Nike Competitors Pounce On Boston Marathon Ad Stumble

Ahead of Monday morning’s Boston Marathon, Nike pulled down and backtracked from a sign outside its flagship Boston store that read “Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated.”

After a series of viral Instagram posts complained that the sign caused “anxiety,” was “shaming” walkers, and was an “unnecessary barrier to being active,” Nike apologized in a statement.

“We want more people to feel welcome in running–no matter their pace, experience, or the distance,” the statement said. “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.”

In an email to Front Office Sports, a Nike spokesperson added, “We always listen to the voice of the athlete.”

Nike has recently cultivated what marketing experts have called a “hard” brand identity, one its competitors have sought to undercut in recent years by appealing to more casual runners. On’s recent “soft wins” campaign, starring Elmo from Sesame Street, was perceived as a direct shot at Nike.

“Nike’s been running this spikier running campaign for a couple years,” Lee Glandorf, the former Tracksmith marketing director who now writes a newsletter about running style, told FOS. “Nike’s trying to regain the share it lost at the front of the running pack that it lost to companies like Tracksmith, Bandit, and Satisfy,” she said.

Competitors pounced this weekend. The shoe company Altra put out an ad that led with “Run. Walk. Crawl,” and captioned a social post, “Go where you’re celebrated. Not where you’re tolerated.” Asics put up billboards in Boston that read “Runners. Walkers. All welcome.” Asics told FOS it put the signs up because it believes “all movement matters.” 

The Olympic medalist Molly Seidel joked on Instagram, “Runners welcome. Walkers welcome. Power hikers tolerated,” and wrote that “no matter how you get from hopkinton to boylston street, you’re a fucking marathoner.”

‘Boston Will Always Remind You’

The Nike sign in the store window now reads “Boston will always remind you, movement is what matters.”

The Boston Marathon is unusual among major marathons in that there is no lottery to enter; roughly 10% of slots are reserved for charity runners, and the rest of the field has to run a qualifying time. (Those times have grown increasingly difficult to reach in recent years.) 

Nike is not the first to apologize for a mild-seeming Boston Marathon ad after offending vocal corners of the online running community. In 2023, Tracksmith sold a “Boston Qualifier” singlet that it called “hard to get, harder to earn” that kicked off a similar cycle: running influencer accounts complained that the singlets were elitist; others in turn railed that the complainers were too sensitive. Tracksmith eventually apologized for how it marketed the singlets and used “missed the mark” language identical to Nike.

The internet influencer and Boston runner Alex Predhome told FOS he felt the controversy was largely manufactured online. “I’ve never heard someone in the community earnestly bashing runners who have to walk during the Boston Marathon,” he said. He added that while the display was poorly thought out and a sign of Nike being out of touch, “I can’t stand that this makes Boston appear soft, especially because it is a city full of snarky runners who can take a joke.”

Glandorf pointed out that Nike was similarly ripped for its recent “You didn’t come all this way for a walk in the park” ads at England’s Parkrun series, which is generally walker-friendly. “It’s missing how the running market has evolved,” she said. “Language like that used to land.”

It’s at least the second time in less than a year that Nike has apologized for an ad activation at a major race. At the 2025 London Marathon, the company put up billboards that read “Never Again. Until Next Year,” which is language often associated with the Holocaust. The company said at the time, “We did not mean any harm and apologize for any we caused.”