Plans have been announced for the inaugural SportsShoes.com Podium Festival, a community running and brand exhibition event which will be held on March 16, 2024 in Leicester.
Taking place at New College Leicester, it is estimated there will be 1,000 runners alongside 2,000 spectators attending, making it the largest SportsShoes.com Podium event organised to date.
More than eight hours of racing ranging in format and distance will take place over the course of the event. The total prize fund is over £30,000, which is the biggest domestic racing has ever seen.
The event will also have an exclusive brand village which will house 10 of SportsShoes.com’s brand partners and believed to be the first of its kind at any community racing event.
The village provides brands with the opportunity to showcase their products and will serve as a platform for new product and community activations, as well as featuring their run crews and brand ambassadors. Brands that have signed up include Adidas, Puma, Asics, Hoka, Garmin, Saucony, New Balance, Mizuno and Salomon.
SportsShoes.com Podium Festival has been set up to cater for athletes of all abilities, ranging from junior levels to Olympians. There will also be attempts to break both the British and European 5-kilometre records in both the elite male and female races.
Alongside the racing and brand village, additional entertainment at the event will include 10 hours of DJs, bands and live entertainment.
Plans for the event follow the retailer’s acquisition of community race organiser, Podium 5K to enable further record attempts and the diversification of its running events.
Dan Cartner, head of marketing at SportsShoes.com, commented: “Since Podium 5K was founded, it has set a new standard for community running events. Now, with the inaugural SportsShoes.com Podium Festival, we are taking it to the next level.
“This will be something the running community has never seen before with the fastest runners competing for the biggest prize pot ever seen in a domestic running event.
“It’s great to also welcome our brand partners to exhibit in our first-ever brand village to showcase their latest product activations to event attendees.
“The event will truly be an unmissable opportunity and is another example of us breaking the mould for our brand partners and the athlete community.”
Since its launch, Podium 5K has organised more than 45 non-profit races for affiliated and non-affiliated athletes and expanded to include events in London, the Midlands and Wales.
Sportsshoes.com Podium Festival race manager, Chris Barnes, said: “It’s a very exciting prospect to have all the brands come together for one big event.
“We look forward to welcoming them to SportsShoes.com Podium Festival and hope to see some record-breaking race action across the day from the runners taking part.”
Additional record-breaking runs at Podium 5K events include the British men’s road record of 13:20 achieved by Marc Scott and an unofficial women’s world record of 14:41 by Beth Potter. At the SportsShoes.com Podium 5K ‘Breaking 10’ event, British distance runner Emile Cairess broke the European 10-mile run record, clocking a time of 45:57.
Bradford-headquartered SportsShoes.com was established in 1982 and offers customers more than 17,000 products from 150 global running and outdoor brands.
