Hugo Huille: From Sport to Entrepreneurship, One Step Away

Now passionate about running and attentive to what his body is telling him, Hugo Huille has found his path by combining the pleasure of sport with protecting the body, particularly the joints, through his Flytex compression sleeves, now sold internationally. Taking that passion a step further, he will launch his own festival, La Boucle, for the first time on September 14.

Running well: building a performance-focused practice

At almost 29, Hugo Huille finally feels in sync with what he has built, both in sport and in his professional life. A fan of action sports as a child, he turned to fitness as an adult, wanting to “put on a little weight.” Passionate about skateboarding and snowboarding, he discovered running almost casually: “I was pretty skinny, even though I’d always been athletic. I’d fit in running sessions, but it wasn’t a great love affair yet. It was just a change of pace, a bit of cardio.”

A lack of knowledge about the discipline led to a serious injury: “I tore my ACL.” The experience forced him to reassess his approach at 25: “That’s really when the switch happened. I started doing yoga and stretching, and I became genuinely interested in running and bodyweight sports, which are gentler on the body.” As he tried to understand how to run properly, Hugo Huille rediscovered a sport he had long neglected. He also took the time to recover and finally started listening to his body: “No more pushing my body and my joints too far.”

Four years earlier, as a mere spectator at the Paris Marathon, Hugo Huille remembers thinking: “I’ll never be able to do that. They’re incredibly powerful; it seemed completely impossible to me.” Impossible… until desire outweighed the unimaginable. Last year, he finally took the plunge. But the long-awaited marathon did not go according to plan: “I passed out at kilometer 40. I was exhausted. I’d worked until the day before, I hadn’t managed my training particularly well, and above all, I absolutely refused to let go of my 3:30 goal.”

This year, he tried again, with “more long-distance training in my legs, and marathons run at an easy pace.” The result: a personal best and a huge sense of pride. “It was quite a milestone,” he says. But such a strict preparation also has its limits: “It’s nothing like running for pleasure. You eat marathon, you sleep marathon. It’s amazing because you improve so much, but you completely lose sight of the joy of running.” Determination, resilience and love, those are the driving forces in Hugo Huille’s life, a passionate athlete who never does anything by halves.

Highs and lows in entrepreneurship, powered by a constant drive

A business-school graduate, Hugo Huille quickly realized that working for someone else wasn’t for him. He turned to entrepreneurship early on, combining it with his passion for sport. During lockdown, he launched his first resistance-band brand to make up for gyms being closed. The idea worked: for the first time, he was able to pay himself through a personal project. “That’s when I realized sports entrepreneurship really spoke to me. I was the target customer myself, so I understood what clients needed. I didn’t have to play a part,” he explains.

Next came a more ambitious project: a connected mirror for at-home workouts. An innovative idea, but perhaps one that arrived too early. “The concept was immersive: you opened the app, always found the same coach, and corrected your movements using your reflection… But it was a ‘nice-to-have’, not a ‘must-have’. In a crisis, products like that never make it,” he says. Poor market timing slowed the project’s development. Despite being backed by a funding round, it ultimately failed. “We discovered the complexities as we went along, but we overcame them. My partner eventually left the project. I’d put all my savings into it, so I decided to take it on alone. That’s when I truly discovered my resilience, and realized I was capable of carrying very ambitious projects, even on my own.”

At 25, after tanking his third company, physically exhausted by stress-related tendinitis, he realized he was putting his health at risk. “I was in debt, barely sleeping and extremely anxious. I asked myself: If I carry on like this, what state will I be in at 30?” He decided to end his current project, then bounce back with new ideas.

“I’m still young, and as far as I’m concerned, there’s no other path than trying. I need freedom.” Whenever a project looks viable, he has no hesitation about launching it and seeing it through. “Even if I sell it tomorrow or run it into the ground, I’ll start again.” Hugo Huille’s past failures shaped his current brand, Flytex: “Creating a knee sleeve was technically simpler than developing a connected mirror with a team of developers. I could move faster because I’d gained the confidence I needed.”

Flytex, a brand born from a personal need

Flytex was founded in France in 2022, based on a personal realization: Hugo Huille suffered from chronic pain linked to sport and stress, without really taking care of his body. Looking for solutions, he discovered the benefits of joint support and targeted compression. That realization prompted him to create Flytex.

