Saturday, October 24, 2009

Idea for a T-shirt: "I am a jogger. Suck it."

So many people referred to Piddle Izumi Ads that I had to look at them myself.  So I did. Here's a link for you to look at them, too.

I especially liked the "No one has ever felt a jogger's high."  What balls.  How do they know what highs I've felt?  How do they attach meaning to the speed someone is capable of running?
Now, I will be the first to admit that when I go to log my exercise into Weight Watchers, it insists that I am jogging.  (The Daily Plate has a category for running 12 min miles, though, and so I love them) Although the movement and mechanism (jogging v. running) is the same, it would seem that the two are differentiated by speed. (According to princeton, a jogger is someone who runs a steady slow pace (usually for exercise))  this fits me; I generally pull an 11-minute to 14-minute mile, depending on the event.

Still...I decided to take an inventory of what this jogger has done since 2005.  As of  October, 2009, I have completed:


2 Iron Distance Triathlons, 4 Half Iron Distance Triathlons, 6 Olympic Distance Triathlons:
34 Sprint Triathlons, 8 Duathlons, 7 5k runs (including a snowshoe run), 2 10k runs, 3 Half marathons, 2-25k trail runs, a 15 mile trail run (many runs have been well above altitude), a 25-mile trail run, a stage race, 8 Marathons, 3-50k trail races, and a 50 mile race. 

Too bad for them that as much as I am involved in athletics, it won't be their logo I'll ever wear again.  I sent them a letter saying as much, too, because the pen is mightier than the sword, but email is faster, cheaper, and lends itself well to impulsive acts.
Their stuff is not so unique and fantastic that I can't spend more dollars at the many other companies out there who are welcoming and inclusive and celebrate any and all of us who get off are butts and get out there and move. 

Suck on that, PI.

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27 comments:

  1. These ads are BS. I too could be described as a "jogger" with a 10 or 11 minute mile - but that does not mean I'm not working. Ahh! I'm sending an email too!

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  2. Gait analysis is really the domain of physical therapists. Traditionally, the definition of running is a gait pattern in which 'flight' (or float period) is achieved and the absence of the double support periods that occur in walking. After toe off on one foot and before foot strike of the other foot there should be a period of air time during which neither foot is on the ground.

    If you are achieving flight, you are running. If you are not in flight, you are walking.

    I just read a study that indicated that the transition between walk and run is a 2 step process- ie: you are walking then the left leg does a stride kinetically similar to the walk gait but faster, the right leg does a stride kinetically similar to running but slower, then on the next step you are running. I don't think the in-between thing is jogging, it is just that uncomfortable zone right before you break into a run- the pace that I don't like to stay on on a treadmill because it is akward.

    I just took a Physical Therapy CEU course on running injuries, and the instructor used these definitions, so they are still accurate. (This dude-http://myinc.tv/fort4fitness/Gordon.html)

    Conclusion: if both feet leave the ground while you 'jog', then you can call it running. It is just running at a slower pace.

    (Bummer about Pearl Izumi, I love their cycling products.)
    -Judy

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  3. I hate those ads... Starting with one where they said you're not a runner if you use an ipod. Well, they don't need my money, I'm sure!

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  4. I also really don't understand their "runners sometimes jog, but joggers never run"

    I used to buy PI bike shorts, but now that I've tried the SheBeest shorts, I'm never going back. This ad campaign should keep me away too.

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  5. I've seen those ads in Runner's World magazine and it really pissed me off. I feel the same way you do - Pearl Izumi has lost my business forever! And I'm none too thrilled with Runner's World for accepting the ad in their magazine.

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  6. It seems really stupid to alienate a portion of your clientele.
    I am going to have to stick with my sugoi tops and check out SheBeest for cycling bottoms. I need some new shorts and tights soon!

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  7. 12 minute miles? Check. 30 mile weeks? Check. A few races under the belt? Check. Am I a runner? A jogger? Call me whatever you will, I couldn't care less, I'll plod along behind you, eating your dust, and I'll love running just as much if not more than you, and that's just fine with me. Elitists can kiss my ass, if they care to. I just don't care.

    ( that's the rhetorical you, of course! :-)

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  9. after reading those i my feelings are a tad hurt, definitely not purchasing their products. Thanks for posting

    p.s if you market that shirt slogan put me down for 2. :)

    also I have a running sleeve giveaway going on on my running blog(i guess I should change it to jogging blog) if your interested

    www.ericarunning.com

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  10. ick. What is it with people being jerks to the slow people?!? And not that I ever bought anything from PI before...but now I guess they're too cool for me...so I'll continue not buying anything from them. Good marketing technique.

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  11. I have actually done races where they have the corrals labeled and the 7-8 min pace are "runners" and 9-10 are "joggers" and "11-12" are "speed walkers." Not a big fan of THAT.

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  12. Wow-PI-you are "out" in my book!

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  13. What and incredibly stupid market campaign. Why on earth would you want to deliberately alienate part of your market share? I was no business major, but it just doesn't make good business sense. I too want one of those T-shirt if you do it!!

