![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_5620-1024x683.jpeg\")
Nerd founder Steven McKenna enjoyed plenty of success as a pro triathlete, winning multiple IRONMAN events before retiring to focus on his business. Photo: Nerd<\/p>\nNerd founder Steven McKenna enjoyed plenty of success as a pro triathlete, winning multiple IRONMAN events before retiring to focus on his business. Photo: Nerd<\/p>\n
When I caught up with Nerd Belts<\/a> founder Steven McKenna, he had just gotten back from a run. A hot run in the blazing sun of his hometown Adelaide, Australia. It was the middle of a heatwave and temperatures were hovering in the mid-90s Fahrenheit. He logged onto our Zoom call sweaty and red in the face, apologizing for his appearance, but explaining that, as a business owner and father of two young children, he had to squeeze his runs in whenever he could.<\/p>\n He proceeded to unclip his hydration belt (a must-have for McKenna on his runs in that heat) from his waist, giving us the perfect segue into the reason for our call. McKenna is a recently retired professional triathlete who is now dedicating his time to running (he has a marathon PB of 2:16:42), his family and his work with Nerd Belts \u2014 a project that started out as a one-of-one product and has grown into a full-fledged business that triathletes around the world are endorsing. <\/p>\n Racing as a Pro<\/p>\n Before McKenna ever ventured into the worlds of business and product design, he was, as already mentioned, a professional triathlete. Growing up, he was a high-level junior runner, but after years in the sport and missing out on national medals season after season, he \u201cwas angry at running\u201d and moved on to playing \u201cfooty\u201d (Australian rules football) instead. <\/p>\n McKenna says he had spent much of his teenage years training and remaining committed to running, so when he switched over to footy, he was happy to \u201cjust be a normal person\u201d and not live so diligently. Australian football led to a broken leg for McKenna, however, and with more than three months on crutches, he was looking for a way to stay fit. <\/p>\n \u201cI did [indoor] cycling and swimming,\u201d he says. \u201cI could only swim with my legs tied together, so it created a really good technique pretty quickly, even though I\u2019d learned how to swim at 22.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time his leg healed, he was swimming and cycling quite a bit, which was when he caught the eye of the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI). Normally, this would mean SASI saw him at an event or in some formal setting where he could showcase his athleticism, but that wasn\u2019t the case for McKenna.<\/p>\n \u201cThey saw me going up some climb [near Adelaide] chasing their cyclists,\u201d he says. The coach stopped McKenna and asked him what his best time was on that hill. McKenna told him it was his first time.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like, \u2018Oh, your first time [riding there]?’\u201d McKenna recalls. \u201cI said, \u2018No, it\u2019s my first ride on the road ever.’\u201d<\/p>\n McKenna\u2019s effort on the climb impressed the SASI coach enough to earn him a shot at making the South Australian team. However, as any cyclist knows, it\u2019s one thing to be strong in the saddle, but the technical element in road racing cannot be overlooked.<\/p>\n \u201cI crashed so many times,\u201d McKenna says with a laugh. \u201cI was like, \u2018I think now that I can run, straight lines is probably best for me.’\u201d <\/p>\n Instead of solely running, though, he decided to combine it with swimming and cycling and give triathlon a try. He won his first race \u2014 a small local event \u2014 and less than a year later, he made his professional debut. <\/p>\n Still so new to the sport, it took him a few years to find his way in the professional ranks, but by 2019, he had multiple wins and podiums to his name. In 2023, he earned a couple of his biggest results, winning IRONMAN Australia and finishing second at IRONMAN Cairns. A year later, he won IRONMAN New Zealand and finished second at the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships, and he raced as a pro in Kona, where he finished 42nd among the pro men.<\/p>\n As it turns out, the IRONMAN World Championship would be the last finish line that McKenna crossed as a professional triathlete, as he decided to turn his focus to Nerd Belts full time moving forward. <\/p>\n Becoming Nerd <\/p>\n Racing long-distance triathlon, McKenna wanted a belt to carry his hydration and nutrition, but he was frustrated with the options on the market. <\/p>\n \u201cSome companies\u2019 belts haven\u2019t changed for 10, 15, 20 years,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the issue. All they\u2019ve changed is the fact that it will now fit the modern-sized phone, I think. Other than that, they\u2019ve kind of got either this bulky design, or the elastics in the wrong spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Failing to find the belt he wanted, McKenna decided to make his own. He designed it so it could hold multiple bottles with minimal, or no, bounce, then slapped the name Nerd Belt on it to get ahead of any playful jabs he might receive at races.<\/p>\n \u201cI was trying to address the fact that it\u2019s a weird looking apparatus and just make the joke before they could,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n This original belt was not meant to be a prototype or a marketable product \u2014 McKenna just wanted a belt that was comfortable and didn\u2019t move around when he was running. However, some of the best advertising comes from athletes wearing a product or company logo on their way to big results, so McKenna was unintentionally acting as a moving billboard while doing his job on the triathlon course.