Welcome to Zero Degrees Gear!

We're so glad you're on this journey with us.

We’re John and Chris, just two Texas guys who love running, training, and being outside, even when the heat feels unbearable.

For our “midlife crisis,” we didn’t buy sports cars, we started running ultramarathons. Weekends and too many weeknights were spent grinding the hilly trails of Central Texas, training for long mountain runs. We’re not podium finishers, just weekend warriors who show up and push through. But 100-degree Texas days with the humidity cranked up would wreck us. We’d start strong, then fade fast, heart racing, legs locking up, and every run turning into a survival shuffle. If we wanted to keep going, we had to find a way to stay cooler.

We tried everything, frozen bandanas that turned warm in minutes, high-tech shirts that didn’t deliver. Nothing worked without being bulky, uncomfortable, or falling apart mid-run. So we started tinkering. We talked with other runners, tested ideas, and built prototypes through pure trial, error, and a little sewing help from Chris’s mom.

That’s how Zero Degrees Gear started. Just two friends trying to solve a real problem. Our cooling devices are built for people who train in real heat, lightweight, durable, and designed to help keep your core temperature down so you can hold pace longer and actually enjoy the work. Cold is fast.

We still hit those same brutal Texas hills every chance we get, testing whatever we build next. Being outside is what drives us, and we don’t think heat should stand in the way of that.

Thanks for being here with us. Our goal is simple: to help you keep going because heat shouldn't slow you down. 

- John & Chris, Zero Degrees Gear Co-Founders