After conducting market research, he found that there were very few knee-support products designed for sports. He then designed a lightweight, effective product that allows people to run or recover without discomfort or loss of mobility. The brand quickly specialized in running gear, a discipline Hugo Huille took up himself. “I fell in love with running, and it turned out to resonate strongly with my community of runners.”

Flytex relies on technology based on targeted compression around the joints, including the knees, ankles and elbows, which improves blood flow, reduces inflammation, eases pain and supports the joints. When properly fitted, compression can be used both when returning to sport and during heavy training loads, such as marathon preparation.

Seeing our customers, running with them, sharing a moment… that’s what feeds me most.

Hugo Huille’s studies gave him a genuinely open outlook, further shaped by his travels. “I’ve never had borders in my head. As soon as I could launch internationally, I did.” The brand first tried expanding into Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. But faced with cultural and linguistic barriers, it chose to refocus on English-speaking countries, particularly the United States. Growth there took longer, but within two years Flytex became profitable. He credits that success to a clear positioning: technology serving performance, with accessible products.

Today, Flytex operates in around 30 countries, supported by a team of around 30 people. Its international growth is built on social media, partnerships with local athletes and robust logistics. For Hugo Huille, “the most important thing is standing out.”

To strengthen its connection with the community, Flytex launched a “national” run club. What began as a simple running meet-up has become a genuine meeting place, with themed sessions such as the traditional galette des rois. “Seeing our customers, running with them, sharing a moment… that’s what feeds me most. That’s also why we felt confident launching a festival. We knew a large part of the community would follow us.”

La Boucle, a running and wellness festival

On September 14, La Boucle will take place for the first time at Hippodrome d’Enghien-Soisy. Its founder, Hugo Huille, explains the thinking behind this unusual project in France: “In Georgia, I took part in one with a race in the same format. I went without any expectations and was completely blown away by the atmosphere and the human connections it created. It was nothing like a traditional race, where you’re stressed, run, collect your medal and go home. This event lasted all day, and I’d never experienced that sense of togetherness. I thought: I’m going to try to run a marathon and get my revenge. In the end, running alongside everyone and seeing people help one another was so powerful that I ended up covering 54 km in 6 hours 30 minutes. A distance I never would have imagined.”

After that experience and the gruelling preparation for his marathon, Hugo Huille no longer wanted to impose excessive training loads on himself. He wanted to create an event that brought back the joy of running. La Boucle is therefore a free-format race on a 2 km loop where mutual support comes first. Whatever distance they cover, every participant will receive a medal. And if the magic takes hold, many will end up going beyond their initial target, from 5 km to 10, from 10 to a half marathon, and all the way to 50 km. “People are going to push themselves. That’s what will be incredible. It will create a new generation of seasoned runners.”

© La Boucle

The course will run over short grass and dirt around the racecourse. As for the atmosphere, a main stage will keep the runners energized throughout the day, with a Parisian crew mixing upbeat music. The open-air setup will also give finishers the chance to dance and enjoy a relaxation area, complete with carefully selected food trucks. Warm-ups and yoga sessions will be led by Lululemon. Cold plunges and saunas will also be available in the wellness village.

Organized by event agencies Keneo and TEAM COM, together with part of the Flytex team, La Boucle hopes to welcome up to 4,000 visitors. More than 1,000 participants had already registered by the end of July. A run club brought together 300 runners on June 2, and another meet-up is planned for late August to build excitement for the festival, with a few race entries up for grabs.

In its first year, the team simply asked brands exhibiting at the event to invest in goodies for participants. Runners will therefore leave with gifts whose value will likely exceed that of their race entry. “It’s thanks to the participants that we can create this festival,” Hugo Huille concludes, since the race entries are funding this first edition. If it achieves the hoped-for success, La Boucle could expand to two days as early as 2026.

Through both his failures and successes, Hugo Huille has forged his own path between a passion for sport and an entrepreneurial mindset. With Flytex and La Boucle, he shows that innovation can go hand in hand with staying true to your convictions, and that sometimes chasing your ideas is what takes you furthest.

➜ Join the festival adventure, La Boucle.