<\/p>\n \u201cI won IRONMAN Australia using a Nerd Belt,\u201d McKenna says. \u201cAfter that, I had, like, 100 people ask if they could get one.\u201d <\/p>\n For a few days, he politely declined these requests, telling people that he wasn\u2019t in the hydration belt game. When the barrage of messages didn\u2019t stop, he reconsidered.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, screw it, I\u2019ll just make 500,’\u201d he says. He made a website, launched a pre-order sale for those 500 belts and nearly sold out right away. That was in 2023, and ever since, the business has only grown. <\/p>\n Soon enough, McKenna wasn\u2019t the only pro triathlete using Nerd Belts. To this day, he will still randomly see finish line and podium photos in which pros whom he has never met (and who have no official affiliation with the company) wearing Nerd Belts.<\/p>\n He remembers one day in 2024, when he was packing orders to ship and he came across a familiar name: Jelle Geens. This was just a few weeks before Geens won his first IRONMAN 70.3 world title, McKenna says. Geens wasn\u2019t a sponsored athlete, he didn\u2019t have any connection to Nerd, he just needed a belt to help him get through hot training days in Queensland, Australia, where he lives, and had heard about the company\u2019s success. <\/p>\n After racing in Nerd Belts himself, McKenna likely didn\u2019t need the external validation from other triathletes and pros to know that he had designed a successful product. At the same time, it has to feel good seeing an athlete like Geens (as well as other pros like Sam Long, Jason West, Jamie Riddle and others) wearing Nerd Belts in training and on their way to big wins around the world. <\/p>\n Testing Nerd Belts <\/p>\n After a few years of growth, McKenna and his Nerd team have developed and launched multiple products. They, of course, have their classic hydration belts, but there are also Nerd Belts without bottles (these are ideal for carrying nutrition, a phone or anything else you might need on a run), soft hydration flasks and even a new running hydration vest.<\/p>\n I first met McKenna and learned about Nerd at a running expo in Texas in December. Most of the brands I met at this event weren\u2019t handing out products, which made it quite surprising when McKenna gave me a massive box to take home after our brief conversation. In the box was every belt Nerd has to offer. <\/p>\n In that quick chat with McKenna, he told me his story and how he had made the first Nerd Belt due to personal needs as a pro triathlete. He explained that there was no bounce and no movement from the belt, no matter your pace.<\/p>\n Frankly, I didn\u2019t believe him. Of course he would tell me all of that. It was his company, after all \u2014 he wasn\u2019t going to tell me he had designed a mediocre product. So, when I took my first Nerd Belt test run (in the NB400, which holds two 200ml bottles), I was anticipating the same experience I\u2019d always had with hydration belts. I was ready for a cumbersome, bulky fit that bounced and rocked around on my hips from the first few strides right to the end of the run. <\/p>\n Photo: Nerd Belts<\/p>\n What I got, however, was exactly what McKenna had promised me. After adjusting the straps and fitting it to my waist, there was legitimately no bouncing or movement at all. That was the same experience with every other belt McKenna sent me home with from Texas. They were all comfortable, easily-adjustable and free of movement.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re skeptical reading this, that\u2019s fair. I\u2019m often suspicious when reading effusive reviews of products. These days, you can\u2019t know if someone is actually into a product or if they\u2019re simply getting paid to endorse it. <\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, this is all the truth. I\u2019m not in the game of crafting misleading reviews. However, if my word isn\u2019t enough, look to the many pros who use Nerd Belts. McKenna says professional triathletes help one another out and, if a pro starts a business, his or her colleagues will often support it. That happened with Nerd, and McKenna saw and continues to see many pros wearing his belts.<\/p>\n Blind support can only go so far, though. No professional triathlete will use a product that is faulty or anything less than the best purely out of the kindness of their heart. The fact that more and more pros are seen wearing Nerd Belts at some of the biggest races around the globe is a testament to their quality. <\/p>\n You may have been disappointed by hydration belts in the past, but Nerd Belts will change your perspective on this particular piece of gear. The only annoying part of the experience of wearing one might came after your races, when (just like McKenna saw when he debuted the first belt) everyone comes asking you wear they can get one for themselves. <\/p>\n Tags:Gear<\/a>Hydration<\/a>run<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nerd founder Steven McKenna enjoyed plenty of success as a pro triathlete, winning multiple IRONMAN events before retiring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-443552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_4163.jpeg\")
Spain\u2019s Antonio Benito crosses the line in Kona in 2024 in his Nerd Belt. Photo: Nerd Belts<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_1785-780x1024.jpg\")
The Nerd hydration vest is the company\u2019s latest product. Photo: Nerd Belts<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_C798A813E21D-1-830x1024.jpeg\")
McKenna on a training run. Photo: Steven McKenna\/Instagram<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_4018-770x1024.jpeg\")
Nerd Belts are growing in popularity in both triathlon and running. Photo: Nerd Belts<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kvkona-36845-1024x683.jpeg\")
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