While we're on the subject, can we start calling out Billy Cvecko for being undeniably creepy and hanging out with high school kids???
I don't care if he works for Milesplit, some of his "content" is just straight up creepy. Milesplit needs to check in on that
If it wasn't already apparent to everyone this thread has just become a hate thread by miserable anonymous people. Feel free to delete anytime Brojos.
New Gen, Ben Crawford, Matt Wisner, Emma Abrahamson, Billy Cvecko all profit from making questionable content with children that we could all do without
I will be floored if Ben Crawford puts out another new gen video in the same disgusting style or same not ok jokes after what’s come to light in this thread. I very much hope this kid is reading what people think of him and realizing how much of a douche he is. Change your ways man. The act’s up and you can’t rely on high schoolers thinking you’re cool forever. Have some morals and MAKE AN APOLOGY FOR YOUR UNJUST ACTIONS THE PAST YEAR+
seriously if new gen let’s everything go unaddressed and we see the same old content from them continuing, I really hope some stronger action is taken, whether that’s from brands, companies, their peers, or those in this thread who are mature enough to care about the well-being of teenagers and see through the disgusting and inappropriate behavior from a group of grown men
From 1:43:00, he regales his friends of how in high school, he and his friends made a March Madness bracket of the 'hottest' girls in their school. He says he was the ringleader of it, and that he made a twitter account for it, it was very public humiliation of the girls. He and his friends texted the girls screenshots of their 'rankings'. He tells this story as if he was some sort of bad@ss for doing it. Has he matured and changed since that incident to become the type of person who should be trusted with supervising high schoolers? It doesn't appear so.
At an earlier point in the podcast he talks about one of the New Gen campers, describing him as having "wallflower energy, you know like saying 'where the hos at' but then when the hos are there he's on his phone."
They had people vote on the girls? Disgusting. And Ben seems proud of it, talking about how he went on vacation during his suspension and how he won his student government election against one of the "low seed" girls.
Thought it might be helpful to wade through all 30-odd pages and 600-odd posts and summarize in one place (with links) what, exactly, New Generation Track and Field has or has not done to deserve all this. Take everything with a grain of salt. It's the Internet.
THE INITIAL DUSTUP:
Four days ago or so, runner/Instagrammer Emma Gee called out New Generation Track and Field -- photographer Ben Crawford's "media company, creative agency, and brand" aimed at young runners.
Through New Gen, Crawford and his collaborators (including Oregon Track Club athlete Matt Wisner) host a YouTube channel and Instagram feed, put out a print magazine, and sell branded clothing. While the entrepreneurship may be admirable, the tone is pretty much what you'd expect from a bunch of twentysomething dudes who started a "media company" out of their dorm room: It's vaguely defined, deliberately provocative, politically incorrect, and gossipy, and revels in bouts of political incorrectness. They've positioned themselves as "outsiders" despite being firmly rooted in Tracktown USA, with some of New Gen's regulars having served on one of the most respected track programs in the country; the crew can be safely lumped in with empty provocateurs like WesFly. Some of their videos are pretty well-made.
College runner Evert Silva turned up in a few of New Gen's early videos.
Somehow, New Gen has scored event sponsors including Nike and On over the course of their career. Running is in a sort of Wild West period where major brands are trying to figure out where to put their money on social media, and New Gen got lucky.
Most of this would be easy to write off as crass twentysomething dudebro antics -- and it has been -- except at some point, to "build the brand," NewGen started aggressively courting a high-school audience with group runs and other gatherings ... and started hosting content-creation "summer camps" for teenage runners.
At the latest camp, sponsored by On, some of the teens staged a photo shoot led by up-and-coming photographer Ryder Lee ( ) as part of a NewGen camp project. It featured images of bullying against young women, including one getting her head shoved in a toilet and another getting her head shoved in a locker. As someone purporting to be a camper posted in this thread, all the participants thought it was "funny." NewGen shared (and, by extension, endorsed) the images.
Emma Gee called these images out in her Instagram post as setting a bad, misogynist example for impressionable kids -- urging NewGen to realize that being adult camp counselors carries with it some actual grown-up responsibilities:
This sparked a backlash from the NewGen community that got pretty ugly, including hate speech directed at Gee. NewGen (and the Ryder Lee) took down the provocative images. New Gen briefly posted an apology, but soon deleted that apology. They've been radio-silent ever since.
THE FALLOUT
In the wake of this, readers in this thread started digging into NewGen's archives, finding multiple examples of poor twentysomething judgment -- which, again, would be easy to write off ... if these dudes weren't also hosting summer camps for teens.
I want to be clear: The "groomer" accusations that have been thrown around in this thread are reckless and not backed by evidence -- but there's plenty of less-serious documented stuff that major brands (and the parents of these young campers) might find concerning.
This includes, in no particular order:
Frequently scoring their videos with songs that make liberal use of the n-word (example at 18:52):
The coolest running camp ever to exist. Special thanks to On for making this a reality for the second year in a row. -New Generation Track and Field Camp, Sp...
The coolest running camp ever to exist. Special thanks to On for making this a reality for the second year in a row. -New Generation Track and Field Camp, Sp...
We sat down with Ben Crawford, Carter Christman, and Joe Hale while they were in town for the Chicago Marathon for this hilarious episode packed with stories...
