How Tribe is fighting to end modern slavery with ultra marathons and plant-based nutrition

Tom Stancliffe and Rob Martineau speak to Sean Russell about how their consumer brand is helping the fight against one of society’s most monstrous issues

‘We found ourselves in these beautiful, mountainous, wild places holding really synthetic products,’ says Stancliffe (Tribe)

It started at the 251km Marathon des Sables in Morocco in 2012. Three corporates from the City met while training to run six marathons back to back through the desert and realised they all wanted to do something more meaningful with their lives. After many more kilometres and events, Tribe was born, but back then, in Morocco, they were just young men with few obligations and a desire to push themselves to the limit. Then they started finding ways to push other people to the limit and, most importantly, raise money to end modern slavery.

“We loved the challenge and adventure and asked ourselves how we could top a marathon in the desert,” says Tom Stancliffe, one of Tribe’s co-founders, over Zoom from their offices in London. “The idea was, let’s see if we can do 1,000 miles. It felt natural, in a very unhinged way, to keep escalating and pushing ourselves further and obviously, the fundraising element was massive.”

The answer was Run For Love. In 2013, Stancliffe, Rob Martineau and Guy Hacking set out on a 1,000 mile (1,600km) run from Ukraine to Croatia, raising £240,000 to fight child trafficking in the process and were joined at various times by some 250 people. From then on, Run For Love has become the yearly monument of Tribe’s events list – to which anyone can sign up – taking place on different routes every year.