Running Fashion 🤝 Climate Change

After the great collapse, humanity found itself without hope. Gangs roamed the streets daily. Some from city to city, recruiting new blood, looting what they could. They would travel for days with little rest, under the blazing heat. Those that couldn’t keep up were left behind and labeled DNF, dead not finish.

You could see them coming from a distance in a long, scattered line. They followed well-worn trails along the roads, near the roads, between the roads, in the deserts, in the mountains, on the beaches, in the forests. What was left of the forests. Wherever a trail laid, they were there. Bobbing across the landscape dressed head to toe in their tribe’s brands: Nike, Adidas, Satisfy, Tracksmith, Janji, you get the idea.

Historians (if there were any left) would remark how the scifi films of the 80s and 90s could not predict that the apocalyptic would not be attired in Mad Max black leather and heavy dark boots but light technical fabric and durable, multi-faceted footwear.

This is the future of humanity viewed through the lens of today’s running attire.

A Tale of Two Shirts

It’s telling that Nike’s Radical Airflow and Satisfy’s HeatCrush released within a week of each other. (ok, eight days, but close enough!)

These shirts coming from the biggest player on the running block alongside a rising underground (maybe not so underground now) brand. Each responding to the need for cooling gear. Not just gear that is light and airy but gear designed to actively cool the wearer.

As we quickly approach the point of no return regarding our climate, companies have to make decisions on how to address it. Even if they don’t care to acknowledge it.

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Nike Radical Airflow

Satisfy’s HeatCrush and Nike’s Radical Airflow, two different approaches to the same issue: it’s hot as balls out and getting hotter. That’s not sexy and that doesn’t sell shit. Nike knows this. Satisfy knows this. We all know this!

And yet, it must be addressed, especially by the running industry. Cause where else you gonna run if not indoors? Inside! On a treadmill, like some criminal? No, no, no. We can’t have that. We are sophisticated beasts who are owed the world despite our inability to be decent stewards of it.

Digging ever so slightly (a google), I read Nike’s sustainability page. I’m a little surprised. I thought it would address water usage and recycled material (it does), but I what I didn’t expect was directly addressing climate change. It stated in gloriously bold H2 header: Climate change is impacting athletes*1

It continued…

Today, athletes* face new obstacles to achieving their goals. Whether poor air quality, extreme heat or unpredictable weather, the impact of climate change is felt everywhere, at every level. It challenges the ability of all athletes* to play, train and compete to their full potential.

Again, that is not sexy and comes off as disingenuous when a (GIANT) corporation is saying it while trying to sell us another chunk of plastics, engineered textiles, and rubber.

Nike wants to have a conversation. Not just another campaign. That might have been enough forty years ago. Now it needs a conversation piece. Enter Radical Airflow.

The name evokes a system of cooling, a system that only works when you’re moving. If you’re radical enough in your beliefs to move yourself forward to benefit from the science that surrounds you. Then it’s possible to make a change in your personal microclimate.

However shallow it may be initially though, the great thing about conversations is that it can get deep and move to unexpected places. Nike is restricted by its native languages of marketing, commerce, and fashion. And despite the best efforts of capitalism, we humans are not natural speakers of that language.

We can be hampered by the surface level needs we have. We look at marketing as light fun. Something is being sold to us in an entertaining, sometimes educational way. It’s not trying to tell us anything about our current state of affairs. Fashion of the three has the best chance of getting through to us. It is an art. Yes, commerce but art when done well.

Nike does it well. It communicates the needs of athletes pro and amateur. It addresses the environment and climate we may be in. It says it through their fabric choices, designs, manufacturing. Radical Airflow says that the heat is different and needs to be addressed different.

The writing is on the wall and a sustainability page is not enough.

Satisfy HeatCrush

Nike’s white, airy shirt gave an almost utopian idea of heat. Something to live amongst. Yes, it’s hard but not impossible to overcome. It just takes steps forward under your own willpower. Hell, the color white amongst the dirt and sweat screams hope. There’s time to change.

