Tracksmith BQ Qualifier Singlet Being Attacked

They've always had a BQ singlet. I'm not sure why this year's generated so much outrage. Maybe in the past they didn't promote it in such a way like they did this year on Instagram? If I was them, I certainly wouldn't have sold the shirt only to people who registered for the race. If you hit the BQ time, you hit the BQ time but I am stunned by the reactions.

Here is their now deleted post:

ibb.co

jogging-race-boston

Image jogging-race-boston hosted in ImgBB

Open link

It's funny as back in the early days of letsrun, I remember thinking of revenue ideas and one I had was to sell 26.2 stickers but ones with your PB on them. Now this makes me wonder, "Is that too exclusive?"

Full disclosure. As I typed this, I'm did so in a Tracksmith shirt that I love. I've had it since the company was founded and I find there stuff to be super high quality. Also the founder of the company was Weldon's college teammate and is a great guy and friend.

"who hit BQs but didn't qualify"
bro, the B.A.A. refers to 11,000+ "qualifier" applications who were not accepted. it's plain as day on the website spelled out in no uncertain terms. to hit your BQ *is* to qualify. you have met the qualifying standard, but there's only space for so many qualifiers to enter the race. diminishing the achievement of those who hit the BQ standard and now must sit out due to space constraints is not cool for Tracksmith or LetsRun trolls to do. It's okay to celebrate a BQ with a singlet, but not if you exclude some of the people that BQ'd, which is literally what is printed on the singlet

I mean it's a fair point, I would personally not go through the hassle of checking if people are actually in the race. Would anyone who BQ'ed but didn't make the race really want this singlet? I have no idea.

baa.org

Qualify | Boston Athletic Association

Open link

"In recent years, not all qualifiers who submit an entry have been accepted due to field size restrictions.
If the total amount of submissions surpasses the allotted field size for qualified athletes, then those who are the fastest among the pool of applicants in their age and gender group will be accepted."

What kind of psychopathic power trip is necessary for a company to demand uploading of a race registration and make a specific point of excluding 11,000 people who are defined by the B.A.A. as qualifiers for a singlet celebrating the hard work needed for a BQ? "It's not enough for you to be unable to race, we have to kick you when you're down." The running community is full of miserable sadists.

Everyone knows the cut off is the final process. Nobody says I BQed but I didn't make the cut off. To BQ is to make pass the cut off.

I have no idea who would want to buy this piece of crap, and I agree that there probably aren't many BQ runners who missed the cutoff who wanted to buy this singlet (to celebrate their BQ regardless I guess? but seems like a d-bag singlet in general) -- it's more that the company went out of its way to essentially say, "in the unlikely event that you DID want a singlet, let us be clear in stating that it is reserved for individuals who have both qualified and registered for the Boston Marathon." it's adding insult to injury for no purpose

This may be news to you because there was no cutoff the last few years, but runners say "I BQ'd but didn't make the cutoff" all the time. Some runners even have slang for the difference, "BQ" vs "BibQ." But the B.A.A. with its very precise definition, and any runner who is not being a sociopath, knows what a Boston qualifying time or "BQ" is, and is engaging in exclusionary trolling purely for the sake of inflicting harm if they imply otherwise. The people who worked their asses off to meet the BQ standard deserve better. They did the work, but don't get to run. Don't kick people when they're down.

Boston isnt a race thats meant for every knob to run in. Too bad, youre not fast, get quicker and pipe down. Not everything in life is meant to include everyone. This comes from someone who does not have BQ time.

Even before this, I started wondering if people will start getting upset about athletic scholarships.

This ad hominem attack says everything you need to know about the running community.

No one is disputing that individuals who met the BQ standard but missed the cutoff can't run the race. Them's the breaks. They keep training and striving to improve.

The issue is implying that meeting the BQ standard does not reflect qualifying as defined by the B.A.A. (and even by Tracksmith in their ad, to their credit), and/or making a singlet with a "BQ" on it and then saying someone who ... runs a BQ ... can't buy it, for "reasons."

People are surprised over "elitism" from the brand that has some of the highest prices of running apparel and heavily edits every carefully narrated social media post so as to put forth an image of perfected excellence?

No, those heavily benefit “people of color” so Modern Audiences won’t attack them. And nor should they, of course — just saying it’s not the kind of thing you can whip up a viral rage session over.

Mine says BQ and the year. I thought that was always pretty much what it said.

I think the issue was in part because the quote and whose quote it was.

But I think it was misunderstood. I mean yeah, Semple is mostly known for attempting to push a woman out of the race, but he's also the one that implemented the Qualifying standards to race Boston.

The quote they used said: This is not a jogging race

They used Semple's quote because I would think in the full context he was explaining why he implemented the time standards (it was for actual runner's who hit the Q, so in a sense no rookies etc.) and they were tying that in with the singlet being only available to those that made the actual standards for this year, meaning those who made the cut off and registered and will race.

People took the post however they wanted, jumped on the opportunity to be appalled and TS caved in.

For whatever is worth, I wouldn't call Semple misogynist, being that he was also de RD when a women's category was started

I have a few of them, not really because I had the BQs (though I did), but because I like the fabric/construction. Plus I got them on sale. The fabric is much lighter than the thick Van Cortlandt singlet and has lower-profile seams compared to the Twilight singlet. They've had these for Berlin, Chicago, New York, London and Tokyo as well over the years. I just think it's a mistake to only sell them to registered runners this year. Adidas doesn't even do that for the finisher jackets. Leave it up to the individual whether they want to purchase something they earned or not.

Looks like they tried this in 2020? Obviously that didn't work out.

tracksmith.com

BQ Singlet | Tracksmith | Tracksmith

The Tracksmith BQ Singlet is available to men and women who have both qualified and registered for the Boston Marathon. We will verify qualifying standards ...

Open link

The more I think about this, the more I realize the intent has less to do with exclusivity and more to do with not wanting leftover inventory.

It was controversial because you had to have run a qualifying time AND be registered for the race to buy it, and there was a 5:29 cutoff this year. That means lots of people BQ'd who didn't get in, and probably wanted to buy a singlet to celebrate their accomplishment. And they were told they couldn't. And then they were told the reason was they weren't good enough, and we're just jogging. It was a total failure by the brand to understand who their target market is and who was most likely to buy their singlet. And to understand that there were a bunch of people who were really disappointed that they won't be able to run Boston. IMO, a lot of that is on Boston (London has different standards for UK residents and foreigners, Boston doesn't; Boston also has fully 1/3 of the field be filled by influencers and charity runners who didn't qualify. But Tracksmith basically decided to be an outlet for people's frustrations by implying people running a 2:54:32 marathon (which wouldn't have qualified for Boston this year) are slow. No matter what people say here, 2;54 is fast. It'd win many local marathons and even some regional ones.

bingo. I have hounded the silver medal sale they do every summer and for the last 3 years the BQ singlet has been apart of it 'til the end. mass producing them didn't work so this will likely improve margins

I also think the people crying on instagram are not ones who would have bought TS stuff anyways so I don't think they're worrying too much about the bottom line