Some observations I made about the different running brands in and around the race this past week.
Adidas
The German’s sponsor the BAA with the marathon current deal going til 2023. Big weekend winners with tonnes of activities, not just for marathon runners.
BAA 5k, perfect for friends/families of marathon runners who came to support (If you got an entry when it opened back in Feb and didn’t mind spunking up $50+ for a 5k!!) Kids local relay races. Pro Milers running the streets. Lots of fun in the sunshine. Prime retail space at the expo and talk of being sold out of jackets by the Sunday morning.
Pretty much every runner buys some sort of merchandise. Every official and volunteer gets some gear so the three stipes are everywhere.
Mens race winner and most of womens top 10 including top US female. With rumors of them losing London marathon to NB and hesitation around the IAAF deal, Boston is the last big event and they need to show up big time here. Mission accomplished in terms of brand visibility and event sales.
Note that the RunBase store was swamped with people all week. The place is a ghost town the rest of the year. Not sure it’s profitable viable for BAA/adidas/Marathon Sports to have this prime retail space on Boylston open all year round.
Brooks
Made a special event shoe based on some preppy New England / Nantucket theme. Only available on the Adrenaline. Last year’s Lobster theme on the Launch was way better.
Expo booth was busy. You could get a free pair of shoes for trying their new gait analysis system. Didn’t fancy waiting the hour queue so can’t comment on the actual system but it did look a little step forward than your standard running store dartfish video gait analysis. They attached some nodes/patches to your legs which I guess measure peak tibial velocity and acceleration. Not bad as all controlled on an ipad. Hope this can be rolled out to more specialty running stores and give that dwindling business an extra lifeline.
Didn’t notice any Brooks athletes in any of the weekends races apart from a guy last in the invitational Mile.
Hoka One One
Low key but still present. Expo booth seemed relatively busy. No top end runners except a couple sub 2:30 guys.
Tried on the new Clifton and Clayton models. Bad move.. the Clifton felt so plush and nice but the Clayton just rock hard. They tried to sell me BS that it is more responsive. However… if im buying a pair of Hoka’s Im doing so for the plush cushion.. not for the responsiveness.
Shame they didn’t have the new Tracer or spikes on sale. Would’ve maybe invested to try those out.
New Balance
Local dogs tryna defend home turf. Very good job for NB in terms of event product creation and marketing.. not so good on elite marathon runner presence. They seem to invest a lot on Track athletes rather than the lottery of African road ragers.
I’m sure we all read the RW article. NB basically bought up all the billboards, MBTA subway trains, busses etc. This aggressive marketing is not surprising from the brand who’ve just ponied up some serious dollar for NYC marathon/NYRR events and what’s rumored to be a MASSIVE London Marathon bid from under the noses of the Germans.
The Zante and 1080 footwear executed well. Apparel was sharp too. One major disappointment was the 3-d printed shoe. Only making 44 pairs for sale, not having it on your booth front and center and then charging $400… Come on NB !!
Nike
No expo booth but not surprising as they have a very large and impressive Nike Town 1 block from the finish line. Cool event specific apparel and a customization unit in store where you could get your name printed on your singlet. Female winner and a few Africans more Africans as usual.
Nike did some Uber collaboration similar to the NYC marathon where a runner would pick you up and take you for a small tour.. kind of pointless but just marketing hype/heat to have Nike clad people running up and down Boylston all weekend.
Newton
Cool event specific shoe with a graphic of the sign for Newton town (Heartbreak hill is in Newtown town). Actual brand in general seem to be stagnating for a long time now. Nothing too cool or exciting going on around the brand.
On Running
Small mention as they had a cool looking booth at the expo. Products abit quirky but ok. Seem to be making good progress in running specialty stores.
Saucony
Another local dog, trying to roll with the punches of the bigger dogs. Some nice theme around the Green line subway which follows a lot of the marathon course.
Product execution looked a little whack but the theme was spot on.
Expo booth busy as expected. Plenty of Saturday event runners (Ben True/Molly Huddle plus a few more in the 5k/Mile). Not many marathoners. No surprise as their top guys all did the Trials.
Puma / Reebok / UnderArmor
Total no shows. Massively disappointing as Puma and Reebok both have large offices in Boston area. All three keep giving the talk of re-entering the running market but followed with very little, pretty much no action.
No on course activity. No runners (2 ZAP guys in the 5k). No cool products. Boring.
Sketchers
Meb wasn’t running this year but he was still very present around the city. Very impressive booth placement right outside of adidas. Had the big man on there a few times which bought a lot of customers and buzz around the booth.
Janji
Small apparel brand based around Boton. Had a small expo booth and a very nice pop up store on the street parallel to the finish. Lots of events and buzza round there store. Pre race poster making party. Post race party. All with free beer. Actual products are pretty nice. Soft to touch and feel, cool graphics. Hope they can make the jump and survive against the big kids.
Tracksmith
Very very nice retail space right smack bank whallop opposite the expo. A big fan of how they are activating and trying to market their brand. Lots of cool events (Meter magazine launch, book launches, Sunday long run, womens run with Gibb, post race party..). Artistic collab with Bobby Gibb was great idea given the anniversary. Actual product story is very clear. Just too pricey. Many of the bigger dogs could take a look at this brand and how they execute.