Why brands are racing to get involved in running clubs

Tired: Dating apps.

Wired: Singles’ running clubs.

Dating apps have stumbled like a marathoner cramping up at mile 22. Match Group, the parent company of dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, has reported a decline in paying users for seven consecutive quarters as of its Q2 earnings call in July.

Where are singles finding matches these days? Among other venues, singles’ running clubs and run clubs in general, which are exploding in popularity. As these clubs have grown, both endemic and non-endemic brands have pursued partnerships with them as a way to target specific demographics and broaden their marketing and branding.

Not a sprint

Sneaker and sportswear brand Saucony has partnered with several run clubs, including Black Girls RUN!, Black Men Run, and No Bad Days, Jordan Yob, brand marketing director at Saucony, told Marketing Brew.

“You can’t go a day without seeing a couple of the run crews in Brooklyn,” Yob said, noting the increasing popularity of run clubs in the US, and particularly in New York City.

At some of these meetups, outside of providing T-shirts or refreshments, Yob said, Saucony has provided shoes for runners to try on, and even created custom shoes in partnership with some run clubs. (The company declined to share how much of its marketing budget goes toward these types of partnerships.)

“A lot of times, run communities have their favorite shoes that they may already be running in,” Yob said. “It is an opportunity, when we do these events with run crews, to have them maybe try on a product that they’re not used to wearing.”

Other brands are bringing their goods to run clubs, too. Gainful, a nutritional supplement brand, has teamed up with Lunge Run Club in New York several times this year. For some of the events, Gainful has supplied pre-workout supplements, hydration, and food, Kaitlin O’Neill, the brand’s experiential and events marketing manager, said. At one of Lunge’s October meetups, Gainful ran a “golden ticket-esque” giveaway, she told us, where the brand handed out tubes of its mango hydration product, three of which included a golden ticket good for six months of Gainful product for free.

It’s not just sportswear and wellness brands like Saucony and Gainful that are showing up. Netflix recently partnered with Lunge for its new rom-com show Nobody Wants This, which follows an agnostic woman who falls in love with a rabbi.

The event included a matchmaking game at New York bar Houston Hall for the occasion: Runners could fill out a survey to find their “perfect match,” then were given an envelope that contained the Instagram handle of another attendee who was their match.

Real life runner

Brands aren’t only showing up to target specific consumers. They’re also using run clubs as a way to diversify their marketing and branding.

Saucony has a “strong organic presence,” and is active on TikTok and Instagram like many brands, Yob said. However, activating with run clubs can help Saucony connect with consumers outside of social media and help drive “brand love and brand loyalty,” she said.

“A lot of times people run with a certain community that they identify with or that they connect with,” she said.

For Gainful, run-club partnerships are an effort to diversify its marketing. In the past, Gainful’s partnerships were focused on fitness-oriented groups like gyms and the fitness race Hyrox, Courtney Scott, VP of marketing at Gainful, said. But now, as run clubs are exploding and bringing in people who may be approaching wellness more casually, Gainful is courting those consumers, too, she said.

“A lot of supplement brands are very focused on more high-intensity athletics,” Scott said. “Running is so hot right now, but I think it’s because it’s welcoming to all people. Anybody can start running, and on Day One, you can go as slow as you want, and you can work your way up…That’s one of the things that really attracts us to run clubs and to Lunge specifically.”