RUN+ CLUB CELEBRATES ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY
May 24, 2023
The Centric Brands Run+ Club was formed in the Spring of 2022 to bring associates together who have a shared passion for running, jogging, and even walking. The mission of the Club is to come together as a community to do what they love while raising awareness for causes that are most important to their members.
The Club’s founding members, Beverly Gayle, Design Director, Boy’s Sportswear, Rebecca Lopez-Howes, Design Director, Kids, and Heana Song, Senior Designer, Kids, all share a passion for running and wanted to provide a positive and motivational outlet for the Centric Brands community to cheer each other on. They purposefully chose the name, Run+, to ensure inclusivity of all forms of exercise, so that the club is equitable for everybody, at every fitness level.
Today, as the Club approaches its one-year anniversary, Run+ has grown to include 60+ Centric Brands members from all over the world. Each race that Run+ participates in advocates for, raises money for, or spreads awareness for one of Centric Brands’ local nonprofit partners. Past runs have included The Iris Run for Refugees, God’s Love “Race To Deliver”, and have an upcoming run next month with New York Road Runners (NYRR): Pride Run. But what makes the Club truly innovative is that they communicate and participate in virtual runs and races together through the digital platform, Strava. This allows members from any office to “run together” and communally work towards the Club’s monthly mileage goals without having to be in the same city.
“The beauty of [Run+] is the flexibility of the schedule. There is no hard commitment to participate all the time. Each month there is list of races and whoever wants to sign up can sign up and join, either in-person or virtually”. – Heana Song, Senior Designer, Kids
Centric Brands is also a corporate partner of Fast Feet, a nonprofit and community program that promotes equality and inclusion in athletics, fitness and wellness through running programs brought to schools and local communities. Through this partnership, New York City members of Run+ volunteer with Fast Feet in Brooklyn, to help support athletes of all ages in setting and achieving their personal goals, completing laps around the track, and modeling and executing low-impact aerobics drills and endurance practice.
As the Club grows, the committee hopes to increase memberships in global offices and develop partnerships with other Fast Feet chapters around the country to increase their philanthropic efforts.
