Intersport celebrates parkrun partnership & new Wimbledon store

INTERSPORT UK & Ireland has been announced as the official partner of parkrun and junior parkrun. The first partnership event took place in Wimbledon on 23rd January 2016 and coincided with the opening of the smart new Intersport store at 28 The Broadway in Wimbledon, West London.

More than 350 runners, joggers and walkers took part in the 5K run around Wimbledon Common, including staff members from Intersport Wimbledon who wanted to actively show their support for the runners and parkrun in the local community.

parkrun are free, weekly, timed runs that are open to all levels of runners, joggers and walkers. The aim of parkrun is to encourage all kinds of people and abilities to take part in a fun, open air event in pleasant local parkland. Set up back in 2004 with just 13 runners and a few volunteers, parkrun has become hugely popular, now offering free, timed events at some 800 locations in 11 countries every weekend.

As a partnership for Intersport, parkrun is perfect: Intersport is an international sporting goods retailer whose goal is to provide sports to the people, a philosophy shared whole-heartedly by parkrun.

With Intersport wanting to play an active part in the community, supporting grassroots sport and offering expert advice across a range of sports, the new partnership was very well received by the runners and parkrun community.

After completing parkrun, the opening of Intersport Wimbledon was celebrated by General Manager of Intersport UK Tom Foley, parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt and parkrun CEO Nick Pearson. Plenty of runners and press were keen to join them at the new Intersport store and first impressions were extremely positive.

Foundation video: Intersport celebrates parkrun partnership

A foundation video has been created to celebrate the partnership and community collaboration. It marks the first in a series of videos that aims to create a visual journey across the first year of the partnership, showing the seasonality and range of running products that Intersport offers the parkrun community.

How will the partnership benefit the parkrun and the community?

The initial three-year partnership will allow parkrun (Saturdays) and junior parkrun (Sundays) to continue to lead the way in the provision of grassroots physical activity in the community. Intersport’s investment will equip existing parkrun event teams with essential items, such as kit for the Run Directors and volunteers and bibs for junior parkrun across the UK. It will also help parkrun to set up new events in response to the enormous popularity it is enjoying nationwide.

parkrun’s rapidly growing community – an impressive 1.3 million registered participants, running in over 400 locations each weekend in the UK and Ireland alone – will benefit from exclusive offers with Intersport thanks to this partnership.

General Manager of Intersport UK & Ireland, Tom Foley said: “This is an exciting partnership that we are both very proud of achieving, creating a platform of support for the continuation of provision and further growth of grassroots physical activity and the phenomenon that is parkrun. Intersport is ‘Sport to the People’ and this partnership brings our philosophy to life, supporting runners across the UK and Ireland.”

parkrun UK Founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt added: “This is the perfect partnership and we welcome the support of parkrunners across the UK and Ireland to embrace this partnership and truly show the passion our runners have for sport, grassroots physical activity and true empowerment of ‘Sport to the People’ that our community represents.”

Peter Swann, Owner of Intersport Wimbledon said: “We are all about the runner primarily and very glad to connect with parkrun. We are enthusiastic about bringing Sports Performance back onto the high street in key locations across London.

My first store was in Herne Hill and this is our second store with further development plans in the pipeline. Exceptional service, great knowledge, true convenience and good product are key areas we pride ourselves in delivering and are at the heart of all we do”.

FACT BOX:

The new Intersport Wimbledon store is now open seven days a week.

Address: 28 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London, SW19 1RE

Contact: Peter Swann, Store Owner, 0208 946 5622

Please visit www.parkrun.org.uk for further information about parkrun and www.intersport.co.uk for further information about Intersport UK.

The latest issue of Sports Insight can be downloaded here with the full article about the Intersport and parkrun partnership.