“Just because you read something doesn't mean you're going to buy a razor subscription.”
The TPF Q&A with writer and editor Chris Gayomali
Chris Gayomali is a fighter. By day, he’s the deputy editor at SSENSE. By night and in the early mornings he competes in Muay Thai and writes the heady newsletter
that covers health and wellness stories you didn’t know you needed, like DIY ear seeds for peaceful sleep and a practical routine for farmer strength. Before SSENSE he worked as an editor at GQ for a decade, where he also wrote features, one of which—about guys getting their legs lengthened—was spoofed on SNL.We called up Chris to talk about his first job working at the United Nations as an editorial assistant, why PR girlies love his newsletter, what kind of clips he wants from young writers, and electromagnetic therapy.
Three Point Four Media: What’s today’s workout?
Chris Gayomali: Friday nights my gym has “Fight Team,” where everyone gathers and beats each other up. [Laughs] I spend all day steeling myself because I know I’m going to double over in pain on the mats. But then you come out of it better, which is always the thing that’s hard to picture before you go in: I’m spending Friday night getting my ass kicked and will be better for it.
What’s your workout routine? As the origin story goes, we’re big fans of the mid-day workout here at Three Point Four Media.
My day job is editing SSENSE, and I kind of took the job because of its two blocks from my gym in SoHo. So some days, I sneak in a hard workout before work. If my meeting load is a little bit lighter, I can sneak out at lunch.
I’m experiencing some meeting creep right now, where I have meetings all day. So I try to get my workouts in the morning.
We’ve been experiencing that all-consuming meeting creep lately, too. How do you manage that? Are you able to say no to meetings to get work done?
It's case-by-case. I'll put blocks on my calendar because I'm like, “I need time to read and use my brain.” But it’s a gamble, because it doesn't necessarily guarantee that my brain will be working at whatever hour that is. So you just have to power through. That's the only strategy I've really been employing.
This morning there was alternate side parking in Brooklyn, so I took a meeting in my car.
A friend and former Vanity Fair editor wrote half of one of his books sitting in his car during alternate side parking on the Upper West Side.
That's a really good use of time! I never thought of that. Maybe I'll use alternate side parking to write a novel.
I wish I’d had more early exposure to reporting—actually calling people up and learning how to write off of lived experience. I think my career would be way better if I had that in my pocket.
I was perusing your LinkedIn and I have to know: what does an editorial assistant at the United Nations do?
Oh man, that was a trip. So I moved to New York in 2008, peak recession. I only got that job because I went to a recruiting agency and bricked the interview. But I sent a card to the recruiter after, and told her, “thanks for tearing me apart—if you see anything, let me know.” She replied, “Yeah, your interview was bad and your resume is bad, but we have this job you might like at the UN.”
I got that job and was around all these people who were so worldly and spoke French, and here I was an idiot and I basically just helped sort files and teach my older colleagues—who were a lot of very nice women on the verge of retirement—how to talk to their families back home on Facebook. But at that job I had a lot of time to work on a personal blog I had, and I used that to get my writing practice in.
What kind of advice would you give to a young Chris trying to break into the industry in 2025?
My first couple years in the industry were spent blogging, and you’re so detached from what you’re actually writing about. You’re aggregating and making assumptions. I wish I’d had more early exposure to reporting—actually calling people up and learning how to write off of lived experience. I think my career would be way better if I had that in my pocket.
A lot of young writers right now don't know how to do that really well. No one's teaching them, because our industry is so small. If I were to do it over again, I would make that more of a focus early on.
That has served me well in client work. Research and reporting is a real skill, even if you don’t stay in the journalism world forever.
Some of the most talented people I've worked with started as fact checkers.
I think a lot of young writers haven’t experienced being fact checked, because they only work online. Whenever I wrote a 300-word front-of-book story for GQ or Vanity Fair it was fact checked like a cover story. Fact checkers are reporters; they make your work better.
You learn how to report. You learn how to not go off on your own assumptions, which is something I still struggle with.
When a lot of younger reporters send me their clips it’s interesting that instead of sending their favorite piece they share their bylines for bigger publications. I don’t care what the publication is. I care more about the strength of the last good thing you wrote and how we can build on that. Show me the thing you like.
It’s the same muscle though, isn’t it? You do that for Nike and it’s no different than putting together an ideas memo for the June issue.
You’re just doing it in a deck instead of a Google Doc.
GQ and SSENSE share a lot of the same DNA but SSENSE is a bit more underground. How has that transition been?
Going to a place that's a little bit smaller and expressly more fashion-focused has been a really interesting exercise. SSENSE is so much scrappier. At GQ you had a real luxury in the way you worked: photography and design are some of the best in the world at what they do. At SSENSE, I have to conceptualize the visual elements of the story—and then build up that network of photographers and stylists and learn how they operate, what it costs to book them, and all the logistics that I was not familiar with at GQ.
But I try to carry the same editorial sensibilities with me. My whole thing that I think has made me successful is that I love zagging where everyone else is zigging. As an editor and writer, I’ll chase the stories that are on the forefront or stuff that no one is interested in yet but people will be interested in eventually. Or maybe I’ll totally whiff and no one will care! But some of my most successful pieces stood out because they did that and were resistant to chasing all the same stuff that other people were writing about.
