Thoughts While Running #38

The Ick Factor.

I have another half baked version of this post where I talk about how collabs are dead but I realized that’s not true when I got an email yesterday granting me early access to the Ganni x Melissa collab and I clicked immediately. My J.W. Anderson x Diadora Equips are somewhere en route between here and Italy¹ and a Missoni x Target blanket still dons our bed.

we still refer to it as ‘skurvy’s blanket’ even though it’s now nacho’s blanket. i set an alarm to wake up at midnight so i could score some pieces and i don’t even love missoni.

So if I’m being honest, it was never about the collab, it’s about how icky it made me feel. If I’m also being honest, I’m exhausted to even feel the need to write this because how are we at such peak douche-baggery in running right now.

s/o yaboyscottjurek for this one.

I woke up on my last morning in Hawaii (another post for another time) to 23 missed texts. While I was sleeping, Satisfy and Adidas dropped their party pics from Arizona. The group text between Lee Glandorf , Cole Townsend + myself had exploded.

To be fair, I knew as soon as I saw the teaser coming out of PFW in January I wasn’t going to like whatever it was they were launching. I don’t run in Adidas + if you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know my thoughts on Satisfy.

I’ll give props for the moth tech Adidas logo tee, however, that’s as far as I can go². I don’t think the shoes were an original execution and I don’t think the Sadidas partnership is elevating either brand’s brand equity. A good collab should either create something unique or make a high end, aspirational brand accessible. Satisfy’s collabs with Hoka + Norda made sense - they bridged the gap before they had the Rocker + elevated both footwear brands’ apparel. One could easily argue the person paying $180 for a hyped up t-shirt with holes in it is already an Adidas customer, sporting $150 hyped up EVO SLs.

the norda campaign was super cute + resonated with the nature of trail running

Whether I personally think this partnership is cool or innovative is besides the point. What I don’t like is the feeling it gave me, and the discourse it’s created in the running community. Most of my friends (like minds) are team WTF, while many of the paid influencers + media who attended defend the event. The lack of diversity and the blatant toxic bro culture are so exclusive and so specific to a certain type of runner I’m honestly embarrassed to have thigh tattoos. It’s a good thing they’re of my cats.

Running should not be a divisive sport. It’s a sport that provides a common language and a sense of community that should transcend cultural backgrounds. One of my absolute favorite things about traveling is running, especially in a country where I don’t speak the language. Running early in the morning in Rome, passing other runners with a simple nod of the head, I immediately feel a part of their community.

still capitalizing on American iconography back in 2020 but this felt more inclusive, celebrating the diversity that makes california cool.

Satisfy wasn’t always the champion of toxic bro energy. I remember they did a photoshoot in San Francisco that featured cool, alternative runners for a collection they branded ‘California is for Runners’ and had they had a women’s line I probably would have been tempted to buy something. It was a brand that looked cool, one that mixed the things I liked to wear (cotton tees, tech shorts) mixed in with an aesthetic (alternative) that resonated with me. The fabrics were gorgeous during an era when most…weren’t. If I were to go back through my mood images from my time at Old Navy there would be many, many that I pulled from their IG. This collection circulated the seasonal color board many times over. Somewhere along the way it feels as if it’s lost the plot. Overtaken by ego (or overtaken by investors demanding an ROI IDK).

if Satisfy still did collections like this i would have considered stocking them

A good collab (and subsequently a good launch event) should get people talking, initiate (+ fuel) the buzz around the upcoming products and raise the mutual brand equity of both parties involved. Sadidas got ppl talking but for the wrong reasons. One could argue the brand equity of both was lowered and instead of reaching new customers, they turned them off.

i don’t know how she truly felt on that bus but she doesn’t look overly thrilled.

It makes sense culturally that running is a male dominated sport, given its history. While women were first able to run short distances in the 1928 Olympics, we weren’t able to compete in the marathon until 1987.³ It often feels like we’re still in the minority, despite what statistics tell us, and these testosterone fueled events flooding our Instagram feeds do not help champion our cause. It feels like Jackass meets run club. I remember all the boys in high school obsessing over Johnny Knoxville + his crew. I thought they were dumb then and turns out I still do.

1. work expense

2. i’m not sure a $50 version of moth tech is elevating either brand and perhaps eroding Satisfy’s market value. Their ‘moth tech’ technology has been around since the early 2000’s when Junk Food tees were a mall brand staple and retailed for $19.99.

3. NINETEEN EIGHTY-SEVEN. FFS.