Running with a clear conscience — A new perspective from and with Runamics

What does “running with a clear conscience” mean?

At TRAIT, we believe that when it comes to the “best” training, we must also include what is fun, what can be implemented and what makes you take the next step forward. Because only that is sustainable. Any effort that has to do with “torturing yourself” in the longer term will sooner or later be gratefully dropped. And with all this “hustle”, we shouldn't forget that it's about doing something “good” for ourselves that helps us feel better... on every level! Just as we want to do something good for ourselves in the long term, we are becoming more and more aware of what we are doing to people and the environment around us. Running doesn't really take much, but we still want more...... and I don't think we always have a clear conscience. We spoke about this with Henning Heide from Runamics.

Henning, what does running with a clear conscience mean to you?

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For me, it starts with openness. I don't rate runners based on their pace, fitness, weekly kilometers, style, and certainly not on skin color or sexual orientation. One of the many things I love so much about running is the fact that people with completely different backgrounds and abilities can still do sports together — as long as they work together. Eliud Kipchoge could go on a training run with me, and even though he could probably tie his shoelaces while running and I would be completely out of breath, we would still do something together. This power should never be forgotten.

Through running, I've met people I would never have met otherwise, and I've just sorted them all based on whether I like them or not based on what makes us different. When running, we also leave a low ecological footprint — no travel required, no outstanding equipment, rather low barriers for many people, regardless of age, weight, income or socialization. And I find that exciting. During trail runs, I want to destroy as little of nature as possible, don't throw trash into the area and at some point only found it obvious to deal with the fact that sportswear is largely made from crude oil, creates an enormous amount of waste and emits microplastics every time I wear and wash it. Compared to other industries, this may be minor, compared to tire wear from trucks and cars. But when you consider that in 2021 the global market volume was 295 billion euros and that an absolute majority of it is produced in a dirty way, then it was urgent to finally build up alternatives here too.

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What I love so much about running is the fact that people with completely different requirements and abilities can still do sports together - as long as they work together.

Henning Heide

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What do you think everyone should know or consider before “consuming”?

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First of all, consume less. It is paradoxical that I call this Representative of a sportswear brand Mention, but the whole plight with cheap meat in moderation, tons of plastic bottles and also the constantly changing trends in the clothing industry is something we have brought on ourselves because we want more and more. How many between-season jackets, pants that we never wear, and especially sportswear gather dust in our closets? This is often just about ownership and not about use.

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We are now influenced by trends and, in particular, by price competitions and personalized advertising. As a result, we get used to minimal prices and shy away from realistic, well-thought-out prices. Anyone who has bought a steak for one euro and the running pants for 12 euros will never want to go back. But I can explain exactly who is paying the hidden price: underpaid, often underage local workers, polluted wastewater from factories, chemicals in the products, and microplastics in the environment. There are many factors that can depress the price of a product. And it is precisely these factors that ensure that a product that is to be manufactured for ecological and ethical reasons cannot be offered as cheaply as possible.

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Buyers should therefore fight their way through the jungle of promises and false seals to gradually recognize what is truly sustainable, where they may only pay for the name, where saving may not be worthwhile because they ultimately pay twice or someone just promises them the wrong thing. And also — as already mentioned — they should consider whether they need the new pants or the new shirt at all. Does it make me faster? Is the forest my catwalk? Doesn't the old one do it too? Don't I already have three windbreakers? Conscious consumption is the best way to save money and choose products that may cost more but last longer and are environmentally and ethically safe.

How do you see the role of runamics in this context?

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Nevertheless, we aim to sell as cheaply as possible for our consumers without sacrificing our own environmental and ethical standards. Every pricing structure therefore means three factors: As an immovable item, the costs of production — we do not shake that up. Then our margin and price for customers. And with the latter, social conscience comes into play: What price do we still find justifiable if we want as many people as possible to afford runamics?

For some time now, we've been looking at how we can make it better for every product. Both in design and in terms of sustainability. This sometimes develops into a kind of ping pong game in a team because one factor influences the other. Even higher cycle requirements such as cradle to cradle are causing the price to rise or we have to make compromises in materials and design. Even though we sometimes have different requirements, we all want to make the best product together, so it's usually more rewarding. But in addition to our own products, we also have the mission to educate people.

Runamics Sees itself as an impact startup, maximum profit is not the primary goal. Instead, we see ourselves as a solution to a constantly growing problem and this problem has also arisen because people are no longer familiar, have resigned, are disappointed or dazzled by sustainability promises. Our goal is therefore always to educate and inform a lot. We want to be the machete in the jungle and, together with investigative journalists and partners, explain to NGOs what makes it so inscrutable. Perhaps this will enable us to regain trust in a part of the fashion industry so that at some point we can differentiate between those who really want change and those who just pretend to sell more.

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If your dreams could come true, how would running in society take place in the future?

Without limits and with an absolute focus on fun. Of course, this can mean that the fun lies in exceeding your own limits or the limits of what is possible. But it can also mean — and I would like to see both treated equally — that running uncompetitively is seen as important. Politicians, health insurance companies, doctors, parents and schools see the power that sport can trigger in people for their mental and physical health and are finally starting to value (running) sport with the necessary and financial support.

In fact, it is completely absurd that sport is not an integral part of our working world: supervisors should appreciate the enormous benefits of healthy, more balanced and more concentrated employees much more and therefore promote sport — which also means that it is seen as part of working time and does not have to be organized away in parallel.

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