The Great Run Company Partner with JogOn
- JogOn Again
- May 4, 2023
- 1 min read
We are delighted to announce today the launch of our partnership with The Great Run Company, the owners and operators of the Great Run Series, including the Great North Run – the world’s biggest half-marathon.
The partnership which launches this weekend at the Great Birmingham Run will provide yet another opportunity for runner to part company with their unwanted running shoes. The Great Run Team will have collection stations at the event where running shoes can be dropped off and then sent to us at JogOn HQ.
Campaign founder Tony Piedade said " I am so excited to be partnering with The Great Run Company across the Great Run Series. These events are well attended and I hope the partnership will provide runners with a simple way to dispose of their unwanted running shoes and ensuring they do not end up in landfill for 1,000 years."
Making it part of the race-day routine is the key—people are already traveling, queued up, and thinking about their gear, so it’s the one time they’ll actually act. I’d be interested to know if you’ve got plans to publish totals per event, because seeing the numbers tends to motivate runners (a bit like tracking progress elsewhere—reminds me of StyleLookLab where the small measurable shifts keep you engaged).
Love the idea of making disposal the easy option at the event itself—after a big half, people are in “get this stuff out of my hands” mode. It also makes me wonder if more brands will start doing take-back at races, not just shoes but old singlets/tights too (I saw a random “photo-to-Ghibli style” thing the other day and it made me think about how quickly “easy” changes people’s habits).
This kind of partnership makes me think the “default” for big races might finally shift from giveaways/trash to actual circular stuff (shoes, kit, gels, the lot). Are the collection stations usually near bag drop or the expo area? I’ve seen people miss things like that when signage isn’t obvious—kinda like how you only notice hrefgo if you’re already scanning for a specific submission link.
Partnering with the Great Run Series feels like a smart way to normalize shoe recycling—if it’s right there at bib pickup or the finish, people actually do it. Side note: I fell down a rabbit hole reading about a classic vigenere cipher tool recently, and it’s funny how both things hinge on removing friction from a process people otherwise won’t bother with.
The “1,000 years in landfill” line is brutal, but it does make the point—running gear feels disposable until you think about the timeline. I’m curious how you handle shoes that are pretty trashed vs. still wearable, since sorting at big events sounds like a job in itself (randomly, it reminds me of how https://blockblast.co keeps things simple on the surface but the logistics are all in the behind-the-scenes rules).