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| Advertisement: Buy adidas soccer gear online |
Across the road from the Vygieskraal Sport Stadium in
Athlone, four youngsters desultorily kick a soccer ball, others wander, hands
in pockets, among the shacks. In the stadium, twenty other youngsters are
eagerly inspecting thousands of running shoes. To be precise, 3098 pairs, laid
out on the field to spell this number, to be given to runners who cannot afford
their own shoes.
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| Young runners inspecting
the impressive number of shoes donated for the adidas Refresh Your Gear
campaign |
This is the number of pairs of running shoes that runners
from across the country had handed in at adidas Refresh Your Gear (RYG) bins at
some retail partners within a month. Between October 15 and November 16, 2012 adidas invited
runners to swop their running shoes for a R400 discount voucher on a new pair
of adidas shoes. Adidas staff and brand ambassadors like Jean de Villiers,
Graeme Smith, Bryan Habana, Pat Lambie, the Stormers, Orlando Pirates and
others kicked off the campaign, which was embraced by thousands of others.
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| Jean de Villiers, Graeme Smith and Bryan Habana refresh their running shoes |
This is part of the adidas running campaign, which kicked off
after it was announced that adidas will be the new Two Oceans Marathon (TOM)
sponsor - the Two Oceans Marathon Initiative (TOMI), and by proxy WP Athletics'
development programme, is one of the beneficiaries. The other is SCORE, a
charity supported by adidas. With the motto "Changing Lives through
Sport", SCORE has several projects
in disadvantaged communities to get
youngsters involved in sport and off the streets. One of these is a running
project in Cape Town aimed at getting women and girls interested in running.
SCORE and TOMI each brought ten young runners to accept the first samples of
the running shoes to be handed out.
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| SCORE and TOMI brought
ten young runners each to accept the first samples of the shoes handed in |
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| Lester Cameron, chairman
of TOMI, said they were proud to be a partner of adidas |
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| Stefan Howells, SCORE
director, explaining their initiatives to use sport to motivate disadvantaged
youths to change their lives |
When they started the campaign, adidas was hoping to receive
about 2 000 pairs of shoes - they are therefore overwhelmed by the response
from the public, says adidas PR Zobuzwe Ngobese. Another surprise was the fact
that the majority of the pairs came from brands other than adidas - meaning
that more than 1 500 runners would have changed from their current running
brand to adidas.
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| Zobuzwe Ngobese, adidas
PR manager, says they were overwhelmed by the response to their RYG campaign |
The next phase of their running campaign is called #myjourney
- where the stories of runners from different backgrounds who donated shoes
will be told. Runners who donated shoes were photographed and their photos
became part of the campaign promotion. An online community of runners will be
developed at adidasrunning.co.za where runners can register for free tips and
training from sport scientist Ross Tucker, get help to choose the right shoes
or join training runs with adidas running ambassadors.
Published by
www.sportstrader.co.zaLabels: Adidas, adidas soccer, Refresh your gear, TOMI, Two Oceans Marathon Initiative