    It's funny, I have been involved with athletics my whole life and the only time I ever witnessed any elitism was in high school, and Lord knows how cruel HS girls can be. This "trend" (the NY Times and now PI) seems to be on that same "mean girl" level and yet they call themselves adults? I can only shake my head in wonderment. Oh, and send an email to PI too, I'm on it!

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  14. Good for you for sending that email! They need to be called out on that.

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  15. My last marathon was in 5:43 and I am a runner! I like the adds because it motivates me want to run a little faster. To me a jogger just exercises and pays no attention to time. If you have ever run in a race and care about your time or catching the runner in front of you, you are a runner no matter what your time is.

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  16. Wow, shame on you PI!

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  17. One more point, you are not a jogger!! You have completed IM events, 50 miler and other triathlon and running events. You care about competing and getting better, that make you a runner! I think everyone that has posted is a runner as well because they compete and try to improve themselves, so I think there message is right on target, just depends on what you want to call running or jogging. So just to point out I ran my last marathon in 5:43, and YES I am a runner!

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  18. See my initial gut reaction *above.

    This ad pisses me off, it got me heated! I'm going to try and look at this from an advertising perspective. As you can see...this ad has offended others...no one wants to be in the category of a “jogger” if there's a stigma associated with it. I'm sitting here thinking about this ad and you know what it makes me want to do - it makes me want to get out and "run!!!" I want to shove this ad in their faces and say "ha you elitist a-holes!" A "runner" has to start somewhere! Does this ad make me want to buy their products - NO, does this ad make me want to get out and “run” – YES.
    I still hate this ad but I can’t deny that it makes the reader feel something. Maybe it’s the excitement of being in the runner category, maybe it’s simply to piss of a jogger. It’s an interesting ad but I won’t be buying their products anymore. My jogging will be done in other brands thank-you-very-much. When I’m "fast" enough to be a “runner” I’ll run buy wearing anything BUT Pearl Izumi.

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  19. --I just found this blog through another blog I read, and couldn't help but chime in here--

    I'm also a PT and agree wholeheartedly with Judy's comments. There is ONLY running and walking, this need to "define" it even further is hurtful, dishonest, ridiculous, and kinetically, scientifically, physiologically WRONG.

    I have never bought PI products (usually didn't fit...) but now that I can/could - I certainly won't. It's a ridiculous campaign that actually destroys the confidence of people and is hurting their own market share.

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  21. I feel totally different about the PI ad campaign than I did about that NYT article. there's something very not offensive about this to me. I guess I've already resolved the definition in my head pretty much exactly the way Judy lays it out - there is only running and walking. I guess I see PI as glorifying you, the runner, instead of calling you a plodder.

    Yes, You. All of you. All of us.

    They're not saying 'if you move at X speed you're less than', they're saying there's running, and there's not running, and we think running is awesome. That resonates with me -- I think running is awesome. I think everybody who is out there moving and challenging themselves is awesome.

    the NYT people were specifically saying 'if you're not X fast you're not a runner' - which is bang-on offensive.

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  22. jeez - they even have one that glorifies YOU:

    there is no such thing as Ultra Joggers.

    I think that's clever (and also totally correct).

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  23. I like PI's slogans. I run about 11:30/12 minute/miles and say I'm a runner but have a friend who does 10 m/m and says she is out jogging. PI doesn't define what a jogger is, and I don't assume they are talking about me. No matter my speed I have the heart of a runner and so I am. I enjoyed your post about the 'slow runner' debates and couldn't agree more. No one knows how hard I had to work to get a 5:15 marathon time.

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  24. Wow. I hadn't seen those ads. How incredibly disrespectful ! I am ashamed to own PI cycling shorts. I know the old saying "there's such thing as bad publicity" but I can't imagine how this will help their image.

    I was just discussing this with someone else who thinks the ads are about getting out there and exercising instead of turning it all into a big expensive complicated thing (AKA the recent yuppie jogging craze). But I know plenty of runners who think like these ads. In the end, it's just plain condescending.

    I admire you for all of your accomplishments. Good on you for writing them an email.

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  25. I am so glad that you are pissed about this - that NYT article had me livid as well, and the only reason taht I didn't want to comment was because I refused to log in as a subscriber, and help their numbers. Foxtrot them. I am an athlete, who gets up every day and TRAINS, not exercises. I also have a major structural integrity issue which means that I drag my left foot, my hips are at a 45 degree angle, there's a two inch difference in height between my shoulders, and I have a hump on my neck, where my spine doesn't jam into my skull just right - and you know what? I look absolutely gorgeous when I run (not jog) even if it takes me 14 minutes to shuffle through a mile. It hurts more, and is worth more to me than anything that these elitists can say about their efforts. Oh - and I also have pernicious anemia - so I can't absorb b12, which means oygen can't get to my blood and muscles, so there's no recovery either. I'm still out there every morning, loving life!

    Thank you for speaking for the real people in this world. Nothing makes me more upset than THIS community not accepting people who work hard, and aren't necessarily olympic qualifiers.

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  26. The PI ads bug because they're my favorite running shoes EVER.

    EVER.

    Lame.

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 I'm no longer involved in multisport or endurance sports. I've started my own business, a psychotherapist specializing in anxiety d...