Path Projects Brand Guidelines: Independent Suspension

Path Projects rethinks the running short.

Path Projects is a lesson in engineering as a design language. Founded in 2018 by Scott Bailey (co-founded, with four co-owners) in Huntington Beach, California, the independent, self-funded, direct-to-consumer brand rethought the running short around a modular liner-and-shell system it calls “independent suspension.”

Its brand identity is engineered, minimal and function-first — a separated liner (worn against the skin) under a free-moving shell short, mix-and-matched to conditions; custom Japanese fabrics (developed with Toray, including its Primeflex), and a distance- and ultra-running focus. The aesthetic is quiet, earth-toned and understated.

(Honest notes: it’s Scott Bailey’s co-founded brand (four co-owners), founded in 2018 in Huntington Beach — a genuine going concern in 2026, and our replacement for a brand that turned out to be defunct. Its “PX” designation is for the shell shorts (the liners are separate lines). There’s no official brand hex, so the tones here are an unofficial interpretation.)

Path Projects lives in an earthy technical palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Path Projects’ identity is earthy, technical and quiet — a graphite, a forest floor, a hydro blue, a clay, and a bone. The palette pairs muted, desaturated earth tones — a graphite and a forest-floor green — with a single technical hydro blue. It signals engineering, restraint and function rather than loud sport. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is muted, earthy technical tones signal engineered restraint. Path Projects’ world is a considered, function-first kit. For designers, it is a reminder that desaturated earth tones with a single technical accent read as engineered and quiet — right for a brand built on a modular system. The takeaways: use muted earth tones; add one technical accent; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using graphite for small text so the palette stays quiet.

The register is an engineered sans — precise and functional.

Path Projects’ identity carries an engineered, minimal, function-first spirit — a modular system and technical fabrics. An engineered, clean sans captures the mood: it is precise and functional, the register of a spec sheet and a considered product. Set in an earthy technical palette, the engineered sans feels precise and functional — exactly the personality Path Projects carries. It is functional rather than decorative, mirroring a modular kit. (Path Projects’ real wordmark is a trademark we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact brand typeface is not ours to use.) Because the mark is not ours to use, the honest description is “an engineered sans spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: engineered, minimal and function-first.

Path Projects stands for engineered modularity.

Path Projects is a lesson in making a system the identity. An earthy technical palette, a modular liner-and-shell system and custom Japanese fabrics make engineered function the whole brand — modular, quiet, considered. The system is the differentiator. The differentiator is an engineered, minimal, modular identity.

For designers and brand-builders, Path Projects offers a clear takeaway: a genuine innovation can be a brand. The lessons: solve a real problem (chafe, fit) with a system; use serious materials (Toray fabrics); and stay direct and focused (DTC, distance running). It is also a reminder to stay accurate: it’s co-founded by Scott Bailey (2018, Huntington Beach), “PX” is the shell short, and the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. Path Projects made a system the brand — proof that an innovation can be the difference.

Keep Path Projects’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.