Athletic customers were tired of being deprived of exclusive items because of the sportswear hype. So, as an engaging response, we launched a new in-store exclusive access that only rewards true runners. For one day, we allowed and invited our customers to steal items from our store. But under one condition: outrun our security guard who was in fact Mickael Zeze, the fastest French sprinter. This unique in-store experience turned customers into challengers and gave them the opportunity to prove their skills by racing against one of the best runners while getting reward for their performance.

There is no specific cultural context for this campaign.

Sportswear has become the biggest hype.

So, people would do anything to get exclusive items, from queuing for days in front of stores, to participating in draws to paying triple the price on resale.

As a result, every new item released goes out-of-stock in minutes everywhere, including in our high-end running store.

Unfortunately, most buyers turn out to be hypebeasts and resellers, while real athletes can’t get hold of sports goods.

Long story short, sportswear is everywhere but sport is nowhere.

So, as a running store first, we had to bring sport back into sportswear.

For this reason, Distance launched a new kind of exclusive access:

ROB IT TO GET IT.

For one day, we allowed our customers to steal the most wanted items from our store.

But under one condition: outrun our security guard.

We hired Mickael Zézé, the fastest French Olympic sprinter, especially for the occasion.

This way, only true runners could access our products.

As a solution for athletes who can’t get their hands on exclusive items because of the sportswear hype, we launched this new kind of instore exclusive access that only rewards true runners.

The ROB IT TO GET IT experience in itself was aimed at our most athletic customers, used to coming in our shop.

But the video posted online was intended to target a wider audience: people into running but also anyone concerned by or responsible for the hype, and the increase of the drop and sold-out phenomenon on sportswear markets.

For one day, on the 13th of September 2023, we labelled our items and branded our flagship store in Paris with a call to action: “ROB IT TO GET IT” to invite customers to steal our latest products.

But when they started to run out of our store, robbing the item they wanted, they were immediately chased by our security guard who just happened to be the fastest French Olympic sprinter. Surprising at first, the operation turned into a game in which customers were trying to outrun Mickael Zézé in a race to get rewarded with fresh sports goods.

After more than a hundred attempts, only two people managed to get away.

But after dropping a wrap up video online, millions of people all around the world enjoyed the operation.

For over 5 weeks, ROB IT TO GET IT was the most mentioned and shared sports campaign with over 40 million organic views, 750 million impressions in more than 70 countries; generating over 12 million euros of earned media.

All this for the price of only two pairs of shoes.

Yes, it definitely was a robbery.

As a solution for our most athletic customers who can’t get their hands on exclusive items because of the sportswear hype, we launched a new instore exclusive access that only rewards true runners.

For one day, we allowed and invited our customers to steal items from our store. But under one condition: outrun our security guard who was in fact Mickael Zeze, the fastest French sprinter. This unique instore experience turned customers into challengers and gave them the opportunity to prove their skills by racing against one of the best runners at their local shop.