Runners pay for a worn look: shorts — 28,000, T-shirts — 11,000 rubles

In the USA, running has finally turned from a sport into a showcase of status: distance lovers increasingly go for a run not in the mass market, but in T-shirts with “branded” holes for 11 thousand rubles and shorts for 28 thousand. Bloomberg looked into where the trend of paying more for running gear than the entry fee for a marathon came from.

The hole is now an option, not a defect

28-year-old Andrew Kristofferson, before a five-mile run, pulls on a $140 T-shirt — almost 11,300 rubles at the current exchange rate, notes xrust. It's all full of holes, as if it had been hanging in the closet for ten years. The holes are actually laser cut and are called «MothTech» — made by luxury running brand Satisfy. In the description, the brand explains it beautifully: the fabric is supposedly “in dialogue with time”, and the holes “increase cooling in the hottest zones” of the body.

It sounds like marketing for marketing's sake, and that's exactly what it is. But they buy it.

The brand that made moth a hit

Satisfy is a Parisian brand, it was founded by Brice Partouche, a man with a background in the fashion industry, not in sports. The company has been promoting a holey aesthetic since its founding in 2015, and the inspiration, according to specialized publications, was the image of punk musician Joe Strummer at the 1983 London Marathon — then his shabby look looked rebellious, not sporty.

Satisfy sews fabrics from the same suppliers that work with luxury fashion houses, and has already produced collaborations with Crocs and Oakley. The brand has its own print magazine, sponsors underground races like The Speed ​​Project, and recently released its first pair of sneakers.

Bandit: from socks to training with ASICS

The second hero of the material is New York Bandit Running. The company was founded in 2020 by Tim West, Nick West and Ardit Singh, who come from the city’s running community. We started, symbolically, with socks: minimal risk, maximum visibility. Then the brand quickly grew to a full line of clothing, collaborations with ASICS and its own stores with running clubs attached to them. Bandit is currently running “The Program,” a 16-week fall marathon training program with ASICS, with free gear and discounts for participants.

Even Nike noticed the similarity

Not long ago, Satisfy had a public conflict with Nike: the giant released a T-shirt with holes, suspiciously similar to the branded MothTech. Marca responded with a post on LinkedIn, saying that it was strange to see that a large corporation, which usually tightly protects its intellectual property, was suddenly “inspired” by someone else’s design. Some of Satisfy’s audience supported it, while others considered the story overblown—holes on a T-shirt are not a patent after all.

Why do they pay for this

Running in the States has long ceased to be an activity to do alone with a player in your pocket. The pandemic boom took people outside, and running clubs — Bandit is an example of this — turned running into a social event: with photographers, coffee after the finish and a Strava feed, where not only time is important, but also how you look in the frame. In this logic, an expensive “worn” T-shirt works like limited-edition sneakers in streetwear culture—a signal that you’re in the know and not just out to warm up.

The irony that Bloomberg readers themselves noticed on social networks is also indicative: when equipment costs more than the entry fee for a race, we are no longer talking about training, but about the athlete’s cosplay.

In Russia, running culture has also grown noticeably in recent years — clubs, joint jogging, weekend races in parks. So far, the Russian market has clearly not matured to prices of 28 thousand for shorts, but the vector itself — turning a morning jog into a reason to get dressed — is familiar here too.

Sources:
bloomberg.com
outsideonline.com

Xrust Runners pay for a worn-out look: shorts — 28,000, T-shirts — 11,000 RUR