On's Investment in Sprinters is an Investment in Style
Threading the need between "core" and "fashion" running. Plus, a chat with Samirah Moody.
One thing I’ve been dwelling on this week – post-Satisfy x Adidas brouhaha – is what the hubbub reveals about diverging consumer psychographics within running. For a long time, the concept of the “real runner” has stalked the sport – as if there’s some threshold of performance or commitment that transforms a person from hobby jogger to certified athlete. It’s a label that many rightly poo-poo. If you run, you’re a runner.
What the outcry against Satisfy’s fashion show/hardcore concert/race outside Tucson reveals is the simmering tension between so-called “real runners” – aka the core – and this emerging cohort of “fashion runners” – folks who run (often quite seriously), and engage with sport’s style, but aren’t listening to the Citius Mag Podcast, paying for FloTrack, or reading Fast Women. The line between the two is often blurry, but a headline from fashion industry newsletter Line Sheet really underscored the divide. Malique Morris covered the uproar thusly: “Satisfy gets bullied by poorly dressed marathoners who spend too much time online.”
While I quibble with the idea that a brand can be “bullied,” his dig at the “poorly dressed marathoners”1 hits at the heart of the issue. Satisfy has long attracted the fashion runner, especially members of the creative class who didn’t previously “see” themselves in the nerdy runner aesthetic. (This must have been so hard!) The Circle Pit was for them. It was deliberately, antagonistically anti-core, which is why core runners reacted so poorly to it.
”We’re just trying to make running more interesting.” Satisfy founder, Brice Partouche wrote on LinkedIn. Of course, for many, running has always been interesting.2 It’s always been punk. It’s always been hardcore.
I fully admit to falling into this camp. Despite covering the fashion side of the sport, I’m a running nerd. I want people to fall in love with running for its intrinsic qualities. I’m skeptical of those who need flash to sell them on a sport steeped in quiet monotony.
Which is why, when I was invited to watch On’s new OAC Sprint team practice and to meet the four founding athletes – Samirah Moody (USA), Benjamin Azamati (GHA), Johnny Brackins (USA), and Max Thomas (USA) – I was geeked. I joked on the bus out to Mt. SAC that track is basically the OG Circle Pit. For running nerds, track is cool. It doesn’t need a rock band to make it “more interesting.” Watching someone rip 22-second 200s on repeat is horizon-expanding in its own right.
What’s more, long before skinny white dudes with tattoos decided distance running should be fashionable, sprinters made the track their runway. I covered this in my Runher Issue 2 story on beauty in track & field, but it’s worth reiterating here. The legacy of stylish, game-changing Black sprinters runs all the way back to the ‘50s and ‘60s and pioneering athletes like Ed Temple’s Tennessee Tigerbelles through Flo-Jo and beyond.
From my story:
"Temple was a Black man leading a team of Black women at “a time when these young ladies represented their country and then came back and couldn’t buy a hamburger or anything else in a restaurant,” he said at a TSU statue unveiling in 2015. Keenly aware of the double burdens his team faced because of their race and gender, Temple was notoriously strict, not just about his athletes’ training regimen, but also about their behavior. “I would always tell the girls that first, you are young ladies,” he told The Tennessee Tribune in 1995. “Always carry yourself that way.”
Temple’s high standards trickled down to the way his athletes presented themselves on the track, cementing a tradition of style amongst generations of American sprinters. “Clothes and makeup [are] my thing,” Tigerbelle and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Chandra Cheesborough told Nike in the Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good book. “[They make] me feel like I’m ready to step on a track and get it done. I love lipstick—red, to be exact. Something that Coach Temple would say was, ‘Run like a guy, but look like a fox.’ So we would dress to the nines.”
“ Going back to Ed Temple and the Tigerbelles, presentation of self was really important for Black women athletes,” says Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown, Ph.D., author of Say Her Name: Centering Black Feminism and Black Women in Sport and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. “Having this emphasis on looking good as part of the full package of being an athlete was crucial to their getting scholarships and sponsorships, and it was very much embedded within the culture of the Tigerbelle system.”
Running has always been fashionable. It has always been political. It has always been radical.
Any issue I take with the rise of the fashion runner tends to be with a lack of historical awareness, a lack of appreciation for where the sport has been, in addition to where it might go.
Qualms aside, brands face a choice: cater to the emerging fashion side of the sport (and risk alienating the core) or hew to the sport’s committed class and risk being labeled as passé. Niche brands can afford to pick sides, but the big players cannot.
