A Passion for Running

Comment by Reba

Friday May 26, 2006 @

have to say Mark, I’m with you on this one ~ have like nothing good to say about Nike. I do like my tunes but I just strap a little speaker to my backpack, hook up the mp3 player and go that way…but then I only gave up my walkman (yes, you heard me: tape playing walkman) 2 years ago. ~sheepish grin~

Comment by RunDave

Friday May 26, 2006 @

You are not alone. I don’t have much against Nike. I don’t really like their shoes. I’ve had a few pairs over the years for hockey, but their running shoes just don’t seem to suit my feet. I like some of their apparel, but it is just too expensive. I don’t have an ipod and don’t want one - I like to run with my own thoughts and music.

I’ll stick with polar too. Now if they’d team up with Mizuno…

Comment by Adeel

Friday May 26, 2006 @

The Nike iPod “becomes your coach. Your personal trainer.” I am certain that the performance benefits of this are immense. Every serious runner needs the coaching benefits of the Nike iPod, which is almost as useful as $30 running socks.

Comment by Mark

Friday May 26, 2006 @

Reba: It’s SO good to see you around.

Dave: I have very few thoughts when I run. Then, again, I have very few thoughts generally.

Adeel: I’m with you although I certainly have benefitted from having technology along for the ride. Particularly when it comes to establishing/keeping pace - which I suck at. I suppose the iPod thing is the answer for people who like to run to music AND want to monitor. That said, I personally find music to be a distraction from running, monitoring, and being one with the world.

And where can I get some of those socks?

Comment by RunDave

Friday May 26, 2006 @

And then I watched this video.

http://www.nike.com/nikeplus/#overview

This is going to be hard to resist. They have got the advertising down to an art form.

Comment by Kel

Friday May 26, 2006 @

Nah. I’m anti-Nike, having spent years at UofO and seen how the university acted as a slave to Phil Knight’s millions. Plus I think most of their stuff is tat, and overexpensive tat at that.

Also: It’s only a version of the Nike footpod, which a boyfriend of mine had, and which registered him as runnning 9K on a 10K race, and me as 11.5K! Even after calibration the footpod never measured my distance accurately, the only thing to have done that is my GPS.

Lastly: I already have a non-ipod mp3 player. Nothing against Apple, though I think they’ve sold out a bit, but I refuse to be a slave to itunes. I also don’t do music when running. Even if I wanted to, in East London, I just don’t consider it safe. But if I did, I’d want to be able to use my Creative nano.

Now, Creative plus Garmin plus Adidas…

Comment by Susan

Friday May 26, 2006 @

I feel the same way as you (even with my crashing precious). I’ve never found a pair of Nike shoes I like, so how can I have this software with my Nano? It makes me sad. I do like the Nike hats for women though, they are small and fit a woman’s head - and their tempo shorts are my favorite - just sucky shoes. Why?!!

Comment by Marisa

Friday May 26, 2006 @

I hadn’t heard of this until you posted. Eh. I have no issues with Nike (for years, they were the only shoes that fit me) but I’m so tired of the iPod. I like to listen to music while running on the treadmill, but never outside. It also makes me sad to see the number of people racing with headphones because they’re cutting themselves off from a large part of the experience. I don’t even say hi to people with headphones anymore because they never say hi back.

Hope your whiplash is better. Sounds owie!

Comment by jank

Friday May 26, 2006 @

I don’t think I’d be as psyched if I didn’t already have a Nano. And I can completely understand the resistance to folks who use them during group runs or races - it is just kind of antisocial.

What’s struck me is the deep-seated resistance to Nike. I know that I’ve expressed it in the past, and am trying to tie it down. I’m guessing it’s due to my own preference for funciton over form - or, more to the point, a preference for objects whose function dictates elegant form.

Nike, to a lot of people, I think represents a company who has pushed form and style as a primary driver. I don’t think they’ve neglected function; it just hasn’t been the primary message in their marketing.

I guess that cool people like us don’t want companies selling us stuff to be cool with.

Comment by Mark

Friday May 26, 2006 @

Hi Jank. I actually have a different opinion.

I agree with this part: “I think represents a company who has pushed form and style as a primary driver”

And disagree here: “I don’t think they’ve neglected function”

I think they have neglected function. I’ve owned some of their electronics and they were garbage that fell apart after a month. A bit of looking on the web and I found that to not be uncommon. Secondly, I have found their treatment of the whole barefoot running Nike Free to be half-assed. I expect a company with Nike’s vast resources to do a much better job with researching stuff like this.

For what they charge for their product, we should be getting much more.

Just my opinion.
————-

Comment by 21stCenturyMom

Friday May 26, 2006 @

I can’t wear Nike running shoes anyhow so it isn’t an attraction for me. Also, I run with a Forerunner so again, no advantage. Besides, how do you plug your shoe into a USB port? I guess I need to pay more attention to how these things work!

I listen to books when I run. I’m addicted. Music is fun but I loves my books.

Comment by Mark

Friday May 26, 2006 @

Kel: The inaccuracy of the Nike makes me laugh because the technology in the footpod is the same as that built into the Polar footpod and mine is DEADLY accurate. I used my Polar 625 in my last marathon and it was 100 meters off on a 26.2 mile course. That’s astounding really since it amounts to 0.02%!

What that tells me is the technology is ok - it’s Nike’s implementation that sucks. I suppose, to be fair to Nike, perhaps you got a lemon?

Comment by RobbRunner

Friday May 26, 2006 @

Everyone has a valid comment. Dave, Susan and 21stcentruymom all agree they don’t like - or can’t find a pair of Nike shoes that work for them. Isn’t it simply a matter of personal preference? I wear Nike shoes because they fit and perform well for me. I do think that their sunglasses, watches and other trinkets are over-priced. Most everything costs too much.

Considering the fact that 70% of runners wear an ipod I figure this to be a smart marriage. It’s good business - who’s fault is that? And, the ad campaign is pretty sexy.

Honestly, I laughed out loud when I watched the clip at http://www.nike.com where the guy hits the ‘boost’ button! That’s a bit corny eh? (whoops, that’s just me being critical)

Have a great weekend!

Comment by robbrunner

Friday May 26, 2006 @

Everyone has a valid comment. Dave, Susan and 21stcenturymom all agree they don’t like - or can’t find a pair of Nike shoes that work for them. Isn’t it simply a matter of personal preference? I wear Nike shoes because they fit and perform well for me. I do think that their sunglasses, watches and other trinkets are over-priced. Most everything costs too much.

Considering the fact that 70% of runners wear an ipod I figure this to be a smart marriage. It’s good business - who’s fault is that? And, the ad campaign is pretty sexy.

Honestly, I laughed out loud when I watched the clip at http://www.nike.com where the guy hits the ‘boost’ button! That’s a bit corny eh? (whoops, that’s just me being critical)

Have a great weekend!

Comment by robbrunner

Friday May 26, 2006 @

I know, this is the 3rd comment in 10 minutes. Sorry. For some reason my first comment did not appear and I re-submitted. Sorry about that. Hey - you’re the blogfather - you can make it ‘go away’…for a very long time.

See ya.

Comment by Dawn (aka Pink Lady)

Friday May 26, 2006 @

I read about it and the idea sounds good in concept. However, I’m a PC person and not likely to ever switch to Apple. I have a nice cheapo pink MP3 that I love and yes I run with it. However I do keep it down low enough to hear what’s going on and sometimes only put it in one ear. I also splurged and bought a forerunner 301 so I’m not likely to splurge further. Besides I don’t need a gadget to tell me my running sucks, I can figure that out all by myself…lol.