Crawford asking kids in a "man on the street" interview segment questions including "[Would it be worse to have] a gay son or (t)hot daughter?" and "If you could eliminate one race, which would it be?" (1:54 to 2:16 in this video):
An essay from one New Gen camp participant that describes how "Hayley, Paul, Carter (counselor), and I all take the Rice purity test. Our scores are all within ten points of each other. I forget that I’m 15 for a hot minute." The Rice Purity Test ( ) is filled with sexually explicit questions.
There are a few items involving Matt Wisner, who's very personality-forward in the New Gen videos. He's exchanged DMs with one young blogger who started a conversation with Wisner, though it all seems fairly innocent. But then there's Wisner aparently telling this same blogger, as she described it, to "sexualize Carter Christman in the article [she was writing]." (It should be noted this young writer is clearly a big fan of Wisner and she should have zero criticism or recrimination or even a single message sent her way. I'm not linking to her blog in this post.)
One poster in this thread found what might be Wisner's Letterboxd feed, which contains an (almost certainly tongue-in-cheek) review fat-shaming the BARBIE movie cast.
matt wisner uses Letterboxd to share film reviews and lists. 566 films watched. Favorites: Mulholland Drive (2001), Licorice Pizza (2021), Magnolia (1999), Buffalo '66 (1998).
None of this, near as I can tell, is actually criminal. Some of it is offensive, insensitive, crass, and/or deliberately provocative. Some of it (in particular a counselor maybe taking an online "purity test" with a 15-year-old) feels inappropriate, in a bad-judgment, you-should-set-stronger-boundaries-with-your-campers way.
That's most of the stuff with weblinks. There are unsourced pile-on rumors in this discussion thread, as well. But even if you leave that stuff out -- and you should, unless there's hard evidence -- the picture that emerges is a classic case of some 25-year-olds still sometimes acting like college provocateurs, but needing to revisit that behavior post haste after putting themselves in mentorship roles.
The best move of all would be for them to stop hosting summer camps. It would stop a lot of this sort of scrutiny.
I want to be clear: The "groomer" accusations that have been thrown around in this thread are reckless and not backed by evidence -- but there's plenty of less-serious documented stuff that major brands (and the parents of these young campers) might find concerning.
I disagree: the whole Wisner encouraging a minor to “sexulize” his adult friend is way worse than you’re making it out to be. Especially coming from someone who is supposed to be a camp counselor.
I want to be clear: The "groomer" accusations that have been thrown around in this thread are reckless and not backed by evidence -- but there's plenty of less-serious documented stuff that major brands (and the parents of these young campers) might find concerning.
I disagree: the whole Wisner encouraging a minor to “sexulize” his adult friend is way worse than you’re making it out to be. Especially coming from someone who is supposed to be a camp counselor.
Yeah, Matt Wisner clearly stepped over the line telling child to sexualize his adult friend. And he’s in the bathroom with these girls? So creepy, he seriously needs to stay away from minors, because he doesn’t understand boundaries.
New Gen is supposed to provide a safe, fun environment for these minors, not do sexually themed online games like the Purity Test with them.
Not to mention the rumors they provided alcohol to minors at Nike Cross Nationals, that’s literally a class A misdemeanor in the state of Oregon, if it’s true.
I hope these creeps do face some legal repercussions, these girls parents have every to sue if they feel like these creepy older men created an unsafe environment for their daughters.
I want to be clear: The "groomer" accusations that have been thrown around in this thread are reckless and not backed by evidence -- but there's plenty of less-serious documented stuff that major brands (and the parents of these young campers) might find concerning.
I disagree: the whole Wisner encouraging a minor to “sexulize” his adult friend is way worse than you’re making it out to be. Especially coming from someone who is supposed to be a camp counselor.
NewGen has engaged in grooming behaviors, whether or not they went as far as getting physical, their relationships and interactions with the kids are inappropriate. From a nonprofit aiming to prevent abuse, grooming behaviors include:
TESTING BOUNDARIES "Perpetrators will try to test the boundaries of your child’s comfort levels. Sometimes they will tell off-colored or sexualized jokes to see how the child will respond. They may try to play sexualized games such as pants-ing, truth-or-dare, or strip games. They will see how the child reacts when they enter a child’s room or normal places where children are expected to have privacy, such as the restroom."
I want to be clear: The "groomer" accusations that have been thrown around in this thread are reckless and not backed by evidence -- but there's plenty of less-serious documented stuff that major brands (and the parents of these young campers) might find concerning.
I disagree: the whole Wisner encouraging a minor to “sexulize” his adult friend is way worse than you’re making it out to be. Especially coming from someone who is supposed to be a camp counselor.
Yeah, that and the "purity test" story (which New Gen posted to its own website!) were the two most disturbing anecdotes people gathered. But I'd want more context for both of those stories before I went straight to life-destroying accusations. What was the full exchange between Wisner and the camper? To what degree was the named counselor participating in this "purity test"? But yeah: In any normal camp situation, just a whiff of either of those incidents would lead to those camp counselors being dis-invited from ever participating in a mentor role again.
Oh, and I screwed up the Outside Magazine link to the profile of Crawford & Co. when I pulled all that together earlier. It's here:
