Comrades Marathon 2025
Published: 27th Jun 2025
Because of its broad appeal and the number – 23 000 is the maximum allowed – and diversity of its participants, the Comrades is regarded as a key indicator of the popularity of running shoe brands in SA. Runners, who have to register by early December for the race in June the following year, are asked to fill in the brand and model of their shoes, which is the source of information for the Comrades count.
We asked 3 running shoe specialist retailers, 3 running shoe brands, and the official running equipment retail sponsor to comment on this year’s results. Asics, New Balance and Mr Price Sport didn’t respond.
- Running is a global focus for Adidas; locally, we want to help Cape Town achieve International Major Marathon status
Tom Brown is senior brand director at Adidas. He answered our questions.Is Adidas targeting technical running internationally, or is this mainly in SA?Technical running is a proud cornerstone of the adidas business internationally and we constantly endeavour to develop the best products and work with the best athletes and events. Last yea ...moreRunning remains a difficult market for brands to break into
Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA – The count is probably an accurate reflection of the intentions of the entrants when entries closed on 17 December 24, but it also throws up an oddity: Specialist running shoe retailers I have spoken to will tell you that Asics is the number 1 running brand, but Adidas is definitely not number 2 in their s ...moreTechnically, all the brands have good modelsPretoria, Gauteng, SA – Well it's always difficult to say how accurate the count is because it's done in November, 7 months before the actual race day. So it's not done physically on the day, and it can change over that time. For example, people can change brands because they aren’t working anymore for them and also a lot of b ...more
Footwear Industry Articles
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An Informative & Nostalgic Letter written in April 2025 to two executives at Acushnet (USA) – A leading golf corporation which includes FootJoy Shoes.RE: FootJoy & II recall the very first pair of FootJoy golf shoes my late father bought for me in July 1976. This wasn’t my first interaction with the brand that I had al ...morePalm Footwear: ‘One family’Palm Footwear was founded in July 1966 by Kasie Pattundeen, with 18 staff, making slippers.60 years later, with over 800 staff, it is among the biggest employers in the SA footwear industry and among the biggest manufacturers by volume.It remains a family business, headed by Rajeev and Kiran Pattundeen, with their children, Srishti and Rt ...moreTshepo opens new store at Mall of Africa
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Leather Industry Articles
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Shareholder value is usually the result of running a good business, not a reliable operational principle for running one ...more‘ESG is a global requirement’
Deborah Taylor, Sustainable Leather FoundationShe spoke about the SLF’s role in supporting harmonisation and minimising duplication of effort across the leather value chain, its education and training, development of robust and credible standards, and advocacy of the leather industry.She quoted the first definition of sustainability ...more
PPE Industry Articles
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Respirators are widely regarded as the last line of defence against hazardous airborne exposures. Whether protecting healthcare workers from tuberculosis, laboratory personnel from infectious samples, or workers exposed to carcinogenic dusts and fumes, respirators are often relied upon when other controls cannot eliminate exposure. This r ...moreRealPPE Marketplace: Where safety meets smarter procurementRealPPE Marketplace is a 100% black women-owned B2B PPE marketplace built for South African industry. Founded after years of witnessing safety officers and procurement teams lose time to fragmented suppliers, inconsistent pricing, and missing documentation, RealPPE was created to bring structure and reliability to industrial PPE sourcing. ...moreProactive or reactive? The importance of choosing the correct hand protection
Our aim is to deliver value to the user experience by ensuring optimal protection, compliance, and operational confidence in every task performed.Hand protection has evolved significantly in response to the critical need to reduce workplace injuries and strengthen safety performance across diverse industries.Modern advancements in materia ...more
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