VUORI'S FIT KING

The brand he founded a decade ago may be valued at $5.5 billion, but JOE KUDLA is still evolving athleisure wear and his own training.

- CHARLES THORP

THE SUN IS RISING on the California coast as Joe Kudla stares out at the Pacific Ocean, a surfboard under his arm. The days are busy for the founder and CEO of the activewear brand Vuori, recently valued at $5.5 billion, and Kudla is cherishing this moment of peace. Chasing waves has a calming effect on his mind and does wonders to activate his body.

“My mornings have become a sacred time for me,” he says. He wakes before dawn in his home in the beach community of Leucadia, just 10 minutes from Vuori’s offices in Carlsbad. This lets him make the most of the quiet hours before his two daughters rise. Kudla spends this time doing a short Kelee meditation, then journals or dips into a classic book on philosophy or self-improvement.

Lately he’s been rereading chapters of