How do you balance commerce with editorial at SSENSE? I’ve always admired how seamless it feels, it doesn’t look like that era of peak DTC menswear where every brand had a “journal.”
SSENSE has always been anti advertising in a way that I really admire. They understood from the very beginning that if you don’t cultivate fashion as this thing that matters and is cool, then it's all frivolous and could disappear. You need to water the plant or it could die on the vine. So they had this version of editorial baked in since day one. What I appreciate is that they know it doesn’t translate one-to-one to sales: Just because you click on a story doesn’t mean you’re going to buy pants.
But it is about building this long-term relationship with people. If you have this reputation of buying stuff from you over the next few years. That’s a very important thing that a lot of other of these brands-slash-publishers have kind of missed over the years. Just because you read something doesn't mean you're going to buy a razor subscription.
Let’s talk side hustles. Consulting means different things to different people. So what does consulting look like for you?
My friend Phil Chang runs this creative group called C47. It’s a bunch of really smart people in different pockets of the industry: There’s editors, writers, illustrators, designers, record label owners. Whenever a project materializes, Phil is very good about Voltroning together the ideal team.
I consulted a project for Nike, where they wanted ideas that could speak to the Asian American diaspora. I did a project for CashApp, where they wanted an activation with artists that wasn’t annoying. [Laughs] It’s been fun. To get your number called up is really nice. So I’ve been trying to do more of that work, it’s been really useful in understanding that side of the industry.
It’s the same muscle though, isn’t it? You do that for Nike and it’s no different than putting together an ideas memo for the June issue.
You’re just doing it in a deck instead of a Google Doc.
That’s the beauty of this newsletter ecosystem, maybe some people need editors more than others but I’ve been doing this long enough to understand what is worth taking a big swing on and what isn’t. That helps a lot, instead of just writing into the void.
What does your audience at HEAVIES look like?
When I conceptualized it, I wanted something that speaks to cool dudes. But as it’s grown, I have a large female readership. I was describing my readership to someone and they were like, “Oh, it’s a bunch of PR girlies.”
The stuff I write about is gender unspecific. It’s information everyone can find useful. I wanted a space to write my ideas about health. I think a lot about the Times wellness section and how it always feels two years behind. And I have this lower-stakes version where I’m looking at stuff that feels more cutting-edge, maybe some people would call it “woo-woo.” It’s been fun to get those ideas out there and see if they track with people.
All the publications you’ve worked for and the big tech companies have people who are “head of engagement” or “head of audience.” What have you learned about engagement and audience building HEAVIES?
From the very beginning I wanted it to feel curiosity driven. The trap a lot of health and fitness publications fall into is that they chase the same SEO. That’s why it’s hard to get an off-center wellness piece greenlit by publications. The risk probably isn’t worth it for them. You don’t know if you have a story until it’s all reported, and they don’t want to invest in that. Newsletters can take on that responsibility of any potential blowback and allow you the freedom to explore things you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to.
One of my most successful posts was something I had been thinking about for a while: Brown rice is bullshit. White rice tastes significantly better and the nutrition is the same, why is there all this marketing around brown rice being so much better for you? I talked to some nutritionists and compared the nutrition facts side-by-side. That piece blew up.
That’s the beauty of this newsletter ecosystem, maybe some people need editors more than others but I’ve been doing this long enough to understand what is worth taking a big swing on and what isn’t. That helps a lot, instead of just writing into the void.
Has your growth been organic or have you keyed in on certain things in a more structured way?
I wish it was more structured. There was a lot of momentum in the beginning, because I had a backlog of ideas. The growth is good, though. People understand the value proposition of what I’m trying to offer.
I’ve found that the newsletter is most useful for putting ideas out there and then an editor will reach out. This big New York story I did earlier this year about all the protein foods in the grocery store came from a HEAVIES post. The editor reached out blind.
So it’s just business development.
[Laughs] It’s just R&D! It's not enough to sustain me from a salary standpoint, but I love building something for myself and it does feed into the other work in a very useful way.
Beyond your weird drink, what are you personally excited about in the health and wellness space right now?
I just turned 40, so I’m taking recovery really seriously. Before I could just beat myself up and be fine and go to work. Now I have to devote some time to thinking about how do I do things in a way that avoids injury?
I have my physical therapist who is a genius that uses these cutting-edge technologies. Have you ever had PEMF treatments before? [Ed note: Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy] It uses electromagnetic fields that go deep into your muscles and it feels like a really deep massage—but it also charges your cells up and primes them to heal really fast.
I’m really excited about that as a healing modality. I wouldn’t be able to compete if I didn’t have this guy using electromagnets on me that release muscles deep in my butt I’ve never felt before. I walk out feeling 10 years younger.
Last question: When I’m doing boring suburban stuff around the house—trimming the hedge, hanging a light fixture, putting fresh batteries in the smoke alarm—my arms get really tired. What should I work into my strength routine so I don’t get tired when I’m doing housework?
Just embrace the tired, dude.
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