How a Miami start-up with a line of loud running shorts found a home in Cary

When Bryce McConville was a runner in high school, his coaches nicknamed him “chicken legs” because of how thin he was. Now, the phrase has taken on a different meaning in his life — it inspired his Cary-based running clothing brand ChicknLegs, which is known for selling shorts with fun and wacky patterns.

McConville said the phrase “chicken legs” is commonly thrown around in the running industry and he wanted to make a community and brand around it, which he started around five and a half years ago.

When McConville first started ChicknLegs, he and his wife, Ana Moreno, were living in Miami and both had full-time jobs — McConville as an analyst in the cruise industry and Moreno as a behavioral analyst working with children with autism.

When the company first launched online, it sold shorts with just one design — plain black, with the ChicknLegs logo. McConville said he wanted to first test the cut of the shorts and make sure they were comfortable and would sell. The first design that the company created and still sells today, though, was its third — rubber ducks.

“The rubber duckies was our first one where we were starting to get a little more wild and crazy and that’s really when we starting taking off because people saw that it was like, ‘Wow that’s new, that’s original, that’s something that we haven’t seen before,’” McConville said. “And then from there, we just got crazier and crazier.”

Chicknlegs now sells four types of shorts — men’s 2 inch split running shorts, men’s 4 inch split running shorts, women’s 1.5 inch split running shorts and women’s 3 inch compression running shorts — featuring dozens of designs. Patterns include peanut butter and jelly, smiley faces, dinosaurs, burritos, flamingos, port-a-potties, donuts, spaghetti and chocolate milk.

A large portion of the company’s early growth was due to its popularity with high school runners, according to McConville. A lot of the brand’s social media marketing caught on with a young demographic due to its more casual tone and the brand’s colorful patterns. McConville said ChicknLegs has continued to foster relationships with high school runners through contests such as “cross country team of the month” and the brand’s annual design contest.

“And then when we go to races and everything, people know us already and they’re excited to see us there,” he said.

Ellen Gregorie, the sales and marketing manager for ChicknLegs, said she she has been hooked on ChicknLegs shorts since she first started running and saw a pair in her local running store. Gregorie said a large part of the brand’s marketing is spotlighting people who love ChicknLegs and sharing pictures that are sent in on social media. One popular theme is for high school students to send pictures of them wearing shorts under outfits at prom, which ChicknLegs shares on its Instagram account.

“We just get a kick out of that,” she said.

McConville said the company aims to put out three new designs a year, in addition to patterns generated from its design contest, where customers can submit their design ideas and the winners will receive free shorts and their designs will be available on the website. This year three designs from the contest were chosen — patterns with sea turtles, strawberries and chickens wearing sunglasses.

About a year ago, the brand started to grow rapidly and McConville and Moreno left their other jobs, started working on ChicknLegs full-time and moved both the company and their family to Cary. Their company now has 10 employees, including interns.

McConville said moving to Cary was due to both personal and business reasons. The couple, who have two children, were attracted to the area due to its safety, good public schools, mild weather and lack of traffic compared to Miami. McConville also said that having so many universities in the area has given the company a great workforce to choose from.

When they were still in Miami, ChicknLegs was run entirely out of McConville and Moreno’s house, but as the brand grew, they realized they needed to invest in a separate space.

“We had just thousands of shorts sitting everywhere and boxes up to the ceiling,” McConville said.

Even though the company now has an office and warehouse space in Cary, it might need to upgrade to a bigger one soon if Chicknlegs continues to see increased demand, McConville said. While ChicknLegs creates its own designs, the company’s products are primarily made in China.

Chicknlegs shorts are now available in 200 running stores around the country, in addition to on the ChicknLegs website. In North Carolina, these stores include Bull City Running in Durham, Fleet Feet locations in Carrboro, Durham and Raleigh and other local running stores. ChicknLegs also has begun participating in events in the Triangle area. Most recently, ChicknLegs had a booth at the Fleet Feet Big Run held in Raleigh.

“When we bring out stuff to events everyone has an amazing time, it just adds a lot of flair to anything because all of our prints, they’re super loud and fun,” he said.

Moving forward, McConville said he hopes to transition the brand from just a shorts company to an all-around running apparel company, one that even professional runners would wear.

“We’re looking to just keep growing,” he said.

This story was originally published June 24, 2023 at 12:22 PM.