Adidas SA celebrates their second annual Tracksuit Day

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This year adidas SA celebrated their second annual Tracksuit Day on 4 November. The event was hosted across the globe by adidas offices and celebrated the birth of Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler, the founder of the brand, who was born on 3 November 1900.

Adidas SA Public Relations manager, Gugu Ntuli, proudly sporting her National Tracksuit Day sticker.

The adidas SA team again held a fitness class, headed by physiotherapist Wessel Coetzee and adidas’ tech reps, for employees in their staff canteen. The superset class required staff to do cardiovascular exercises such as push-ups, lunges, planking, etc.

Lunge exercise proved to be an easy task for some.

“All adidas offices across the world are doing something today,” Gugu Ntuli, adidas SA Public Relations Manager welcomed her colleagues. “We got the staff together  for a bit of a workout and to have some cake.”

Gugu Ntuli, Wessel Coetzee and Tamaryn Daya, adidas SA’s communications specialist, all took part in the fun-filled event.

Employees could try out some of the brand’s latest shoes during the workout to get an idea of what they like about it and to establish their correct style, fit and size to ensure peace of mind when deciding on purchases, said Geoff Batcheller-Adams, adidas SA’s technical team supervisor. It also gave staff members the chance to get involved and gain insight into what the adidas products are about. After wear-testing the product, staff members will be able to spread the news about the great features of the shoes via word of mouth, he explained.

Geoff Batcheller-Adams (middle), adidas SA’s technical team supervisor, ran point on most of the exercises.

At the end of the day adidas collected the trendy trainers the staff wear-tested to be donated to one of the charity organisations that adidas partners with.

An exercise moved called the Mohammed Ali seemed to quickly turn into a dance move.

Staff  members who participated were rewarded with gifts such as spa vouchers and wine farm getaways that were purchased using the cash collected from their National Tracksuit Day sticker sales.

Some staff members won getaways and spa vouchers.

The stickers were sold for R5 and the proceeds were used to promote staff wellbeing.  “This event was really about the adidas SA staff so that they could celebrate the birth of their brand’s founder, said Ntuli.

All participants could wind down with a cupcake at the end of the exercise session.

Adidas SA celebrates Tracksuit Day

Adidas SA this year for the first time joined global adidas offices in celebrating National Tracksuit Day on 1 November.  The event, which was started about four years ago by adidas America, is held to commemorate the birth of brand founder, Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler, who was born on 3 November 1900.

In America it has grown to the point that celebrities such as Snoop Dogg participate by donning an adidas tracksuit.

The adidas Cape Town office participants

“As a company we are proud to celebrate Tracksuit day for the first time, while raising funds for a good cause,” explained Gugu Ntuli, adidas SA Public Relations Manager. Staff members who wanted to participate were asked to donate R10 towards the St Joseph’s Children’s Home and the office managed to raise R1 600. They have previously worked with this organisation and their focus on young people made them the charity of choice.

Gugu Ntuli (Public Relations Manager) and Bradley Stern (Senior Brand Marketing Manager) took part on the day.

Adidas SA were competing against other adidas international offices for example, in the US, China, etc. says Ntuli. All offices participating in Tracksuit Day, are supporting their own respective charities and activities and everyone would like to show they have done well, she says.

The adidas team working out

During lunch hour Virgin Active ran a short pilates exercise training programme for participating staff members. Maylen Mienaar, a Virgin Active personal trainer, put the group to the fitness test – or rather ultimate fitness test for some. The training session was filled with excitement and good cheerful comments from the adidas team.

Virgin Active's Maylen Mienaar commanding his subjects

“We are extremely excited about this event and are planning to expand the activities next year, in order to lengthen the programme,” says Ntuli.

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Adidas invites runners to share Two Oceans journey

Adidas SA is again going “all in” with their Old Mutual Two Oceans marathon (TOM) campaign, during which they invite all runners to share #my journey – or in other words: runners are invited to send them a photo and a story about what running has meant in their lives via instagram. It is a continuation of the popular “my journey” social media campaign launched in 2013 – but in 2014 the best story and picture will win the runner a trip to next year’s Berlin Marathon, also sponsored by adidas.

Lauren Haakman explaining the adidas #myjourney campaign

At the official TOM media launch and ultra-marathon registration opening, Lauren Haakman, adidas Brand Marketing Manager Performance, kicked off the campaign by inviting some adidas ambassadors to tell the stories of their running journeys.

Nicolene Mostert, Derrick van Dam, Letshego Moshoe and Lauren Haakman listening to Janez Vermeiren’s running journey

TV presenter Janez Vermeiren told how he runs all over the world wherever he is travelling; Survivor SA finalist Letshego Moshoe will be running her fourth ultra and will link her “running journey” to her charitable work with kids in Diepsloot; weather man Derrick Van Dam will run his second marathon in what he predicts will be a good weather day; while Nicolene Mostert started her journey with adidas as model, but became a runner and recently ran from Pretoria to Cape Town to create awareness of alzheimers and will climb Kilimanjaro just before the TOM to raise money to buy prosthetics for children.

adidas SA MD Roddy van Breda (second from left) will be running his 7^th Two Oceans ultra in 2014

A great part of the adidas heritage is built around running and they will therefore work with the TOM to ensure that runners sign up for the race, said Haakman. While the arrival of a baby will prevent Haakman from running the race, adidas SA MD Roddy van Breda will run his 7^th ultra-marathon.

Most of the adidas team wore brightly coloured Boost shoes

“It is a great brand opportunity to launch our latest technology,” Haakman said and referred to the main pairs of brightly coloured Boost running shoes worn at the launch. “Come the Expo and race day, you’ll be seeing lots of exciting things from adidas.” 

TOM manager Stefanie Schultzen announces the Designed to Run campaign

TOM manager Stefanie Schultzen announced that in less than three hours after online registration for the 45^th ultra-marathon opened, 500 people had already registered. They were confident that the 11 000 cut-off mark would be reached. To coincide with Cape Town being the World Design Capitol for 2014, the TOM’s theme will be “Designed to Run.”

Karen Thomas of Old Mutual announcing a R1-m bonus 

Sponsor Old Mutual announced a R1-m bonus for the man or woman to break the long standing race records: for men, the 3:03:44 time set in 1988 by Thompson Magawana, and women the 3:30:36 time set by Frith van der Merwe in 1989.  

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