Last Sunday, not one, but two athletes broke the sub-two-hour marathon record at the London Marathon. Both wore Adidas’s new Pro Evo 3 supershoe. Sabastian Sawe set a world record of 1:59.30; Yomif Kejelcha came in second, just 11 seconds behind. Tigist Assefa also set a new women’s world record of 2:15.41 wearing the same shoe. Even Nike, Adidas’s main competitor, congratulated Sawe. Adidas generated $11 million in media impact value (MIV) at the London Marathon, driven primarily by the men’s and women’s records, per Launchmetrics.

Adidas may be dominating London’s headlines, but it was far from the only brand to have a presence at the city’s marathon, or Boston the week before it. From legacy players like Nike and Adidas to challenger brands On and Hoka, performance running brands have been on a tear, activating on a longer and larger scale in an attempt to capture the booming marathon opportunity that was all but solidified when Harry Styles ran both the Berlin and Tokyo marathons last year, before appearing on the cover of Runner’s World last month, interviewed by fellow marathoner Haruki Murakami.

The number of runners signing up for World Marathon Majors is higher than ever, with applications up year-on-year across all seven cities (Tokyo, Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago, and New York). In London, ballot applications exceeded 1.13 million, up 36% on the 2025 record of 840,318. On Sunday, 59,830 runners crossed the finish line, up from 56,640 the year before. All in all, marathons are a big business opportunity.

It’s one that’s ballooned well beyond race day, performance brand execs agree. “The marathon has moved from being a single race day moment to a multi-layered cultural platform,” says Patrick Nava, general manager at Adidas Running. “Ten years ago, success was largely defined by podiums and performance validation, largely confined to the running niche. Today, the marathon sits at the intersection of elite sport, mass participation, culture, and innovation storytelling.”

More brands are responding to marathons as they shift from performance events to cultural platforms with bigger programming (shakeout runs; pop-up hubs; weekend-long programming) that caters to more people (elite runners; casual runners; running crews; sideline attendees). The rise of run clubs has driven brands to develop a more creative, grassroots and cultural presence, says Alice Crossley, deputy foresight editor at strategic foresight consultancy The Future Laboratory. “People used to look forward to race day, but now there’s a whole cultural run-up,” she says.

This makes for a crowded weekend. In London, Hoka built a Hoka Hub, On migrated its On LightSpray Tour to the city, Puma opened a Nitro Lab, New Balance set up its London Run House, Nike popped up with free posters, and Adidas set up a space in Trafalgar Square. All brands touched down in the UK fresh off of a similarly busy activation lineup in Boston the week prior, and hosted runs throughout both weekends, too.

Niche brands have been getting in on the action, too. Tracksmith (Styles’s running short of choice) hosted programming at its flagship store in Boston, and released a collection dedicated to the city’s marathon. In London, the brand opened a pop-up on fashion-favorite Chiltern Street, dishing out pizzas out the front. Instead of inserting the brand into the busyness of Boston and London, Paris-based Satisfy took a similarly fashion-forward approach, opening a Paris Marathon Supply space at Dover Street Market Paris ahead of April 12. Bandit, meanwhile, is keeping busy with a prolonged effort ahead of the Brooklyn half-marathon on May 16, with a 12-week in-person, guided training program.

There are many touchpoints for brands to tap, says Katie Baron, content director at trends intelligence agency Stylus. “There’s the kit, the localized pre and post-event spaces, and even co-creation concepts for friends and family — aka ‘cheer commerce’ — who want to get involved in the celebratory and commemorative aspects of on-the-day marathon running,” Baron explains. New Balance, for instance, opened its Run House at Somerset House, a prime position to cheer runners on from the sidelines, says VP of running Kevin Fitzpatrick. (New Balance also activated marathon cheer zones at Mile 8, 16, and 25.)

In Boston, brands generated MIVs in the hundreds of thousands — a solid marketing moment. London blew this out of the water, generating a total MIV of $62.3 million. This was primarily driven by Adidas, but Nike, New Balance (the official sponsor of the London Marathon), and Puma each generated over $1 million in MIV. (MIV measures the impact of brand mentions across voices and channels, assigning a monetary value to media exposure.)