Which brings us back to On. Once niche, they’re now decidedly big – reporting their first billion-dollar quarter to open the year. Their growth is powered by luxury-level margins and a savvy strategy that threads the needle on sport and style. On its surface, OAC Sprint is for the core, while collabs like Loewe x On are for fashion. But, I think On’s investment in sprinting is savvier than that, because they know that – packaged accordingly – OAC Sprint has the potential to engage the fashion runner, too. Just take a look at On hurdler Johnny Brackins, whose style rivals anyone in the sport.
I can think of any number of compelling crossovers that would allow On’s sprinters to authentically showcase their style and elevate the sport beyond its nerdy core. Get Johnny in a room with Law Roach and let him cook! Have Zendaya design Samirah Moody’s next race kit!
Now THAT would be interesting.
The Track is My Runway
In Conversation with On-pro Samirah Moody
On’s first female pro sprinter, Samirah Moody, is proud to be building her own legacy in the sport. Descended from two generations of women runners, she’s aiming to “bring the Moody name to new levels.” Known for her discipline and focus on the track, she holds her own alongside her three training partners, committed to building a culture of success that will carry them into 2028. On a hot LA day, I sat down with Samirah to learn more about her approach to dressing for performance and working with On.
Lee: The question I always like to start with is: What was your introduction to sports? Do you remember what you wore?
Samirah: I’m from a sports family. My mom ran track at Boston University, and my dad played football. My older brother ended up playing football at Harvard, and I ended up running track at the University of Southern California. So it was very generational.
But, I’d say my real intro to sports was through my godfather. For context, he runs the Boston Marathon and was really involved at the Reggie Lewis Center. He introduced me to sports and put me in a lot of youth meets just for fun.
As for the attire that I wore… he would buy whole outfits because my mom didn’t really have me in track gear. So he’d get me things like Asics running shorts. I was pretty big on wearing shorts down almost to my knees and a t-shirt. Like the oversized t-shirts they give out at recreational events. That’s what I was running in.
Lee: As you progressed in the sport, when did you start to take ownership of your look?
Samirah: Honestly, probably the last year of high school. The club team I ran for, the Metro Cobras, got super popular, so we started getting sponsorships. We were partnered with New Balance, and we’d get gear donated from charities in the Boston area.
We started getting really cool spandex and sneakers and stuff. That’s when things started changing, because before that, we had these really colorful club uniforms that went down to your knees.
And then in college, very distinctly, I was a mid-year transfer [to USC], so I came in January. Sometimes when you come in mid-year, you don’t get all the gear everyone else got — you get whatever’s left in equipment. They didn’t have any more shorts or spandex. They only had buns.
And I was like, “Wait, I can’t have shorts?” And they were like, “We don’t have any more.”
I was very small when I came to college — probably could only fit an extra small — so everything I had was super fitted. I had the buns, the really tight tank top, and that’s honestly when things started to change for me, just based on what was available. That became my look.
Lee: In terms of teaming up with On and becoming part of their team. What appealed to you about joining? And was there anything style-wise that drew you to them?
Samirah: I like that the uniforms aren’t just one kit. I like that you can mix and match and do what feels comfortable to you.
We have a crop top, but we also have a one-piece. We have shorts, bun variations, and these tanks that fully cover your stomach if you want to do a top-and-bottom look.
For me, as a woman, that’s really cool because there are times of the month when my abs are not popping. That’s just what it is. It doesn’t matter how many ab workouts I do.
I like that I can dress to how I’m feeling, no matter the occasion. That’s a cool thing.
Gear-wise, it feels very free. I have longer pairs of shorts that I love, and they provide those, but also shorter spandex — they’re very open to what I want to do.
Because I’m On’s first short sprint woman, when I was getting recruited, I spoke with a lot of distance athletes. I asked them about the gear and how they gave feedback. They told me to be vocal, that it’s important to vocalize what I want.
I followed their lead. If I’ve asked for something, like less fabric, it’s been implemented fast. Relationships help facilitate that.
Lee: When they approached you about joining the team, were you surprised that On was talking to a sprinter?
Samirah: I didn’t really know a bunch about On at first. I knew the twins, Xenia and Lisa Raye, because I’m from Boston and they’re from Rhode Island. I knew they had signed [NIL deals] with On, and that was probably my first introduction to the brand.
Then, during my indoor season last year, [On athlete manager] Kevin Quadrozzi came to USC and spoke to me and a few of the other girls. I’d say I was surprised. I was like, “This is different.”
