To ensure more stores like Renegade exist in the United States, the Running Industry Diversity Collation (RIDC) is launching RUN THE BLOCK, a new mentoring and grant and initiative dedicated to increasing ownership amongst Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) within the running industry. Brooks is proud to be supporting RUN THE BLOCK through an initial seed investment. Submissions for grants open later this winter. To learn more, visit https://runningdiversity.com/runtheblock.
Renegade Running (renegade-running.com)
In a recent post, I introduced a discussion on adidas and why it’s important for the brand to utilize a different strategy for rolling out their running shoes. My angle was to establish that they needed to find a way to educate and inform consumers in mainstream and family channels. I didn’t add a lot of details on why this needed to happen because that’s an aspect of consultation. I wanted to create a discussion on the importance of reaching the kid in the back of the classroom and the kid who sits in the front.
The reason I presented this discussion was because a new strategy would inform and educate the people who aren’t connected to running specialty shops. What I didn’t say was that this form of education didn’t have to place premium products at mainstream and family retail. This differentiated information could be implemented with something as simple as a QR Code driving family channel people to videos like this one from the team at Brooks. In partnership with RIDC, discussed on the site here:
Brooks has created an informative series shedding a light on the difficulties and realities of running for BIPOC. The video on Renegade Running is the type of content adidas has attempted in the past so it’s not that adidas hasn’t attempted to be more insightful, it’s just that the heart of the discussion was lost in the polish and gloss of the story. Sometimes marketing is as simple as telling the story of inclusiveness and how it empowers a community. Shout out Brooks, RDIC and Renegade Running.
P.S. There is an opportunity here to discuss Brooks’ growth and expansion into mainstream retail and how this could potentially hurt a shop like Renegade Running who can’t absorb the promotional nature of mainstream sneaker stores. There is also a discussion on Brooks creating this type of content when the running store isn’t exactly focused on their brand being front and center, but that’s another post for another day.