I had a short conversation with my dad this weekend about the team and it only backed up another one of those hunches that I’ve had been having for some time. For all of the success we’d had, there was something that, I felt, that was ultimately always going to hold us back. It’s also the thing that has made us unique and it’s something that I can’t believe I’m going to announce.
So during this conversation with my dad, I’m going over some of the changes to streamline what I’m wanting to do to make the team easier to handle from my side, more efficient from a sponsorship and fundraising standpoint, and hopefully all of it adds up to the team become more impactful than ever and my dad says something to the effect of, “What about the name? Can you get in trouble over the name, etc.?”
It was at that moment that I smiled because this is something I’ve thought about for awhile. If we’ve been running since 2015, I’ve been thinking about it for probably 3 campaigns. I looked back at him and said, “The team can only do so much using someone else’s name and face as part of our name and logo.”
He asked if I thought if I could get in trouble if we went forward with Runnin’ Not Walken. I told him I didn’t think so because I’m not making money off of it but I also said, “We’ve largely had one of the most popular magnets and t-shirts at our Ragnar Relay races, but I’m almost certain that I could sell a lot of those shirts if I wanted, but I can’t. It’d catch up to us at some point, I’d imagine.”
So with that, it’s crazy to think about but the running team will not be known as Runnin’ Not Walken in 2019! It’s a big decision but it’s one that I think can give us some flexibility and potentially, the ability to appeal to other groups within Fort Wayne that might otherwise not be gung-ho about associating themselves with a team with such a crazy looking logo.
I think it’ll be a very positive thing. Tune in on Giving Tuesday, December 3rd, to learn more about the next step for this crazy running group.
Thanks,
Gabe
Runners Doing Good 