To demonstrate that running with the Kalenji brand is about pleasure and reward - not pain and sacrifice - we collaborated with a Michelin restaurant trained chef, Kosuke Tada, to create a menu where you paid for your meal with kilometres instead of cash. Invitations, in the form of menus, were incorporated into a range of special edition shoe boxes. Runners were activated to run in their new Kalenji shoes, accumulate kilometres, and then come and spend them in the restaurant. We also created a range of gourmet products that runners could buy with their kilometres.

We took over an existing restaurant in Paris for two days. In collaboration with Michelin trained Parisian chef Kosuke Tada, we designed a three course menu that definitely didn’t shy away from enjoyable, satisfying ingredients such as butter and cream. To pay for their meals, guests showed their cumulation of kilometres on their running app. Data from all running apps was accepted.

The event took place at the end of April 2016 so concrete results are still being collected at the time of writing. What we know so far : we had more reservations than we were able to serve. More than 3000 kilometres were ‘spent’ at the restaurant in total. After success of this event, plans to develop a follow up concept at the time of the Paris marathon.