Ahead of France’s first running and wellness festival, La Boucle, taking place on September 14 at Hippodrome d’Enghien-Soisy, organizer Hugo Huille looks back on his professional journey, from ruined entrepreneur to founder of his current brand, Flytex.

Now passionate about running and attentive to what his body is telling him, Hugo Huille has found his path by combining the pleasure of sport with protecting the body, particularly the joints, through his Flytex compression sleeves, now sold internationally. Taking that passion a step further, he will launch his own festival, La Boucle, for the first time on September 14.

Running well: building a performance-focused practice

At almost 29, Hugo Huille finally feels in sync with what he has built, both in sport and in his professional life. A fan of action sports as a child, he turned to fitness as an adult, wanting to “put on a little weight.” Passionate about skateboarding and snowboarding, he discovered running almost casually: “I was pretty skinny, even though I’d always been athletic. I’d fit in running sessions, but it wasn’t a great love affair yet. It was just a change of pace, a bit of cardio.”

A lack of knowledge about the discipline led to a serious injury: “I tore my ACL.” The experience forced him to reassess his approach at 25: “That’s really when the switch happened. I started doing yoga and stretching, and I became genuinely interested in running and bodyweight sports, which are gentler on the body.” As he tried to understand how to run properly, Hugo Huille rediscovered a sport he had long neglected. He also took the time to recover and finally started listening to his body: “No more pushing my body and my joints too far.”

Four years earlier, as a mere spectator at the Paris Marathon, Hugo Huille remembers thinking: “I’ll never be able to do that. They’re incredibly powerful; it seemed completely impossible to me.” Impossible… until desire outweighed the unimaginable. Last year, he finally took the plunge. But the long-awaited marathon did not go according to plan: “I passed out at kilometer 40. I was exhausted. I’d worked until the day before, I hadn’t managed my training particularly well, and above all, I absolutely refused to let go of my 3:30 goal.”

This year, he tried again, with “more long-distance training in my legs, and marathons run at an easy pace.” The result: a personal best and a huge sense of pride. “It was quite a milestone,” he says. But such a strict preparation also has its limits: “It’s nothing like running for pleasure. You eat marathon, you sleep marathon. It’s amazing because you improve so much, but you completely lose sight of the joy of running.” Determination, resilience and love, those are the driving forces in Hugo Huille’s life, a passionate athlete who never does anything by halves.

Highs and lows in entrepreneurship, powered by a constant drive

A business-school graduate, Hugo Huille quickly realized that working for someone else wasn’t for him. He turned to entrepreneurship early on, combining it with his passion for sport. During lockdown, he launched his first resistance-band brand to make up for gyms being closed. The idea worked: for the first time, he was able to pay himself through a personal project. “That’s when I realized sports entrepreneurship really spoke to me. I was the target customer myself, so I understood what clients needed. I didn’t have to play a part,” he explains.

Next came a more ambitious project: a connected mirror for at-home workouts. An innovative idea, but perhaps one that arrived too early. “The concept was immersive: you opened the app, always found the same coach, and corrected your movements using your reflection… But it was a ‘nice-to-have’, not a ‘must-have’. In a crisis, products like that never make it,” he says. Poor market timing slowed the project’s development. Despite being backed by a funding round, it ultimately failed. “We discovered the complexities as we went along, but we overcame them. My partner eventually left the project. I’d put all my savings into it, so I decided to take it on alone. That’s when I truly discovered my resilience, and realized I was capable of carrying very ambitious projects, even on my own.”

At 25, after tanking his third company, physically exhausted by stress-related tendinitis, he realized he was putting his health at risk. “I was in debt, barely sleeping and extremely anxious. I asked myself: If I carry on like this, what state will I be in at 30?” He decided to end his current project, then bounce back with new ideas.

“I’m still young, and as far as I’m concerned, there’s no other path than trying. I need freedom.” Whenever a project looks viable, he has no hesitation about launching it and seeing it through. “Even if I sell it tomorrow or run it into the ground, I’ll start again.” Hugo Huille’s past failures shaped his current brand, Flytex: “Creating a knee sleeve was technically simpler than developing a connected mirror with a team of developers. I could move faster because I’d gained the confidence I needed.”

