I’ve seen a lot of commentary about this is activation on Substack. People do not seem to be pleased.
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I saw one calling it “Pumptrackpalooza.” Another called it “Gathering Of The Neck Tattoos.” Still another used the word “cringe” a bit too much for my taste
Those might all have been from the same one, maybe? I read a bunch of them
There is, what I could call, a “faction” in Running that want to make it “cool, like skateboarding” because Running, as it is today, and as popular as it’s become, is still “pretty fucking far from cool” as Marcellus Wallace would say… visually speaking anyway
As Raz said, “I think this is the crux of the ‘Running is the New Skateboarding’ narrative: runners look like dorks and… we know it.”
I was a skateboarder, a surfer, and punk, before I started running. I ran in band shirts, 100% cotton or 50/50, because that’s what I had the most of, and tech fabrics hadn’t really been invented yet; at least not that I saw
I never owned Vision Street Wear, which is where I think the “let’s make it look ‘skateboard-ish’” people have landed. The ‘clean’ skaters, Tony Hawk (the only one they could name, I’m sure); not the ‘rough’ ones like Mark Gonzales
The adidas | Satisfy activation might be a little too skateboard-ish to those folks, but as someone who’s been in that scene, it’s also a little more truthful? Although a lot of people (who wouldn’t know any better) called it “the most un punk thing ever” or words to that effect
They put up something equivalent to a bunch of kids showing up in a parking lot with cinder blocks & plywood, bringing their band friends, and throwing together a skate jam sesh
(That’s how Queens of the Stone Age started, as Kyuss, out in the desert, with portable generators and coolers of beer - @sphere could confirm)
I’m glad the put the links to the bands that played in their IG posts too; I’ll have to give them a listen
Final thought: I’m still NOT buying their stuff LOL
YMMV
5/25/2026
@runningsucks101: Sorry. my normo friends are sending me the takedowns now
I know that I’ve mentioned this 1000x before “I have found that a tech race shirt - with a nice graphic, a date on it, and perhaps a mention of a distance of some sort - is a fairly effective Invisibility Cloak in the Weights Area”
Let me add that lately I’ve been wearing punk band shirts again at the gym (The Clash, The Ramones, Green Day, Iggy Pop, Social D, etc.), so the Runners leave me alone, too LOL
This was a good one, although The Circle Pit plays in only a part of it
The thing they are getting wrong is that “cool" isn’t a look. It’s just not giving a 
what other people think of tights and colorful shirts.
If I genuinely thought these people were choosing to run around acting like this? I’d call it cool even if I personally thought it looked dumb. However I do not genuinely think that.
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“Punk ain’t the boots or the hair dye… It must be the attitude that you have, that approach to everything in life with that attitude. And that attitude is ‘Give us some Truth’
"I will always believe in punk-rock, because it’s about creating something for yourself. Stop being a sap! Lift your head up and see what is really going on in the political, social and religious situations, and try and see through all the smoke screens.
“In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human being. F**k being an asshole.” - Joe Strummer.
D’Kid once told me that me, being a long-time Punk, yet without any tattoos, is - in fact - perfectly Punk
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I posted this on Substack, and received this comment
Haha dressing up like an undercover agent during an investigation!
And she has doubled her follower numbers to over 50k in two days - deservedly. Have a look at her Unbound coverage (she was #2 in the ridiculously long race).
A ‘joy wee’ anyone? And then being let down - by a man!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DY_BjOHtcNt/