• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, March 4, 2025

Saucony is looking to catch up with the fast-moving running shoe market, introducing a new “Run As One” campaign that aims to connect with runners about their collective experience. Inspired by the brand’s successful collaboration with Collision Run Club to create Café Vestiaire during January 2025’s Paris Fashion Week, the Wolverine Worldwide-owned brand is introducing a series of coffee shop residencies. The activations are starting in New York City, then expanding to Boston, London, Grand Rapids, and other major cities. CMO Joy Allen-Altimare tells Marketing Dailyabout the new campaign, created in-house.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Marketing Daily: Ads focusing on group running have become a trend, favored by On Running, Brooks and Hoka, to name a few. What makes “Run As One” different?

Joy Allen-Altimare: Saucony has been around for a long time. Running in community has been in our DNA for 126 years. The idea is part of our heritage.

We want to position ourselves at this unique intersection between running and culture. Over the last couple of years, we’ve been extending that passion rooted in running to other ways we know consumers like to connect with others: music, food and travel. This was time for Saucony to elevate what we’ve already been doing for so many years.

Marketing Daily: What kind of research led to this?

Allen-Altimare: We’ve been doing great work with our consumer insight and marketing intelligence teams, homing in on this intersection between running and culture. We found some unique data about Gen Z. They're looking for community, yes, but they're looking for more, too. Coming out of the pandemic and this sense of loneliness, they don’t want just surface-based relationships. It’s not just about the run crew. They want to live and explore and discover their passions, and they want to do so in a community. That gives them a connection with others and a mental and physical reprieve. And they understand that those connections help with mental health challenges.

That’s the message of this campaign. Whether you live in a suburb or a city, there is this universal need to exist in a community, and we’re trying to do that in a way that resonates. What makes us different from those other ad campaigns is that we come at it from a product perspective. Whether it’s about running or break dancing, we are trying to communicate in an authentic, ownable and relevant way. And that’s true for both performance and lifestyle products.

We know we're a tool they rely on because of our expertise and innovation.

Marketing Daily: Beyond the in-person activations in these cities, what is the broader media plan for the campaign?

Allen-Altimare: These events are engaging, immersive activations. The campaign plays off that ethos in both above and below-the-line advertising. We’re starting in key markets and expanding globally over the next few months. We’re using out-of-home, CTV, and digital. As the weather gets warmer and we move into spring and summer season, you’ll see us at different events and activities. And we’re working closely with our retail partners.