This year, San Francsico’s iconic Bay to Breakers has a new look, thanks in large part to San Francisco artist and runner Zachary “Zach” Litoff.
“What makes any city special is the people that are part of the community. This race really is only so cool because the people in San Francisco are so cool, so I tried to make that a big part of the designs,” says Litoff, who will be running on Sunday.
The website, race flags, finisher medals, merchandise (including official race T-shirt), course map—Litoff had a literal hand in redesigning all. And though he has worked for Apple and big running brands like Brooks, Hoka and New Balance, this project was a dream come true.
“To have done the designs for [Bay to Breakers] and know the people involved and also know a lot of the running clubs in the city and feel like I’m part of the running community, it’s definitely very special,” he says.
Litoff, who lives North of the Panhandle, often has participated in the 12-K event, which dates to 1912 and is known as much for its crazy costumes (or lack thereof), centipede teams, and all-around revelry. He and former track and cross-country teammates at Santa Clara University would take Caltrain to Fourth and King streets station to join the fun each year.
“It was this huge party,” says Litoff. “I grew up in Boulder, which is a big running town, and it kind of reminded me of Bolder Boulder, which is our big race there. But I was like, ‘Oh, it’s bigger. It’s San Francisco. This is so cool.’”
Running more recently as a San Francisco resident, he found Bay to Breakers’ promotional materials and merchandise unsatisfactory: “I just didn’t think it was core to what San Francisco felt like and what the race felt like to me,” he says.
Before the 2024 event, he met with race director Kyle Meyers and his team at The Tipsy Pig in the Marina, where he proposed a design revamp. They requested he send them a pitch deck and offered him a race bib when he mentioned he hadn’t signed up yet.
I was like, ‘Well, now I have to run it, and I have to impress them, because they gave me a bib,’” says Litoff.
Litoff placed fifth overall, with a time of 39:01 and average 5:14 pace per mile. He started working on the redesign a month later and wrapped things up in October.
“This iconic race was in need of a proper refresh—one that truly speaks to the uniqueness and quintessential San Francisco beauty of the event,” Meyers said in an email.
He described Litoff’s contributions as “nothing short of phenomenal” and said, “The aesthetic vibe is absolutely perfect; we couldn’t be happier.”
Considering the race’s unique character, Litoff did the same with his designs, incorporating bright pinks, oranges, reds, and blues and abstract renderings of city fixtures and residents.
“The people that were designing Bay to Breakers beforehand were very talented designers, but they just weren’t from San Francisco. …I think they missed out on some core aspects of the city that I was able to hit on,” says Litoff.
The Golden Gate Bridge, Lands End, the Conservatory of Flowers, the Painted Ladies, the Transamerica Pyramid, Sutro Tower, the Palace of Fine Arts, the “Cupid’s Span” sculpture on the Embarcadero, the Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park— many beloved landmarks, illustrated in black, appear in his design.
Among Litoff’s dozens of angular, boxy characters are Ape Hashbury, the neon pink gorilla mascot; his girlfriend; and others corresponding to specific neighborhoods.
“I picked certain neighborhoods and tried to match their vibe with the type of character I thought of,” he says.
There are even hidden references, or “Easter eggs.” A black line running through the Bay to Breakers logo on the map represents the course’s elevation profile, and he marked his own residence with the initials “ZL.” Litoff also put a few eggs in the top-three winners’ medals, per men’s, women’s and nonbinary divisions.
This year, he’d like to nab one of the medals.
“My goal of the race is to win. I don’t think it’ll happen, but that’s my goal, which is a fun goal to have on top of it all. I feel like if I designed the shirts and the medals and the logo and everything, this is going be my one year to really be like, ‘I won Bay to Breakers and I did the logo and designs,’ and that would be pretty cool,” he says.
Nonetheless, Litoff already has triumphed when it comes to understanding what Bay to Breakers is about:
“When you’re in the race, the city’s gorgeous and the course is across the city, and it’s a very special race by itself. But no one, when they’re talking about what makes Bay to Breakers so special, is like, ‘Oh, it was so cool—we ran by the Painted Ladies’ or ‘We ran all the way from the ay to the ocean.’ All of the traditions that are special about the race are related to the people in the city.”
Bay to Breakers 2025 starts at 8 a.m. May 18 at Howard and Main streets, San Francisco. Registration fees are $99 and $109. For more information, go to https://www.baytobreakers.com.
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