But he was very transparent about what they were trying to build — the brand, the team, and really getting into sprints and being committed to that process.
That’s when I thought, “Okay, this might be something.”
They stayed in contact the entire outdoor season. I was pretty consistent with my running, and I was very consistent with what I said I was going to do. Luckily, everything I said I was going to do happened. (Editor’s note: Samirah won the 2025 NCAA Championships in the 100m.)
By the end, when all the brands were there, I’d already built a relationship with ON, so it was easy to trust what they were saying.
Lee: You’re proud of your Boston roots. Was part of the appeal having the team be here in LA? Have you become an LA girl?
Samirah: No, I think I’m always going to be a Boston girl.
But the appeal is that it’s in LA and the Olympics are coming. The opportunity is here. I’ve already established connections here, personally and athletically, so it makes it easier to grow roots.
Lee: Talk to me about a practice day. What’s your approach to style? Is it mostly about utility and comfort, or is it something you think about a lot?
Samirah: I do think about it. I very much dress how I feel.
I actually get up early just so I can open my closet and see what I’m feeling. It could be color-wise, it could be the weather — obviously it’s very hot today, so that’s a factor too.
I know by the end of the workout I’m probably not going to have a lot of clothes on, so I just want to make sure I’m comfortable.
On has a lot of variations of sports bras — I don’t know all the names, yet — but they have a lot of options.
I like to match. I’m very big on feeling good going into practice, especially hard practices. I like to wear something I enjoy.
Lee: And then race day — what’s your approach? How do you want to feel?
Samirah: For races, I pick out my uniform combination the day prior — or days prior if I’m packing. I kind of know the vibe I’m going in with based on me and whatever the goal is for that day.
Weather plays a factor, too. So once I get my schedule, I already have an idea of what I’m going to wear.
The difference with meet day is accessorizing. I do a little bit more. That’s the difference between practice and meet day. I really like to dress it up, so my mind is mentally prepared to do something bigger than what I do every day.
Lee: Do you wear a lot of the same jewelry as you practice in and then add to it?
Samirah: No, these are just my everyday pieces.
I have completely different things I’ll add depending on the vibe of the meet — how big the meet is, what I’m trying to accomplish.
Lee: Do you have anything you consider lucky?
Samirah: No, I’m not superstitious.
Lee: Running is now considered fashionable in a broader way, but sprinting has always led that charge. Does knowing the other women are going to show up looking bold and expressive influence your approach at all?
Samirah: I wouldn’t say who’s coming to the line influences me, because everyone’s just going to do what works for them.
I showed up to the NCAA finals last year — the biggest meet of my life — and that was the least done-up I’d ever been because that’s just how I felt. I wanted to get up and get to it.
But from a spectator perspective, when I see women doing cool things — sparkles, freckles, creative makeup — it’s definitely inspiring. I’ll think, “Okay, next time I want to go all out, maybe I’ll try that.”
So yeah, I definitely feel inspired by a lot of the women in sprints.
Lee: Were your teammates at USC influential there?
Samirah: Yes. My first two years at USC, I didn’t wear makeup to meets. That was something I picked up in college.
The older girls at USC literally taught me how to do my makeup. Shoutout to the USC women for always being innovative.
I also got really into different hairstyles for meets — which honestly gets a little pricey — but you want to invest in yourself so you feel prepared. If that’s what helps you feel prepared, then so be it.
I definitely picked up a lot from them.
Lee: Do you think that’s an East Coast vs. LA thing? More glam energy?
Samirah: Yes. Much more glam. Prior to that, I really could not care less.
Lee: Okay, last question. I already pitched this to the team — what if you and Zendaya collaborated on a race look? What would you do?
Samirah: Oh my gosh. I know Zendaya has a very chill fashion look — at least with her On collections. I can’t speak for her personally.
But I think I’d want to take that approach: more natural makeup. My hair would be styled, but nothing too complex. Probably not braids. Maybe I’d straighten it and do pin curls and tie it back.
Very “I tried,” but not trying too hard.
And I think the jewelry would be very simple too.
Lee: Have you pitched this to On?
Samirah: Not a pitch, but that’s a great idea. I should.
Lee: Do you have any of her collab stuff?
Samirah: No, I missed it. By the time I asked, it was sold out.
Lee: Brutal! I’m rooting for the Samirah x Zendaya race kit collab. Put it out into the world.
My friends!
Not A Conversational Pace’s take on “performative running” is worth a read here.