Parisian Running Store Encourages Shoppers To Steal

I am proud to say I’ve never stolen anything. Nothing in the physical realm anyway. You best believe your boy was one of Pirate Bay’s most dedicated DAUs (daily active users) back in the day! Last week however, Parisian running store, Distance piqued my interest with the launch of a campaign actively encouraging people to steal their stock.

Distance is a Parisian running store that unlike many, cares about the products they sell and the way they are shown. Simply put, they are a cool brand and therefore do cool things. Last year they took to the streets of Paris to mark a new 30km/h speed limit by organising a group run. Heading from speed camera to speed camera, the sole purpose was getting flashed. These photos were then printed and fly-posted around the city as on across social media to raise awareness of the Paris store.

Their new campaign is just as punchy with shopping tags throughout their store reading ‘ROB IT TO GET IT’. The only condition? You have to outrun a security guard who just happens to be Mickael Zeze, France’s fastest sprinter, who boasts a sub-10 second 100m.

The campaign saw 76 people try their luck with only 2 chancers successfully outrunning security - a good success rate for the Olympic level sprinter. It has also received a lot of attention in the marketing industry, serving as a great campaign for showing that running is cool.

My only hope is that Distance keep doing their thing, expanding their offering across the globe as they have done with the opening of a new Copenhagen store.