Satisfy is earth toned. Brown. It is all about the brutality of your life on fire. HeatCrush. The name evokes the crushing heat, of course. A more optimistic look would be that it crushes the heat for you. But I don’t think that’s the case. Have you seen the pics? Or better yet, the video?

It’s a man running on a road, in the desert heat. It’s a fourteen minute video where the subject and garments don’t show up for ten and a half minutes! And he’s a weird mirage at first. You can barely make out that it’s him because of the heat rising off of the road!

It is not fun. Just relentless.

HeatCrush is no pure escape from the heat and what escape you find will come pouring out of your own body. The sweat drenched clothing looks less fashionable (or technical) and more like a wet scrotum. It doesn’t evoke anything I want to be a part of. And maybe that’s the message from Satisfy. The heat will kill you. You don’t want this. Change your ways.

Or it can just as easily be the heat is here. The heat will kill you. You don’t want this. There is no escape. We have reached a tipping point.

Should I be surprised that I found no official statement from Satisfy on climate change? Google’s AI Overview did state climate change was being addressed through their apparel. Which is a huge assumption. I could not find any language that supported this. The references that were provided by AI Overview were Instagram posts about morning runs and some releases.

Yes, AI hallucinates. That’s for sure, but it’s doing so less and less each month. It finds references decently and summarizes. However, as dumb as it is, sometimes the dots it connects makes sense. While not addressing it directly like Nike has with a page dedicated to sustainability, Satisfy is clearly creating for extreme conditions.

Its target market can’t be desert rats (maybe if they think everything will be a desert soon). No, the heat is rising. AI knows this and understands why Satisfy would release what they release. Satisfy is addressing it with a sense of defeat. Not just in the design of HeatCrush but in a lack of climate change messaging.

(let me know you see any comments from Satisfy I may have overlooked)

Satisfy Running addresses climate change and shifting weather patterns primarily through high-tech, adaptable apparel designed for extreme conditions. While the luxury brand leverages some recycled materials, its primary sustainability focus centers on creating durable, technical gear to help runners adapt to rising global temperatures and unpredictable climates.

The Future of Running Fashion

Running fashion is having a moment. I have my ideas as to why. A few beyond climate change but let’s stick to that for this post. I mean that’s what I’ve been writing about for however many words.

Any fashionista knows winter is for fashion. Because layers arrive. There’s so much more to play with when you have layers. Fashion in the heat is nearly impossible for the average joe. I’ve seen the most fashionable reduced to a tube top and gym shorts. Yes, there are options but feel out of reach for everyday people. And dumb under constant heat exposure.

But then there’s running. Running is accessible to everyone. It’s the go-to exercise for so many people. You know running clothes are comfy and durable already. Or disposable. Stuff you may pick up second hand. Running will make a hot summer fashionable.

For companies, it’s ideal to test fabrics and cuts for the heat. For active cooling. Pieces that are great for running could trickle down to everywhere else in life.

These companies are saying the heat is coming. Hell, it’s here. Something that we need reminded. I’m not saying climate change is forgettable. I think about it all the time, but it is so large and looming that my brain dumps that as soon as it can. It’s too much to hold all the time.

Running brands are saying that they are in it too. They are doing what they can, which is making stuff to address it for their customer base. It’s the system they’re in. They make stuff and sell it. But it’s not what we’re in. We’re in the system that can make connections across groups, industries, countries to do something about it.

This is my attempt to make a connection. Since I started running again, all I can see is how much I love this planet. So deliberate or not, I think we need to take these pieces seriously. I only see active cooling systems becoming more prevalent in running until it spills over. Then future of running fashion become our daily norm. And I for one don’t want to end up as a road warrior in fucking running gear 24/7.

Well, not the sweaty scrotum gear but their SpaceLace shirts look promising!

1 The asterisk is placed after variations of “athlete” on Nike’s site. It references the note: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” A quote from co-founder Bill Bowerman though I can’t find a clear reference beyond an Instagram post from earlier in the year.