As marathon weekends become increasingly crowded with brand activations, collaborations, hubs and giveaways, how can performance brands stand out from one another — and hold their own as more sports-adjacent brands enter the mix? As brands gear up for Sydney, Berlin, Chicago, and New York in the second half of 2026, here’s where their focus should lie.

The race to innovate

Running brands saturate every city on marathon weekends, constantly trying to up their game. In London, Adidas won with its new superlight shoe.

Marathons are an important moment for performance brands, because this is where credibility is built, says On CMO Alex Griffin. “When Hellen Obiri won the Boston Marathon wearing LightSpray in 2024 — and then went on to win bronze at the 2024 Olympic Marathon and set a course record at the 2025 New York City Marathon, all in the same LightSpray model, it demonstrated that this isn’t just innovation for innovation’s sake,” he says, but a performance indicator.

In both Boston and London, On showcased its LightSpray shoes at its On LightSpray Tour experience, which will travel to all the major marathon cities this year, Griffin says. Similarly, Hoka hosted an “innovative try-on experience” for runners (and non-runners) to test the brand’s latest Cielo X1 3.0, its lightest supershoe, at the Hoka Hub in London. “It all ties together,” says Erika Gabrielli, Hoka’s VP of global marketing. “While our elite athletes are running in the Cielo X1 3.0 on race day, the community members can try it for themselves at the Hoka Hub.”

Innovation moments don’t just boil down to marathons, however. Nike, for instance, has hosted entire events around its supershoe innovation efforts, most recently in Paris for its Breaking4 event last year, during which Faith Kipyegon attempted to run a mile in less than four minutes, kitted out in Nike’s latest innovations. Even so, marathons are a necessary and real proof point, says Tanya Hvizdak, global VP of Nike Running. “We don’t think of these as either/or,” she says. “Races validate what our innovations can do, and a moment like Breaking4 inspires the world to dare to try.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​”

That London saw two runners hit the sub-two-hour mark, and the women’s record smash, shows how big the innovation opportunity is, Nava says. “The takeaway for us is that we’re no longer innovating for an abstract future; we’re responding to what’s happening now,” he says. “The sport is evolving faster, and athletes are asking for tools that allow them to unlock that next level responsibly and credibly.” Hvizdak agrees, adding that running shoes are “one of the most exciting design opportunities in the world right now”, and that Nike is deeper into the prototype phase than it’s ever been.

This innovation isn’t necessarily meant to be mass. Adidas’s decision to do a limited, 200-pair drop of the $500 shoes ahead of the marathon wasn’t just to stoke demand, it was down to capacity. “There are physical limitations in how many we can produce, similarly to a F1 car,” Nava says. Elements of the tech, though, will make its way into the brand’s more “democratic models” in the coming months, he adds.

“This is not a shoe where we expect to sell thousands of pairs — but the demand is thousands of pairs,” CEO Bjørn Gulden told investors on Adidas’s latest earnings call, noting that the last price he saw on StockX for the $500 shoe was about $5,000.

The lifestyle element

On the flip side, at marathons, brands can no longer solely speak to elite runners. Any niche status went out the window years ago, as slews of more casual runners opt into the marathon experience. Now, brands can only win by catering to a broader range of participants on any given race weekend.

In Boston, for instance, Nike released an advert reading, “Runners welcome, walkers tolerated”. It didn’t go down well with audiences, who were fast to critique the ad’s implication that non-elite runners weren’t welcome on the course. Competitors pounced, too. Asics put up Boston billboards that read, “Runners. Walkers. All welcome.” Ecco launched a “Walk Your Walk” campaign, in a bid to move away from performance-led messaging. (Granted, Ecco doesn’t make marathon shoes.)

“We take feedback from the running community seriously,” Nike’s Hvizdak says, regarding the ad, which was taken down following the backlash. “We listen to the voice of the athlete; they’re our most honest critics and our greatest champions. What that moment reinforced for us is how deeply people feel about this sport, and we respect that. We’re always learning, and our goal is to make sure we show up in ways that celebrate all runners and every form of movement.”

