As the best men’s marathoners in the world prepared to race in Paris last month, Jake Leschly was waiting at the 3K mark, peeping over the shoulder of the spectator next to him, who was streaming the race broadcast on his phone. Leschly is the CEO of a small three-person company called Omius, which makes a bulky, futuristic-looking headband that purports to keep you cool—and he was about to get a pleasant surprise: “They introduce Kipchoge,” Leschly recalls, “and I’m like, ‘Son of a bitch, he’s wearing it!’”
Omius’s headband first showed up in the triathlon world back in 2019. The fledgling company took a hiatus during the pandemic, but resumed sales in 2022. Triathletes have been enthusiastic: according to Leschly, 43 of the 53 pros at last year’s Women’s Ironman World Championship in Kona wore it, along with a third of the 2,000 age-group competitors.
But the headband’s conspicuous presence at this summer’s Olympic marathons—along with Kipchoge, other notables wearing it included Sifan Hassan and Hellen Obiri, the gold and bronze medalists in the women’s race, and Bashir Abdi, the…
