In culture, timing matters. Many brands know how to ride the wave, showing up when the spotlight is on, when momentum peaks, and when everyone’s already talking.
But what separates the memorable from the momentary isn’t just turning up, it’s turning heads. It’s making people feel something they didn’t know they were missing. It’s showing up before the moment becomes mainstream, or better yet, creating the moment altogether.
Because while culture rewards relevance, it remembers originality. Sometimes, the most powerful way to connect is to flip the frame: To see a growing movement not through the lens of what’s already being done, but through what’s still missing.
Running is a perfect case study.
It’s no longer just a sport. It’s one of the fastest-growing global communities.
According to Strava’s Year in Sport data, Gen Z is turning to running not just for fitness, but for connection and belonging a shift that’s driving a sharp rise in participation. In fact, 43% of Strava users say they want to conquer a major race or event in 2025.
And leading the charge? Women.
Since the pandemic, the number of women uploading their runs in the UK has more than doubled. Globally, more women than ever are choosing running as their go-to form of fitness.
But for many, the freedom of running comes with fear.
Across the world, women are 9% more likely than men to cite a lack of safe places to exercise as a barrier. In the UK, that figure rises sharply — women are more than twice as likely to say safety is a concern.
This isn’t abstract anxiety. It’s lived experience. In an Adidas campaign, 92% of women said they felt concerned for their safety on a run.
It’s a quiet reality most brands have overlooked.
So yes, running is booming. But the real opportunity for brands isn’t in sponsoring what already exists.
It’s in carving out space that didn’t.
Enter Nike.
While other brands were showing up on marathon day and sponsoring the expected, Nike looked elsewhere. They listened, not just to stats, but to stories. And what they heard was revealing: women were running more than ever, but many didn’t feel safe doing it, especially at night.
This wasn’t a performance issue. It was a cultural one. A barrier rarely faced by male runners and rarely addressed by the industry. So Nike created something new. Not just a campaign. A moment.
Almost 13 years ago, more than 3,000 women took part in Nike’s inaugural after-dark run, originally called She Runs the Night. It made history as Australia’s first women-only night race. Over the next six years, the event series expanded to major cities around the globe, creating a new kind of running movement, one grounded in safety, community and visibility.
After a seven-year hiatus, it’s back. Reborn as the Nike After Dark Tour, the series spans six global cities and brings together over 50,000 women. Its stated aim is to “celebrate the strength and stamina of women runners, showcasing competition and community among women in the sport of running.”
But beneath that celebration, it also indirectly acknowledges an often-unspoken truth: that many women don’t feel safe running alone at night.
By creating a space where women could run together, visibly and confidently, Nike did more than launch just another running event. They responded to a deeper cultural tension and turned it into a shared moment. A moment that doesn’t just participate in culture. It helps shape it.
What We Can Learn?
Creating new moments in culture isn’t about shouting the loudest. It’s about sensing what’s missing, seeing what others overlook, and then building something that feels so right, people wonder why it didn’t exist before. It’s about listening closely, acting boldly, and understanding that the most powerful ideas often live in the margins, where tension, truth, and opportunity meet.
Because culture doesn’t wait to be invited. It responds to those who lead.
So, the question isn’t: How do we show up?
It’s: What are we brave enough to create?
Start there and the moment won’t just belong to your brand. It’ll belong to culture, too.
