Australian activewear brand Nimble apologises after backlash to ‘snobby’ ad
A popular Australian activewear brand has been accused of being “toxic” and “snobby” after a recent advertisement sparked major backlash.
An Australian clothing brand has been forced to apologise after facing immense backlash to a recent advertisement, which has been branded “snobby” and “toxic”.
On Thursday, Nimble, a popular activewear brand founded in Melbourne in 2014, issued a statement after the company’s promotion of its new In Pace collection left many with a bad taste in their mouths.
Last week, the company uploaded a promotional video featuring Vera Yan, who co-founded the brand with Katia Santilli.
The aim of the video was to show off the new range of activewear, but viewers were immediately put off after Ms Yan appeared to shame those who didn’t meet a very specific criteria of runner.
“This product is not for you if you do one parkrun a week and your 5k is over 35 minutes,” the co-founder said in the video.
“This is for the run girl who wants to go fast. You’re crushing your PBs and your training for your next marathon.
“Why? I will tell you why. Because when you are training at that level you know your run gear can’t just be good enough, it needs to be great.”
The post immediately sparked backlash, with one branding the ad a “massive bummer” considering how many people they have seen at parkrun wearing Nimble outfits.
“What a bizarre marketing tactic when the majority of humans can’t do a 5k in under 35 mins. I am baffled by all this,” another said.
Multiple people claimed the brand had lost them as a customer as a result of the ad, with one person who claimed to have spent a “decent amount of money” with the brand over the years saying, “They will no longer get a cent from me!!! This is not women supporting women”.
The video was replaced by a different promotional clip for the In Pace range, but people were still flooding the comment sections of other posts sharing their fury at the original advertisement.
Nimble has now issued a statement apologising for letting customers down with the ad.
“Some of you have been in touch to highlight that the message in the ad felt exclusionary and alienating, and we agree,” the statement read.
“We failed to consider the impact of our words which was our mistake, and we take full responsibility for this.”
The company claimed the message in the ad was not reflective of the community they aim to build and they were “genuinely sorry for the impact it had”.
“Thank you for holding us to account. Our community is at the heart of everything we do, and we are committed to learning and ensuring our actions reflect this.”
The apology sparked mixed responses, with some praising the brand for taking accountability, while others still weren’t convinced.
“Haha come on – you excluded the average female runner whose pace is 36 to 39 minutes. You said what you said. why apologise now? Not sure how the apology actually changes anything. Better off just saying ‘our brand is only for elite females and everyone else isn’t welcome here’,” one person wrote.
Another claimed they proved how “snobby and nasty” the running community can be, noting the ad would have passed multiple levels of approval before going live.
“You’re sorry because you offended more people than you realised and didn’t understand your audience, not because you didn’t mean what you said,” they wrote.
However, there were others calling on people to “stop being so harsh and sensitive”, branding it an “honest mistake”.
“I’m still purchasing Nimble products because they’re awesome and I live in them. No one deliberately goes out to offend anyone,” one person said.
“You live and you learn. Accountability is important and Nimble you have done exactly this. Love your brand,” one wrote.
The controversy even caught the attention of those overseas, with UK running influencer Emily Georgia taking aim at Nimble’s advertisement.
Emily, who has 124,000 followers on Instagram where she documents her running journey, recently reshared the ad with her thoughts.
“Social media is becoming a brain rot of a space where only controversial things break through the noise. And this is exactly what this brand has done and unfortunately it is to the detriment of millions of women across the world,” she said.
“This is a hook at the start of the ad that has been used to get your attention because they know that it is a controversial thing to say.”
The UK woman also pointed out that the average time for a woman to run 5km is 37 minutes, noting that the brand was “cutting off a pretty big customer base”.
“They are also saying to women that you are not worthy of wearing these clothes. In a space that is male dominated and scary as hell, starting running is terrifying, this brand has decided to exclude a large group of women, make normal and everyday runners feel terrible about themselves because they are not hitting this ideal, which quite frankly they’ve just pulled out of their ass at the start of the video to get attention,” Emily said.
“And they are also potentially putting people off starting their running journeys.”
The influencer said the ad was “so incredibly toxic” before urging brands to “do better and stop using really crappy marketing tactics to try and flog their clothes”.
Originally published as Australian activewear brand Nimble apologises after backlash to ‘snobby’ ad
