Paris Fashion Week vs Art Basel
It surprised me when I was asked multiple times at The Running Event whether I was going to Paris Fashion Week in January. I’m not. Having flown to Texas to look at clothes and hang out with friends, it actually was a reasonable question. Why not fly to France to do the same?
The thought is that running will have completely taken over Paris Fashion Week by the end of this edition. Even if your idea of ‘running culture’ only has the breadth to include apparel, it has not peaked yet!
Indeed, this past weekend saw a new flurry of athletic activations at Art Basel Miami Beach. The hosts were all brands that signal Running Culture in that somewhat homogenous Instagram way: Alex Zono (South Africa), Optimistic Runners (Berlin), Schism Running (New York), and Running Order (NYC and San Francisco) came together for a pop-up market, a shakeout run, and a 5k race with a $7,000 handbag and carbon-plated sandals up for grabs. Maybe we’ll get something like this at Frieze Los Angeles…
This is far from the first time that there have been running activations at Miami Art Week, though. The fifth edition of the Running is Art event took place on Saturday. Hosted by local crew, In Paradise Running, the idea is to bring together Miami’s art, culture, and community. Sounds like fun to me.
Tracksmith hosted a series of runs at Art Basel Miami in 2022, and Swiss powerhouse On Running created some suitably elaborate audiovisual virtual experiences in the same year. It’s nothing new and it’s all welcome, but there was not too much like that at The Running Event – a place for running lifers who love the utility of running more than the potential for potential cultural overlap.
There was a tiny bit of pretentiousness here and there, of course, but as Cole Townsend outlines here, the week in San Antonio served as a glorious antidote to the nonsense that Instagram loves to serve up.
Anyway, it’s fun to see all of these people pushing the envelope when it comes to how you can look while running, but please don’t be fooled into thinking it’s the new (expensive) normal. It’s far from it. Take a baby step out of the big cities, and you’ll see runners wearing 20-year-old black shorts and t-shirts from races they’ve run. Both types of runner (and the rest of us) are very much a part of running culture. It’s ok to stay in our respective lanes.
Running ain’t cool. But it also can be. And that’s why we all love it.
Tempo Journal feature
Talking of running culture peaking, back in July, I had a chat with Australian publication, Tempo Journal. Here’s a photo of part of my face with the headline!
We both reflect on running culture in similar ways and reflecting on the number of brand events at the Boston and London marathons brought our conversations together, so it was really cool to figure out Los Angeles vs Melbourne timezones so I could discuss all things running with Dylan Rainforth and Mack Dewar.
Then we caught up IRL in New York last month and watched the final game of the World Series over some pizza and beers. Great lads doing great work. Take a read.
Salt and Flickers: a cool book by a cool friend
I interviewed Howie Goldklang from Silver Lake Track Club a couple of years ago because I loved the community that he was building.
The result of speaking to him in-depth was an appreciation for the myriad ways he thought about running, but also for elevating people and building a better world. All told? Howie’s a cool guy. When he told me he was writing a book, I was thrilled. I knew it was going to be another good thing added to the world.
Partnered with local artist Eric Junker and with a foreword by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, Salt and Flickers is a fantastic, art-forward coffee table book filled with poetry and dreams, and I’m very proud to own one. Howie even wrote “something nice” in mine.
Here’s a photo of the back of my head by Ryan Shon in front of the book on display in Howie’s neighborhood coffee shop.
Running Sucks Haiku of the Week
Running is freedom;
A way to express yourself;
A radical act.
I got some great requests for 2026’s A to Z of Running. Yes, I might incorporate some into a haiku. If you want me to write about anything in particular, simply leave a comment below or reply to this email. Easy!
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Ok but how do we get the Substack mafia to Paris?