In London, other performance brands went to lengths to emphasize that their products aren’t just for runners and athletes, but for anyone keen to move and support those involved. Brands from On to Hoka emphasized the ways in which they engaged and supported not just runners (at all levels), but the crews on the ground that make the marathon happen. “What’s changed is who the marathon speaks to,” Adidas’s Nava agrees. “It’s no longer just about the very front of the pack — although that still matters enormously for credibility — but also about the millions of runners who see the marathon as the ultimate expression of commitment, identity, and self-belief.”

There are lessons to be learned from the more niche running brands that are increasingly showing up at the smaller (but equally crowded) marathon weekends. Whereas legacy brands tend to speak to these consumer brackets separately (“We don’t talk to these groups in the same way,” Nava says, because the same shoe can mean different things to consumers), brands like Satisfy and Tracksmith have built their clout by fusing performance and lifestyle, and bridging innovation with the cultural clout these larger brands are seeking.

“The lifestyle side is a status signal,” says Mark Jones, creative director of brand agency Studio Blackburn. “To win, brands must show they understand the actual routes we run every day. This means designing for both performance and perception, turning innovation into a cultural signal that scales from elite competition to everyday use, while staying part of one brand world.”

Gaps in the marathon market

Though marathon weekends are busier than ever, the surge in interest has made clear there are still gaps in the market waiting to be filled.

The surge in marathon participant numbers is largely being driven by women, Stylus’s Baron flags. “That’s a focus I think is still under-acknowledged, and at brands’ peril,” she says. “For younger women, mental wellbeing and community is the key motivation; for older women, it’s achievement and purpose beyond traditional life milestones — work, family etc. — connected to an important sense of reclamation.” Moving forward, Baron hopes to see more women-focused initiatives to support female runners, like Nike’s seven-city After Dark Tour, which was accompanied by micro-activations including personalized bra fittings, makeup sessions, and manicures. For this year’s Boston Marathon, Tracksmith partnered with sports watch brand Suunto on an afternoon event focused on women’s running, including a docuseries screening and a panel.

To cater to this rising demographic, legacy brands need to up their game, as fashion and beauty players capitalize on the marathon opportunity. Skincare brand 111Skin’s 111Cryo, for instance, offered finishers a free cryotherapy recovery service. The beauty opportunity is especially large, because of the overlap with wellness, recovery, and optimization. “Running has become a serious lifestyle signifier, and beauty and sport is an interesting growth area,” Crossley says. “The trend for beauty brands harnessing the power of sports fandom has real runway potential.”

The post-event is also ripe for disruption, Baron adds. Crossley agrees. “More brands need to focus on recovery,” she says. “It’s still underserved compared to training and race day, but the appetite is clearly there. We believe the category for recovery-wear has enormous room for engagement and growth.” Women’s activewear brand Oner Active, for instance, leaned into this approach with its Oner Your Recovery van in Covent Garden’s Piazza, offering female finishers a recovery kit including Oner merch, magnesium oil and electrolytes, and beauty products.

There’s a major opportunity here for health-tech, food and beverage, and supplements brands to get involved, Baron agrees. In Boston, sports hydration brand Cadence partnered with fitness tracker brand Whoop on a race day essentials pop-up. More post-race engagement would also better enable brands to continue to speak to and engage consumers even once the marathon buzz has dwindled, helping to boost engagement before the next major race.

As always in 2026, there’s also a serious creator opportunity. “Races are ripe for content — we are seeing more live streams, docuseries, UGC, and behind-the-scenes storytelling,” Crossley says. These creators, whether ‘true’ running influencers, or creators in the fashion and beauty space training for a marathon, provide an entry point for brands to tap audiences who may not otherwise engage with performance brand advertising. “The opportunity to stand out is in the creator relationships before and after race day,” Crossley says. “Work on longstanding creator partnerships in which they document how your brand is assisting them with training and recovery. This is where the lasting influence happens.”

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