Nike backtracks after 'walkers tolerated' Boston Marathon ad draws outrage

If you've ever so been in a rush, you live there's a great deal thomas more to it than speed.

There are the unpredictable conditions like downpours that drench your shoes, heat that calcifies your sweat and frost that makes you question your life choices.

There are steep hills and mental hurdles, aching knees and burning lungs — but in the end, there's the promised absolute euphoria of running, walking, crawling, or rolling across that finish line.

Because of this, Nike is accused of being tone-deaf for a sign it posted in a store along the route for the Boston Marathon, which is also a major marathon event for para athletes and adaptive runners.

The sign, which said "Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated" in big block letters was posted in the window of a Nike store a few blocks from the finish line for the Boston Marathon in the days leading up to Monday's event.

It prompted immediate backlash from the running community and disability advocates. They called the sign tone-deaf and accused Nike of gatekeeping and "pace-shaming."

"Due to a spinal cord injury I have to take walk breaks," Canadian runner Robyn Michaud wrote Friday on Instagram. "Thank you for tolerating me, Nike."

"There's no right way to do running," disability activist Tina Zhu Xi Caruso told Boston news outlet GBH. "You never know someone's story from just looking at them."

"As a para runner, which means a disabled runner, I will run, walk and crawl to a finish," runner Scott Davidson said on Instagram. He also said the ad is especially problematic because Boston is the premiere 26.2-mile event for para athletes.

"This means you will watch them roll, run and walk to a finish, yet Nike's marketing team ... Decided to welcome them with a sign that says, 'you're tolerated.'"

Several media outlets report the sign was up for about a week. Nike eventually took down the ad and admitted its sign "missed the mark."

"During race week in Boston, we put up a series of signs to encourage runners. One of them missed the mark. We took it down, and we'll use this moment to do better and continue showing up for all runners."

Nike included a photo of its updated store window, where a sign now says "movement is what matters."

The company has a long history of courting controversy with its signage, and its recent ads have been no different.

A similar campaign in London last week angered runners and race organizers at the Peckham Rye parkrun, where Nike's sign said "You didn't come all this way for a walk in the park."

"People do come for a walk in the park. And they come a very long way. And they are so welcome," said Kirsty Woodbridge, global head of communications for the ParkRun organization, in a statement on LinkedIn where she called the signage "elitist."

"They come all this way for a walk in the park from perhaps never taking a step out of the front door," she added.

And last year, Nike sparked outrage for installing signs along the London Marathon route that said, "Never Again. Until Next Year." The phrase "never again" is widely associated with the Holocaust, as the Jerusalem Post and Anti-Defamation League have pointed out.

This Nike advertisement was displayed at the end of the London Marathon.<br><br>To take a slogan about the Holocaust, and use it for entertainment, is simply grotesque. <br>Nike - Just DON’T do it. <a href="https://t.co/tBadDgQKrt">pic.twitter.com/tBadDgQKrt</a>

Race organizers expected 30,000 people to participate in Monday's 130th running of the Boston Marathon. The 26.2-mile (42.1-kilometre) course winds through eight cities and town before finishing on Boston's Boylston Street.

In addition to its professional divisions and waves of runners, the marathon includes wheelchair divisions, handcycles and duo participants, and a para athletics division.

Where spectators can expect to see people crossing the finish line on wheels, on prosthetics, on foot, and sometimes, by walking. Or even, as is the case for some runners whose legs have had it, by crawling.

Senior Writer & Editor

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