Flytex, a brand born from a personal need

Flytex was founded in France in 2022, based on a personal realization: Hugo Huille suffered from chronic pain linked to sport and stress, without really taking care of his body. Looking for solutions, he discovered the benefits of joint support and targeted compression. That realization prompted him to create Flytex.

After conducting market research, he found that there were very few knee-support products designed for sports. He then designed a lightweight, effective product that allows people to run or recover without discomfort or loss of mobility. The brand quickly specialized in running gear, a discipline Hugo Huille took up himself. “I fell in love with running, and it turned out to resonate strongly with my community of runners.”

Flytex relies on technology based on targeted compression around the joints, including the knees, ankles and elbows, which improves blood flow, reduces inflammation, eases pain and supports the joints. When properly fitted, compression can be used both when returning to sport and during heavy training loads, such as marathon preparation.

Seeing our customers, running with them, sharing a moment… that’s what feeds me most.

Hugo Huille’s studies gave him a genuinely open outlook, further shaped by his travels. “I’ve never had borders in my head. As soon as I could launch internationally, I did.” The brand first tried expanding into Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. But faced with cultural and linguistic barriers, it chose to refocus on English-speaking countries, particularly the United States. Growth there took longer, but within two years Flytex became profitable. He credits that success to a clear positioning: technology serving performance, with accessible products.

Today, Flytex operates in around 30 countries, supported by a team of around 30 people. Its international growth is built on social media, partnerships with local athletes and robust logistics. For Hugo Huille, “the most important thing is standing out.”

To strengthen its connection with the community, Flytex launched a “national” run club. What began as a simple running meet-up has become a genuine meeting place, with themed sessions such as the traditional galette des rois. “Seeing our customers, running with them, sharing a moment… that’s what feeds me most. That’s also why we felt confident launching a festival. We knew a large part of the community would follow us.”

La Boucle, a running and wellness festival

On September 14, La Boucle will take place for the first time at Hippodrome d’Enghien-Soisy. Its founder, Hugo Huille, explains the thinking behind this unusual project in France: “In Georgia, I took part in one with a race in the same format. I went without any expectations and was completely blown away by the atmosphere and the human connections it created. It was nothing like a traditional race, where you’re stressed, run, collect your medal and go home. This event lasted all day, and I’d never experienced that sense of togetherness. I thought: I’m going to try to run a marathon and get my revenge. In the end, running alongside everyone and seeing people help one another was so powerful that I ended up covering 54 km in 6 hours 30 minutes. A distance I never would have imagined.”

After that experience and the gruelling preparation for his marathon, Hugo Huille no longer wanted to impose excessive training loads on himself. He wanted to create an event that brought back the joy of running. La Boucle is therefore a free-format race on a 2 km loop where mutual support comes first. Whatever distance they cover, every participant will receive a medal. And if the magic takes hold, many will end up going beyond their initial target, from 5 km to 10, from 10 to a half marathon, and all the way to 50 km. “People are going to push themselves. That’s what will be incredible. It will create a new generation of seasoned runners.”

© La Boucle

The course will run over short grass and dirt around the racecourse. As for the atmosphere, a main stage will keep the runners energized throughout the day, with a Parisian crew mixing upbeat music. The open-air setup will also give finishers the chance to dance and enjoy a relaxation area, complete with carefully selected food trucks. Warm-ups and yoga sessions will be led by Lululemon. Cold plunges and saunas will also be available in the wellness village.

Organized by event agencies Keneo and TEAM COM, together with part of the Flytex team, La Boucle hopes to welcome up to 4,000 visitors. More than 1,000 participants had already registered by the end of July. A run club brought together 300 runners on June 2, and another meet-up is planned for late August to build excitement for the festival, with a few race entries up for grabs.

In its first year, the team simply asked brands exhibiting at the event to invest in goodies for participants. Runners will therefore leave with gifts whose value will likely exceed that of their race entry. “It’s thanks to the participants that we can create this festival,” Hugo Huille concludes, since the race entries are funding this first edition. If it achieves the hoped-for success, La Boucle could expand to two days as early as 2026.

Through both his failures and successes, Hugo Huille has forged his own path between a passion for sport and an entrepreneurial mindset. With Flytex and La Boucle, he shows that innovation can go hand in hand with staying true to your convictions, and that sometimes chasing your ideas is what takes you furthest.

➜ Join the festival adventure, La Boucle.