From Inside the Circle Pit

Grace Cook went to the Satisfy x adidas activation and has some thoughts on the explosive aftermath:

Runners turned into high school mean girls this week, unleashing a Burn Book of public criticism against Satisfy, the small but very influential French running brand. The trigger? Its collaboration with Adidas, which was unveiled at a private launch party in the Sonoran desert in Arizona last weekend. I was one of the very few to attend.

It’s a really great post summarizing her experience in the Arizona desert and putting the event into the context of how fashion and sports brands launch new products, build hype and activate the public to buy their stuff.

The one quibble I have with it is her analogy of the ‘bullying mean girls’ is that Satisfy isn’t the poor beleaguered wallflower. They are a luxury company whose CEO keeps getting into cat fights online. A VC funded brand built on trying to be ‘cool’ while charging $300 for a cotton t-shirt with holes. “Oh, who will stand up for the little guy” isn’t the rallying cry that will resonate with a brand that’s build on an air of exclusivity and “too cool for school” attitude. Yes, they aren’t Nike, but they are also partnering with adidas on this collab. Over the past few years Satisfy has to be the darling of the running world. Business experts extolled their strategy of going ‘upmarket’, and influencers in both the fashion and running world loved to show off their affluence and edginess by wearing their gear. Now the brand is experiencing a bit of headwind and mockery, I’d say a good punk rocker should feel right at home with this.