Abe Chavez is the fashion manager at buzzy New York-based luxury boutique ESSX, where his responsibilities include managing the store’s relationships with high-profile celebrity clientele like basketball star Jaylen Brown and American football player CeeDee Lamb. But earlier this week, Chavez was tasked with a different role altogether: leading a run club through Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Everyone from regular consumers to influencers to local fashion cool kids and Brooklyn-raised rapper Theophilus London joined in what was the culmination of a three-day takeover of the store by running sneaker label Hoka ahead of Sunday’s New York City Marathon. For those who didn’t fancy being put through their paces but still wanted to try out some shoes, ESSX co-founder Laura Baker led a group on a cultural walking tour of the neighbourhood.

A year or two ago, a luxury boutique participating in such an activation may have raised eyebrows — but not anymore. Fashion has been going all in on running culture for the past year. It’s now typical for brands to celebrate milestones like flagship store openings with run clubs, while networking at fashion weeks between buyers, press and creatives, which traditionally happened over loud music in bars and clubs, now often starts bright and early with a run.

For brands, marathons offer the perfect chance to market special-edition gear to product-crazy members of the running community, while getting their clothing and footwear in front of others who may not have come across them yet. At the New York City Marathon — one of the world’s big six — this obsession is more evident than ever. The swarm of brand activity from product collaborations to pop-ups to sponsored fitness events in the lead-up to the race has resembled that of a fashion week rather than preparation for the 26.2-mile slog through the city’s five boroughs.

Bandit, a New York-based fashion-forward running label, released a 17-piece collection of running gear and sneakers in collaboration with Asics and will host activations like cheer zones and a pre-race warm-up run from a SoHo pop-up. Minted New York, a running-centric clothing and jewellery brand, is hosting its own pop-up and announced a limited edition Speed 4 sneaker and apparel collaboration with Saucony. New Balance is sponsoring a team of high-profile personalities for the race in partnership with rapper Action Bronson to promote the release of their FuelCell Rebel v4 and M10 Minimus sneakers.

And for the first time, the marathon has an official beauty partner. L’Oréal-owned cosmetics label Maybelline will have a dedicated cheer zone, make-up booth and branded running team staffed by actress Claire Holt, TV personality Tayshia Adams, model Haley Kalil and make-up artist Karen Sarahi Gonzalez.

“These events are full of people and influencers wearing all the expensive, exclusive gear, many of whom have no intention of running the race at all but are drawn in by the product,” said Tayler Wilson, a writer and brand consultant who has run eight marathons since 2020. “The race is now almost the least important part.”

For brands looking to engage with marathoners, it’s not enough to just turn up with some sneakers to sell, however. Superficial cash grabs are likely to send them running.

Come for the Run, Stay for the Merch

There are, of course, still plenty of participants who show up to running events primarily to run. But big moments like marathons are increasingly frequented by consumers who come expecting to show off often expensive products that signify their place in a community, according to Yazmin Johnson, a London-based stylist and runner who participated in the New York City Marathon last year.

“It may as well be Paris Fashion Week,” Johnson said, adding that New York is the most popular of all the world’s major marathons for many runners, giving brands extra incentive to go bigger on activations.

Tied to this week’s marathon, On has a packed schedule of daily displays of its new LightSpray manufacturing technology, along with its own organised group runs and other events. It also took the moment to release a batch of its Cloudboom Strike LightSpray sneakers in ultra-limited quantities at its On Labs location in Manhattan.

It’s not only runners who covet running apparel or footwear either. The growing popularity of performance running and running-inspired footwear has turbocharged growth for newcomer brands like On and Hoka, and reinvigorated the appeal of older technical players like New Balance, Asics and Salomon. Nike’s bright pink AlphaFlys running sneakers now double as fashion items. Adidas collaborator Pharrell Williams appeared in a pair of the brand’s newly launched Pro Evo 1 racing shoes for his turn as torchbearer at the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony this summer.

Earlier this week, Adidas chief executive Bjørn Gulden told investors the brand was caught off guard when 200 pairs of its new $500 long-distance racing sneaker sold out in an hour at a drop at last month’s Beijing Marathon. The brand plans to continue building heat for the shoe ahead of a wider rollout next year through releases around key marathons, the next being Shanghai. It will also release a special edition of the shoe designed by Pharrell Williams this week in New York ahead of the race.

ESSX’s Baker said witnessing young fashion consumers in her store wearing limited-edition Hoka collabs is what prompted the shop to pick up the brand’s performance footwear — its first major sneaker assortment — including the Bondi 8 and Mach 6 LA silhouettes.

“These are the fashion kids pushing trends forward, and they’re equally obsessed with fitness [and] run clubs as they are with their clothing,” Baker said.

The running community, however, is similar to the streetwear community, according to Wilson: Consumers aren’t afraid to call out or boycott brands which they feel are simply jumping on the trend in a way that doesn’t feel authentic.

Keeping It Real

For big races like New York, even the more established brands like Hoka partner with local businesses to better access the consumer groups they’re targeting. Working with ESSX, one of the city’s hottest new multi-brand retailers, was designed to get in front of its “strong community of tastemakers,” said Ian Hill, Hoka’s director of US marketing.

The partnership allowed Hoka to directly engage with young fashion-forward consumers who blend performance gear with high fashion or streetwear pieces, but may not necessarily pull up to shop in a Hoka store itself, said Baker.

Baker believes running will be a long-term inspiration for brands, rather than a passing trend, thanks to its avid community and how deeply involved runners are in product — especially during marathon season.

“When you look around New York [at this time of year], the whole city is like a lookbook,” she said.

Wilson, the marathoner and brand consultant, pointed out that even for casual runs some people will show up in hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, from their shorts to their sunglasses to their sneakers.

“I remember when I first started running with a group four years ago, I’d turn up in a pair of trainers my mum gave me and would be wearing random bits of old sports gear,” Johnson said. “But it’s a different game now.”