By Brian Metzler
Running shoes are a unique commodity. They can make anyone a runner.
Wearing a pair of running shoes means a person cares about their fitness and is quite possibly training for a race, even if “fitness” and “training” are very relative terms. Running shoes immediately identify a person as a runner, no matter if that person is training hard to run a 2:20 marathon or hardly training just to finish a 4:40 (or 5:50) marathon. Running shoes have never had the “cool” pop culture buzz that basketball shoes have had — mostly because the masses don’t find running to be cool, or at least not as cool as basketball — which is why hip-hop rappers don’t wear running shoes in their videos.
Even though a gazillion running shoes are sold every year, the big running shoe brands rarely advertise their new kicks on TV. I presume it’s mostly because TV ads are expensive and, well, because, I would assume, there are more overweight couch potatoes watching TV than fit runners. (Just a hunch.) Not only that, but if you think about, it’s only serious runners who truly identify themselves as runners when their not actually running or wearing running shoes.
When everyone else sits down to watch TV, they become hardcore football fans, reality TV aficionados, random interpreters of pop culture and mostly lethargic, uninspired people who veg out in front of the boob tube. In other words, typical Americans. OK, that’s harsh, but you get the point. Why would a running shoe brand want to advertise to those people when they don’t really want to be known as runners or joggers or whatever it is they are when they’re elbow-deep in a bag of Doritos. The point is that running shoe brands know there are other ways to reach those runner/jogger types when they want to be reached.
Anyway, the idea about running shoe brands not advertising on TV will become a moot point this weekend when adidas launches its new campaign for its new adizero Rush, a flashy 7.5-ounce model geared for quick turnover and moderate to high-mileage running.
 adidas adizero Rush Here’s the thing, though, adidas and its agency smartly didn’t use the message of traditional distance running in its new 30-second spot. At first glance, it didn’t seem to be about endurance training, fitness, road running or racing at all. Nor does it talk about buzzwords like minimalist design or heel-toe drop or stability. Instead, it celebrated the energy of high school sports and depicted a bunch of high school cheerleaders, marching band members, middle-aged coaches and even TV reporters giving chase to three super-fit athletes out in front of the pack as they head to what looks like a high school football stadium.
But if you watch the spot again and again — something you can do with the modern conveniences of YouTube if you’re a real running shoe geek and want to get a good look at the shoe — you realize the message in the ad for the adizero Rush is all about lightweight, minimalist design, endurance training, and even road running and racing. Several scenes actually look like a 5K or 10K road race, especially in the segments when the camera is behind the runners and you don’t notice the costumes, and the three runner athletes out front appear to be finishing a workout. (The Rush is a lightweight trainer but not quite as minimalist as the adizero Rocket or even the adizero Adios 2, especially because it has some newfangled stability measures built into the mix. But remember, minimalist doesn’t always mean a zero-drop shoe. In this case, it means featherweight design with a good feel for the ground in the forefoot, which is really all that needs to be communicated to most runners.)
In the commercial, everyone is running to a stadium, but the stadium is empty and there isn’t a football game being played. Upon watching it a couple of times, you’ll see the spot depicts running as part of the fabric of sports and even of everyday life. And it makes running appear “cool,” even if running isn’t the main theme of the spot.
There are many more metaphors aimed at inspiring non-hardcore runners to buy these running shoes, some blatant, some a little more subtle. The ad, which was created by an agency called 180 Los Angeles, is pure genius on several fronts. First, it makes the point that everyone can be a runner or an athlete if they train. Secondly, it speaks to a variety of potential user groups — specifically the runner/jogger types who aren’t always identified as runners, but also to the hardcore runners who can’t helped be intrigued by the shoe and the running imagery on the screen. (Athlete or otherwise, anyone can connect with someone in the cross-section of life wearing the shoes while running through the streets in this ad.)
Lastly, the ad helps adidas speak about a new generation of lightweight, low-profile and minimally built running shoes without having to beat novices, beginners and joggers over the head with the technospeak of the running shoe revolution we’ve all been talking about since 2009 or so. By watching this ad, a potential customer doesn’t need to know about midfoot gait strikes, recent studies about foot strikes and running economy, heel-toe drops or any of the hyperbole in “Born to Run.” They just have to associate with things like running, training, being fit, being competitive and being light on your feet enough to think, “I need to buy a pair of those.”
However, whether or not the average viewer actually buys a pair and starts training like an athlete or even a just-finish-it jogger is an entirely different story. And it’s quite possibly a story with which adidas doesn’t need to be concerned in the short term — although if they do make that sale, in the long-term view, adidas has loads of other gear and apparel to sell them, too. But this ad would seem to be geared at one-time sales to people (high school kids or adults) who want to improve their fitness, not necessarily converting impressionable couch potatoes to lifelong runners. And that’s just fine. It’s a great ad with loads of energy.
Running shoes are a unique commodity, but ultimately, they can’t make just anyone a runner.
Brian Metzler is a senior editor and web editor of Running Times.
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This is one of the best blog posting I have ever read. As a runner and marathoner, obesity in the country disturbs me. You reflect on this countries obesity and laziness very well.