“I think differently. Not better or worse. Just differently.”
There’s a story I saw posted that shows Xavi Güell walking to dinner with family and friends. Dressed casually, what’s noticeable is the way he floats from one small group to the next. And as we sit talking in the living room of his house—high above Girona on the hillside of Montjuïc—there’s this same sense of movement as he punctuates each sentence with the motion of his hands.
Nodding towards his Rocket espresso machine on the kitchen countertop—it’s mid morning and Xavi is enjoying a second cup of coffee—I open our conversation by asking what makes him feel happy and content.
“In general? Everything and nothing in particular. When I’m surrounded by my friends, when I’m riding my bike. And to be fair, we smile and laugh a lot at Athletic Affair.”
This mention of Athletic Affair refers to the sports marketing business he founded two years ago with friend and colleague Jordi Pujol. Not a communication or PR agency, he’s quick to point out, but a vehicle for helping brands and the most recent chapter in a career that saw him launch an online fashion TV channel whilst still studying at university.
“I was 22 years old and did everything myself. I created the concept, the brand and purchased the servers. With Athletic Affair, we are a small team but I still have a hand in 90% of the projects we take on. So maybe I have some issues in this regard that I need to work on [laughs].”
Growing up in a small coastal town to the south of Barcelona, Xavi is eager to acknowledge his parents as important influences. Having both created their own fashion companies, in the summer when his teenage school friends were spending time on the beach, Xavi would travel with his father on business trips to Italy.
“Even from this relatively young age, I knew that one day I would start creating my own companies. And then, after enrolling at university to study business administration, I soon realised I was reading more books that weren’t on the syllabus than the ones that were. So I sat down with my parents and explained how I was planning on dropping out to focus 100% on my fashion TV start-up; the first of its kind.”
Having now turned 40 and with home today doubling as an office, he finds himself in the enviable position of being able to choose which brands to work with.
“My aim with Athletic Affair is to have fun. So if a client repeats, that’s very satisfying. And when we establish a connection that blurs this line—when they get so comfortable they treat you as a friend—you know that something very special is happening.”
As a business helping brands with their marketing, Xavi naturally has his own opinions about what works, what’s outdated and what’s next.
“It does depend on the client. And many brands invest a lot of money on social media platforms so it’s not always easy to suggest a different direction. But I do have this small obsession that when WhatsApp or Instagram go down, you get people saying how much they enjoy the break. And this leads me to question why we invest so much in these platforms?”
“So if the client is happy to give us some freedom, we are moving more towards podcasting. This is the media type that I consume the most—maybe because I can remember sitting with my grandfather listening to the radio. Combine this with a good quality newsletter and you have an engaging approach to marketing a brand.”
With their own Monday Break newsletter, the team behind Athletic Affair share what inspires them as individuals—whether a book they’ve read and enjoyed, an inspirational piece of filmmaking, or a trail running route that others can follow.
“We are a relatively young company so our newsletter acts as a shop window for what we do. And because we are based in Girona, we have this huge and varied community so it’s good to tie all these elements together.”
With Athletic Affair responsible for all the event communications at this year’s Traka, the gravel race continues to grow a global audience but also face some negativity following reports of friction between competitors, their supporters and the local population.
“I think it can be a good thing when there are haters, no? And the cycling scene in Girona is much smaller than some people would have you believe. When I lived in London, you rode to work and then to the pub for drinks or an art exhibition to view some paintings. So there’s still work to be done in Girona with promoting cycling as a way of life and not just as a sporting activity. At the moment, Girona is a cycling destination but we need to transform it to being a cycling city.”
“Running is also seeing this wave of interest together with a little pushback. Possibly because it’s quick and easy to throw on a pair of sneakers and some shorts and question why you need a super expensive, technical tee. But whatever your stance, we have good weather and good food and at Athletic Affair we receive an increasing number of emails from big running brands asking what they can do in Girona.”
This talk of varied interests prompts me to ask Xavi about his personal project The Cycling Culture. An outlet for his talents as a digital creator, I question whether the technological tools we now have at our disposal make it easier to create extraordinary content or more challenging?
“You take something as ubiquitous as the latest smartphone and it’s clear how much easier it is to make good quality content—it’s super democratic. But a lot depends on the eye that is looking and the reach you have to engage. It’s like I always say regarding magazines. You can have a mass media publication that sells shit news or a beautifully finished magazine printed on perfect paper that has a more limited audience. Too often the people in charge of social media are more focused on the numbers which is not, personally, to my taste.”
“Before Covid my own creative inspiration came from travelling—not for work or a holiday, but to soak up ideas and experiences. But since the pandemic, I find that I’m also looking to magazines and books. Architecture, fashion but not sport. I try not to consume the same things that I’m creating.”
With a mind continually busy creating new ideas, Xavi claims he never switches off completely but doesn’t consider these thoughts to be work—his relaxed demeanour and easy laugh suggesting he’s found a happy medium between the needs of his clients and the time he spends with those dear to him.
“Home, for me, is not so much the place but the life you can live there. It’s the conversations with friends, the meals you share and the walks on the beach where you can smell the sea and hear the waves.”
With Xavi recently returned from southern Spain and Badlands—Athletic Affair co-hosted a pre-race podcast with Velocio—I finish up our conversation by asking what’s next on the horizon that feels exciting?
“For the Traka, we took a space in the centre of Girona that we called Casa Athletic. Not as an office but somewhere we could grow our community. We hosted a series of events and it was great fun. So one of our goals is to re-imagine Casa Athletic so that when you visit Girona you have this space where you can work and meet people and where you’ll receive a warm welcome. This makes perfect sense to me and I would love this to become a reality.”
All imagery with kind permission of Xavi Güell
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