On a training run in 2004, elite level tri-athlete Nicole DeBoom caught her reflection in a store window and thought: “I feel like a boy; I look like a boy; I want to feel more feminine.” Searching for a fitness wear alternative, DeBoom subsequently started SkirtSports sportswear so that women would not have to sacrifice femininity for performance in their workout clothing. SkirtSports’ signature item is a skirt made for running which major sportswear companies also now manufacture. As a brand extension, SkirtSports started the Skirt Chaser 5k Race Series in 2007 in numerous locations across the United States (US). The race features women wearing SkirtSports running skirts starting first in a “Catch Me” wave followed three minutes later by men in a “Skirt Chaser” wave; the first person to cross the finish line, male or female, wins. After the race, celebratory events include a block party, awards presentation, fashion show, live music, and dating games.
In a series of three stand alone chapters, bookended with introductory and concluding chapters, I employ a multi-sited ethnographic approach, including such “sites” as marketing materials, race reviews, open-ended surveys, interviews, and participant-observation, to analyze the recent popularity of running skirts and the emergence of Skirt Chaser events as a marketing strategy. In “The Skirting Issue: Why Now?,” I situate running skirts in an historical context. I use a three-pronged analysis of the various functions of running skirts to argue that while women who own and wear running skirts may have varied reasons for doing so, none are immune from historical and contemporary concerns that women participating in sport jeopardize their femininity and that donning running skirts appeases this fear. In addition, the selling and buying of running skirts is embedded in post-feminist narratives that equate consumption and bodily discipline with power.
In “Marketing the Skirt Chaser 5k Race Series: ‘Combing Fun, Fitness, and Entertainment All-in-One’,” I use the Skirt Chaser 5k Race Series as a case study through which to conduct a traditional sports marketing analysis, specifically related to product, price, place, product distribution, and promotion. At the end, I provide recommendations for improving the association between Skirt Chaser events and SkirtSports, the intended beneficiary of the events. And in “Buying What’s For Sale?: Running, Flirting, and Fashion,” I use a socio-cultural lens to investigate the nexus between sport as business (SkirtSports’ revenue-related goals) and sport as culture (the ways in which participants experience and make meaning of the events). In particular, I analyze the methods through which the Skirt Chaser organizers use running, flirting, and fashion to market their event and the ways participants buy into and resist its premise.
Implicit throughout this research are questions pertaining not only to gender and sexuality, but also to race, class, and sexual orientation. In particular, this project is an analysis of female runners and their presentation of gender and sexuality through sportswear, as well as the marketing strategies used to feed desires of consumption through products and brands.