As senior manager of development at the American Lung Association, a role that includes overseeing the organization’s charity team for next month’s TCS New York City Marathon, Calloway Korbisch is always on the hunt for unique merchandise to gift the non-profit’s top fundraisers and event participants. So, when Dispatch Running founder Jason Manis reached out this summer, Korbisch listened.

Manis explained Dispatch: a new running brand built around performance running hats with interchangeable patches allowing runners to tell their story through the races, teams and milestones that matter to them. Manis pitched the idea of providing Dispatch hats and an American Lung Association patch to the charity team’s marathoners. Korbisch was intrigued by the product’s novelty and versatility and ordered hats for her 11-member New York City Marathon team.

“I like the hats because some of our runners run all around the world, and I thought it would be a great gift for them to continue to add to throughout their running careers,” Korbisch says.

His ‘lightbulb moment’

The Tennessee-bred, Brooklyn-based Manis founded Dispatch earlier this year, drawing inspiration from his two previous experiences running the New York City Marathon.

In his debut marathon, Manis ran in honor of his late father for Tedy’s Team, a non-profit raising awareness and funds for stroke and heart disease research. With “Jason” printed across his top, random fans cheered his name and shouted encouragement, stirring motivation that propelled him to the finish line. In his second marathon, however, Manis ditched the personalized singlet.

“It was a completely different experience,” he recalls.

No shouts of “Go Jason!” No “You got this, Jason!” No “Keep going, Jason!”

All was not lost, however, as Manis’s second marathon sparked the idea for Dispatch. He envisioned a product with graphic versatility rather than permanence.

“And a hat seemed like a perfect canvas to do that,” Manis says.

Dispatch offers a performance running hat with a collection of interchangeable patches runners can attach and detach as they wish via performance Velcro. The upstart company’s currently available patches include options celebrating major marathons like New York and Chicago, finishing goals like “Sub 4” and a customizable name patch.

The charity opportunity

With fall marathon season approaching, the entrepreneurial Manis began reaching out to non-profits knowing many marathon charity teams provide their runners swag for the event.

“I originally built Dispatch with individual runners in mind, but charity teams have quickly become one of the most compelling use cases,” says Manis, who has competed in numerous events as a charity runner and will run this month’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon for the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Manis found non-profits liked the ability to have a customized patch for their organization and enjoyed gifting runners a high-value product they could use down the line.

“It’s branded. It’s customizable. It’s small and compact. We thought it was a brilliant idea,” says Janine Guzzone, who leads the marathon team at Crime Victims Treatment Center (CVTC), a New York City-based non-profit that offers free healing services to victims of violent crimes.

CVTC committed to purchasing hats for its 10 charity marathoners, who together are aiming to raise more than $40,000 for the organization. Dispatch created a package for CVTC with the hat and four patches – the runner’s individual name alongside patches for CVTC, New York City and Dispatch Running.

“The customization is so cool because it’s four hats in one,” Guzzone says.

Beyond the NYC Marathon

CVTC and the American Lung Association are two of the five nonprofit teams moving forward with Dispatch ahead of this year’s NYC Marathon. Manis has worked directly with the nonprofits to design their specific patch, and he says many see the interchangeable patches as a tool to incentivize runners to fundraise beyond their minimums.

“Raise more, earn more patches,” Manis says.

Moving forward, Manis sees an opportunity to further expand Dispatch’s collaboration with non-profits, both in extending relationships with early adopters and stretching his company’s reach to other races and charity marathon teams.

“What’s been most exciting about building Dispatch is seeing the idea become bigger than just the product,” he says. “It started with wanting to give runners a way to tell their own story, and now we’re seeing teams and charities use it to represent the communities and causes they’re running for.”

In addition to non-profits, Manis, who is running his third New York City Marathon next month, hopes to heighten Dispatch’s relationship with run clubs. He would also like to pursue a presence in run specialty shops, for whom he can develop custom patches in addition to offering an assortment of in-stock options.

“Ultimately, we want to offer the hat runners grab when they’re heading out the door for a run,” Manis says.