New year, new you?

A note on the new year, new diets, new exercise regimens, and old, copyrighted ideas in the Satisfy vs Nike fiasco.

Jan 06, 2025

In the USA the holiday season feels like a two-month extravaganza from Halloween to New Year with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas in the middle.

It’s a relentless barrage of celebration. It’s an onslaught of food and drink, culminating in a week-long stretch of (hopefully) work-free sofa time. It’s no surprise that people get to January burnt out — both physically and mentally — and strive for change.

Along with a better diet, better sleep, and better exercise regimen, alcohol is among the first things that people try to change their relationship with. Changing my relationship with alcohol is how I inadvertently started running again as an adult.

Story time: It was 2007, and I was in my first job out of journalism college. I hadn’t landed at one of the trade mags like I was aiming. Instead, I got a gig as the online editor for the largest independent radio station in the UK. I was also freelancing for some of the biggest music magazines in the world. I was young, I was in the thick of it, and alcohol permeated everything.

The station had a rock ‘n’ roll image, and that meant huge monthly parties with an open bar each time. For the magazine work I was at concerts most nights. I was being schmoozed by publicists with pre-show drinks, after-show drinks, during-show drinks. I was on a press junket to a new country every month. It was great. Until it wasn’t.

The radio station office was on this lovely square in central London. The door was on the corner of the square, at a diagonal, so you could see both left and right across the whole glorious plaza as you exited. The problem was the pub three doors down. There was always a handful of colleagues braying at anyone they saw come out of those big wooden doors to join them for a quick pint (or seven).

New to full-time employment, I was keen to fit in and make friends, so I always agreed. A few months into this relentless drinking with both of my jobs, however, I was starting to feel quite unwell. (Let’s not go into the fact that I was also working two full-time jobs.)

One day, when my radio colleagues called me over, I knew I needed a good excuse. I told them I was training for a race, and had to go home for a run. To my complete surprise, they accepted that excuse as a reason. I was off the hook. I didn’t have to drink that evening.

So the next day I signed up to that race. Back then (almost 18 years ago!) running for fun was a weird thing to do. I even sent out a company-wide email asking for sponsorship for my 5k. The station controller put £250 in. Let’s not dwell on the fact that I’d signed up for a women-only race. I did think it was odd that there was no “Mr.” option for a title. I put it down to an oversight.

A photo of me at my first 5k race in 2007. I do wish that old school racing singlet still fitted me. Awful material, but vintage cool.

If you’re in a moment where you’re considering your best relationship with alcohol, know that you’re far from alone. There are so many more options now (the non-alcoholic beer options now versus a decade ago are incredible), the general attitude towards alcohol is different now, and there are so many people to get advice from. It’s a different, better world. Acknowledging the need for a change is a beautiful first step.

Whether it’s alcohol, sugar, meat, or sleep, what you do next counts. If you’re starting from a less healthy point, the act of running is especially tough at the start, but be sure that you will reap the benefits.

My one piece of advice if you’re starting your running journey today? Find a way to make running easier. Take the lowest hanging fruit, and once you’ve done that, think about the next thing you can make less difficult.

If you’re getting out of breath too often, consider slowing down. If you want to make friends, find a run club. If you’re concerned about running alone as a woman, find an all-female group. If you want to run across a desert, train your body in a way that can do that.

Last week, I wrote about how I solidified my running practice by appreciating an hour of silence when I had to listen to music every other waking moment. But first, I had to know that I needed that. For me, first and foremost.

That’s the crux of this publication. No matter how much we love it (or have come to love it) there will always, always be moments when running sucks. If you can find a way to make running suck less, you’re way more likely to continue doing it. You can frame it as your big Why, but I prefer small increments of progress in and appreciation for the thing you’re doing.

Good luck.

When you run, what are the most difficult things for you? Have you gone through this journey in the past? Leave a comment below, and maybe we can share some solutions.

In the news: Satisfy vs Nike

What happened? Nike very-quietly released a polyester running shirt with little pockmarked holes at the end of 2024 that is very reminiscent of Satisfy’s unique-until-now MothTech tees.

I think that Satisfy and Tracksmith are the two indie brands that are changing running culture through fashion the most. They’re doing it in the same (but opposite) way that Lululemon did in the yoga industry over a decade ago.

Lulu moved yoga from a sacred lifestyle activity where people wore tie-dye and flowing robes to a polyester-based active sport you can log on Strava. While Tracksmith leans into the nostalgic collegiate preppiness of someone running a blistering mile through the snow, Satisfy is replacing the neon shirts and harsh running nerd metrics with natural fibers on steampunk cowboys. It’s a weirdo kinda cool. It’s the kind of news that got reported in High Snobiety and HypeBeast.

Spot the difference! Those pesky moths get everywhere.

Nike trying to co-opt Satisfy’s inimitable vibe reminds me of when Claire’s Accessories stole a Tatty Devine design or when Target steals a t-shirt design. Nike can get away with it, though. They’re interested in selling volume to people who have likely never heard of Satisfy, they’re too big to get sued, and nobody’s changed their opinion on Nike. They’re still a mega-corp that uses bad practices throughout the business, but we still want to run a marathon in a pair of Vaporflys, right?

Running Sucks Haiku of the Week

My fave time of year
No rain in LA since May
I’ll take the sunshine

My roses could definitely do with some natural rainfall, as could the peas and kale that I’ve planted. Anyway. I’ve had a couple of really fun runs with Silver Lake Track Club this past week. Both took me into Griffith Park and gave me 1000ft of elevation over 8 and 12 miles.

Tough runs, but I’ve been learning a lot about my what my body is (and isn’t) capable of the past 18 months. Can you believe that I actually aimed to reduce my running mileage in 2022? I didn’t fully concede defeat to my running addiction until summer 2023. It’s been fun getting back up to a high mileage.

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Thanks for reading
- Raz x