starting in 2025,” he said. “We want to meet our audience in all areas of activity that they engage in. That can be running, recovery, high-intensity environments where you need something different than what the current trainers offer. We run, lift, sauna, and cold shower, and our product will meet those needs.”

In terms of retail strategy, Meleney said While on Earth will begin direct-to-consumer and work with strategic retail wholesale partners, and the brand will also ship internationally from the start. Additionally, the executive said the team will be looking for wholesale partners that fit the brand’s DNA “at the right time in 2025.”

“The goal for the first year was to increase brand awareness and relevance, and to express the meaning behind While on Earth,” Meleney explains, “so that people who engage with the brand can really understand its meaning and start to build community.”