The climate hypocrisy chronicles #3: changing sponsors but not values

James Appleton Photography

I have an update on my sponsorship situation, which puts me more in line with my values but isn’t without complexities and nuances.

I’ve written before about how caring about the climate and ecological emergency, while also being an ambassador for a brand, can be a contradiction – though it doesn’t have to be.

The bare facts are that sponsorship helps elite athletes get the best out of themselves. But sportswear is an XXL part of the Big Kerfufflefuck, overconsumption being the biggest part. And brands work with ambassadors because they hope it will lead to more sales.

Sport is a problem (football is estimated to have a CO2e footprint equivalent to Austria – 75% of which, incidentally, comes from polluting sponsors.)

But we want elite sport. It’s an incredible thing. We also want non-elite sport and runners need good kit to run in.

We don’t want climate breakdown. It’s an incredible thing, in a bad way. And it’s happening now.

So what’s a runner to do? To me, the priority is to join collective action and push for system change, by voting, by protesting, by joining The Green Runners (TGR), Protect Our Winters, Champions 4 Earth, EcoAthletes, Athlete Climate Academy, Runners For Public Lands, Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil , speak up online and/or at your local running club.

While not forgetting the idea was invented by PB, we can also look at our personal CO2e footprint, which is primarily made up from our travel, our diet, the energy for our home and the things we buy. Also consider where your money and pension are invested. So for a runner, it’s our travel, our fuelling, our kit and – most importantly – it’s speaking up. The four TGR pillars.

Recent years have been an ongoing experiment to see if I can wring the final few drips of smelly brown water out of the bog-soaked rag that is my competitive ultrarunning career, while acting responsibly towards our global crisis and in line with my values. I’m an Annoying Vegan, I’ve flown twice in six years for running and when it comes to kit and sponsorship, I don’t want to be part of the overconsumption machine. But I do still want to be an elite (ish) athlete.

That may sound a bit have my cake and eat it, but I think there has to be room in the middle for athletes who want to be the best they can be but also care about things. Sportspeople, after all, are the most influential people or our time, according to a study (not available online), so it would be a huge failure to foster a culture that silences them (which is the case in men’s football – not women’s though).

I really admire record-breaking, fellow GB athletes Jasmin Paris and Dan Lawson for eschewing sponsorship and Allie Bailey for her stance. Our circumstances are all different though and a sponsor is a significant help to me. That said, there really are very few sportswear brands I’d work with and even then I’ll only do certain things.

The key things for me are the behaviour of the brand and the behaviour of the ambassador. I stopped working with inov-8 recently after eight years, essentially because their new idea of what an ambassador is, is very different to mine. It went against my values. It was painful to part ways, but I feel better for it. I’ve curtailed relationships with other sponsors, too, costing me money at times.

I don’t want to be part of the overconsumption machine. But I am happy to promote a brand doing the right things (while knowing they’re a business). I think there is a key difference between the two and I’m now supported by NNormal.

What’s NNormal?
When Kilian Jornet launched a new sportswear brand my instinct was that we didn’t need another one. But I was also very intrigued as to whether they could raise the bar. And they have.

NNormal is B Corp Certified, they give 1% For The Planet and use Science Based Targets to measure and reduce their carbon footprint. That’s already more than most sportswear brands. They also claim full transparency on production processes, which is really difficult and very few brands manage that.

NNormal is also working on circularity, a lovely idea that’s hard to implement. Their No Trace Program plans to “[Take] back products that are no longer useful and attempt to refurbish and repair them for resale, or take them apart and recycle them.” That’s a work in progress I’ve asked to be kept up to date with. Their resoling programme will launch in the UK very soon.

They also prioritise durability, a worthwhile goal which also saves punters money and, while my Kjerags and Tomirs are only a few hundred miles old each (and signs are very promising), my new BFF Kilian gets 1,600km out of his.

However, most brands claim to be making durable products. What’s more impressive about NNormal is they get the umbrella problem: overconsumption.

Their collections are small (currently only three pairs of daps, one pack, no waterproof trousers or gloves, et al) and they pledge to, “Only upgrade when better materials or features are available, [use] unisex colours, [make products to be] used in multiple activities, timeless designs and products.” In contrast, many brands seem to be making as many products as they possibly can as quickly as they can, regardless of quality.

To work with a brand, I need to believe they care. And that they understand my values, what I’m willing and not willing to do. And on both counts it feels like NNormal do.

I simply won’t promote products I haven’t tried for a good amount of time – and have found them to be fit for purpose.

NNormal also don’t pressurise their ambassadors to directly promote products (though I have agreed to share occasional competitions). Those are the key things for me.

I have also long since ceased doing, “Oh lucky me, my sponsor sent me some new kit” posts on social media as they made me feel uncomfortable. I was helping create FOMO desire for products. (I’m not judging anyone else on this, especially athletes new to sponsorship. There’s not much funding in this sport, especially in the UK.)

Though I need new daps as often as most runners, I don’t actually need much new clobber at the moment. However it seems reasonable that NNormal want me to race in their kit, so they’re sending me some new items. I will ensure all my kit is being used – local running pals are very happy to take on my surplus kit, seemingly however pongy it is.

None of this is perfect. But it seems reasonable to me and I’m being transparent about it.

Oh. Most importantly of all, the first N stands for “No”. But we can just say Normal.

Anyway. Enough waffle. I’m off for a RRun.