Ongoing · Citywide
Running clubs that do not care how fast you are
Most of them meet before work, run a conversational pace, and end at a coffee shop. Showing up alone is normal — that is the entire point.
Listings begin with Issue 01
The Soogs Club · New York City
Helping men get out, do more, and find something worth showing up for.
A men’s lifestyle and community publication out of New York City — groups and clubs, events worth clearing a night for, and the stories behind them. Coming to a city near you.
Get out. Do something. Meet some guys.
01
Things worth doing
A running club that meets before work, a bench night at a woodshop, a dinner where you sit next to a stranger. Curated, not scraped.
02
Groups worth knowing
Editorial spotlights on communities that will let you in — what they do, where they meet, who to talk to.
03
Stories worth reading
What men actually get out of showing up: the teams, the friendships, the Friday drives out of the city.
Things worth doing
Make room for something different.
Picked by hand from what is actually happening around the city — clubs that take beginners, nights that do not require a plus-one, and rooms where walking in alone is completely normal.
Weekly · Brooklyn
A woodshop that hands you the tools and gets out of the way
Open bench nights, no experience required, and something to carry home at the end of it.
Monthly · Manhattan
Long tables, strangers on both sides
Dinner series built for people who would rather talk to someone new than scroll through a feed.
Drop-in · Queens
A bouldering gym with more regulars than members
Cheap day passes, patient staff, and a crowd that will absolutely tell you where to put your left foot.
More ways to explore are on the way. Issue 01 carries the first batch.
Spotlight · Issue 01Group spotlight
Good people.
Good reasons to show up.
Once a month we spend real time with one group: who they are, how they meet, what a first night is actually like, and who tends to stay. No application form, no pitch deck — just a useful look at a room you could walk into.
The Tuesday Night Woodshop
Brooklyn · Open bench nights · Tools provided · Beginners welcome
SOOGS covers groups independently, as an editorial and discovery brand. Being featured does not imply any affiliation, partnership, or endorsement — by us or by them — unless we say so explicitly. We only ask permission for private photos, interviews, quotes, or other material that is not already public.
Suggest something
Know something worth sharing?
A group, an event, an activity, a community, or a person with a story worth telling. If it is happening and it is good, we want to hear about it.
Everything is reviewed editorially. Submitting something means we will take a look — not that it will be published, and not that any partnership exists.
Stories
Stories about showing up.
Feature · Issue 01
The long way home
He moved to the city for the job and stayed for the Sunday walks. A short feature about what happens when a weekly plan turns into a standing appointment with other people.
Group spotlight
The shop that opens its doors on Tuesdays
What a shared workshop does for men who spend their weeks in front of screens.
Reported
Nobody tells you the team is the reason
A pickup basketball run that has outlasted marriages, moves and three decades.
Profile
What he keeps in the truck
A weekend climber on the small rituals that get him out of the city every Friday.
New features publish with every issue. More on the way.
Worth knowing
15%
of American men reported having no close friends in 2021
In 1990, that number was 3%.
It is one of the clearest signals we have that men’s social lives have quietly thinned out over a single generation — not from a lack of wanting company, but from a lack of places and reasons to show up. It is also the reason SOOGS exists, and the reason this publication spends its time on clubs, courts, workshops, and tables rather than on advice.
Source: Survey Center on American Life, The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss (2021). Figures compare the 1990 General Social Survey with the 2021 American Perspectives Survey.
See the source →
Our story
The story behind SOOGS.
SOOGS started with a room I did not want to be in.
First week of college. Two strangers, one very small room, and a year ahead of us. For a while it was exactly what it was supposed to be — bad food, late walks, a guy figuring himself out.
Then the sign language in that room changed. And I was the only person who could read it.
Two nights later, he told me what he had been planning. I was the only person on earth who knew.
What happened next is the rest of the story — and the reason this site exists. I have kept names and identifying details out of it on purpose.
SOOGS Goods
Club goods, not merch.
A small first collection built to be worn out, not archived — heavyweight cotton, washed navy, faded olive, sand. The kind of thing you throw on for a Saturday run, a workshop, or the drive out of the city.
SOOGS Goods launches soon, and subscribers get 10% off their first SOOGS order when it does.
Where SOOGS is
Based in New York City.
Coming to a city near you.
Most of what we cover first is in New York, because that is where we are and where we can actually walk into the room. The plan was never to stay here. As the readership grows, so does the map.
Tell us your city when you subscribe — that is how we choose the next one.
New York CityHome base
- 02BostonComing soon
- 03PhiladelphiaComing soon
- 04ChicagoComing soon
- 05Washington, D.C.Coming soon
- 06AustinComing soon
- 07Los AngelesComing soon
- 08SeattleComing soon
One email a month
Get out. Do something.
Meet some guys.
SOOGS is a publication for men who already have a life and want more in it. Start with the newsletter — a group, an event, a story, and one thing worth knowing, every month.